Nepal's army said on Monday one soldier was killed and contact had been lost with 150 troops after fierce fighting with Maoist rebels in the west of the country but the guerrillas said the death toll was much higher, according to Reuters. The latest fighting erupted late on Sunday and continued overnight in the remote Kalikot district, 600 km (375 miles) west of Kathmandu, after hundreds of rebels attacked a temporary army base, army officers said. "There were about 220 soldiers there of which 72 were in contact and we are yet to establish contact with the rest," one senior army officer said. The army camp was set up to construct a road linking Surkhet town with the backward region of Karnali that borders Tibet.
