Communist rebels today said that Nepal’s royal government may have had a hand in a landmine explosion that killed 38 people and wounded 71 others on a bus, and vowed to conduct their own investigation into the attack.

Soldiers today continued to search for hundreds of students thought to have been taken hostage by communist rebels in a mountainous area of western Nepal, a day after rescuing some 600 children, officials said.

SOLDIERS yesterday said they had rescued about 600 students who were abducted from their classrooms in western Nepal in a series of strikes by communist rebels.

Communist rebels dragged 10 people from their homes and executed them in southern Nepal for refusing to join the guerrillas, officials and human rights activists said today.

Nepal’s army said today it killed at least 60 communist rebels in fighting in the remote mountains in the country’s mid-west.

Nepalese soldiers repelled a major rebel assault on one of their bases in the mountainous north-west today, killing at least 50 communist guerrillas, the army said today.

Nepal’s royal government put its security forces on alert and stepped up highway patrols today ahead of an 11-day nationwide general strike called by communist rebels.

Nepal’s finance minister has said the suspension of foreign aid will fuel terrorism in the insurgency-wracked nation.

A New York-based rights group urged Nepal’s army today to investigate and halt widespread human rights abuses, including alleged abductions by security forces of rebel sympathisers, in its fight against a communist insurgency.

KING Gyanendra dismissed Nepal’s government and imposed a state of emergency yesterday, cutting off his Himalayan nation from the rest of the world as telephone and internet lines were severed, flights diverted and civil liberties severely curtailed.

King Gyanendra dismissed Nepal’s government yesterday and declared a state of emergency, taking control of the Himalayan kingdom for the second time in three years.

Communist rebels ambushed two separate army patrols in western Nepal today, sparking gun battles that left at least 34 people dead, including five civilian.

Maoist rebels killed at least 20 soldiers in fierce fighting in a remote mountainous region of west Nepal today.

HUNDREDS of rebels and at least 18 police and soldiers were killed in some of Nepal’s fiercest fighting since a ceasefire collapsed more than seven months ago, government officials said yesterday.

Hundreds of rebels and at least 18 police and soldiers were killed in some of Nepal’s fiercest fighting since a ceasefire collapsed more than seven months ago, government officials said today.

Maoist rebels fighting to end Nepal’s constitutional monarchy attacked a police station in a remote mountain village today, killing at least 49 policemen and injuring 21, a government minister said.

Royal Nepalese Army soldiers raided a Maoist rebel training camp in the remote hills of the Himalayan kingdom, killing at least 62 rebels today, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

Maoist rebels killed at least 102 people, including policemen and troops, when they attacked a district headquarters and a nearby airport in northwestern Nepal, officials said today.