Police and students clash in Nepal

Dozens of students were involved in the clash at Amrit Science Campus in the capital Monday, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

No injuries of arrests were reported and the protest dispersed soon after it began.

A mass protest would take place on Tuesday at Durbar Square, where hundreds of youths clashed with police in running battles on Saturday, said Rajendra Prasad Pandey, from the Nepal Communist Party (United Marxist Leninist).

More than 200 people were arrested Saturday but most were later released, police said.

"On Tuesday a similar demonstration that took place in Durbar Square on Saturday will be held by the seven-party alliance at the same venue at two in the afternoon," Pandey said.

Student groups said they would support the protest.

In the latest incident, suspected Maoist rebels gunned down a royalist election candidate in broad daylight near his office in the southeastern town of Janakpur on Sunday, police said.

The United States, the European Union, India, Britain and Japan have all voiced concern at the royal government's actions over recent days and called on the king to start talking to the parties.