Maoists bomb house of Nepali minister

Interior Minister Kamal Thapa was not in the house, which he is renting to the government's revenue service, when it was bombed late Saturday in the southern industrial town of Hetaunda.

"The blast partly damaged the house and injured two security guards," a police official said.

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Elsewhere in the kingdom, suspected Maoists set off explosives in homes owned by an army officer and a senior police official, police said.

No one was hurt in the two attacks, but police said rebels looted jewellery and cash equivalent to about 700 dollars from the home of the army officer, Colonel Devraj Mahat, whose parents were able to leave before the blast.

In the Kailali district near the southwest border, rebels torched 18 oil tankers with Indian license plates, said Bhairav Khadka, a local official with Nepal's state-run oil corporation.

He said the tankers were empty but the damage was estimated at more than 450,000 dollars.