Nepal minister forms cabinet

NEPAL’S new prime minister announced a seven-member Cabinet yesterday, designating a communist as his deputy and foreign minister.

Underscoring the public’s impatience just a week after King Gyanendra yielded absolute power, about 200 protesters tried to force their way through the iron gates outside parliament, demanding prompt action on a raft of key issues.

Police and troops kept them at bay.

The cabinet includes four members from Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, and one each from the Communist Party of Nepal — unrelated to the Maoist rebels — the Nepali Congress Democratic and the United Left Front.

Those parties are all part of the alliance that orchestrated three weeks of protests that forced Gyanendra to hand over power to an elected Parliament.

One of the cabinet’s biggest priorities is a ceasefire with the Maoists, who played a key role in the protests and announced a unilateral three-month truce last week. The government also wants to set the election of an assembly to rewrite the constitution.