 King Gyanendra announced a 10-member Cabinet dominated by his own supporters yesterday, one day after he dismissed Nepal's government, declared emergency rule and virtually cut his nation off from the world. An official later said the new government would reach out to the country's Maoist rebels to renew peace talks. Dozens of politicians have been arrested and many more have gone underground to avoid detention, an opposition figure said, as extra riot police and soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital, Katmandu, where civil liberties were severely curtailed. World leaders condemned the power grab — Gyanendra's second in three years — saying it undermined democracy and the fight against the insurgency. The United Nations, Britain, India and the United States were among the critics of Gyanendra's actions. Australia and New Zealand advised their citizens not to visit Nepal. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the king's actions "a serious setback" that would bring neither lasting peace nor stability to Nepal and urged him to take immediate steps to restore "democratic freedoms and institutions." |