Nepal king appoints two ex-premiers to Cabinet Nepal's King Gyanendra on Monday appointed two former prime ministers to top posts in his Cabinet in the wake of a royalist takeover earlier this month that suspended civil liberties. The king appointed Kritinidhi Bista and Tulsi Giri as vice chairmen of his Cabinet. The two will serve directly under Gyanendra, who holds the post of chairman. Both Giri, 79, and Bista, 78, served as prime ministers before 1990 when Nepal was under an absolute monarchy, and are therefore viewed as sympathetic to the king's Feb. 1 power grab when Gyanendra dismissed the government and declared a state of emergency. The king has justified his move as necessary to restore order and combat a Maoist insurgency. Bista and Giri have been given charge of several Cabinet ministries _ including law and justice, health and agriculture. Meanwhile, buses and trucks on Monday defied a blockade by the communist rebels of Nepal's highways, moving thousands of passengers and bringing fuel, food and supplies into the capital under military escort. The rebels on Saturday launched an open-ended blockade to protest King Gyanendra's emergency rule. The communist insurgents in the past have brought traffic to a virtual standstill with mere threats of attacks on vehicles, and many drivers stayed off the road Monday. But the new royal government vowed to crack down on such strikes, and deployed army trucks and helicopters to protect vehicles. Traffic was reviving Monday following a lull over the weekend, police said. "We haven't heard of any attack on our route and there are soldiers on every corner," bus driver Hari Lama said. But some transportation companies chose not to take any risks. "I have put all my buses in the garage. I don't have insurance and I can't afford to lose any vehicle or drivers," said a bus company owner who did not want to be identified. Two soldiers were killed Sunday when they triggered a land mine while clearing a blockade of stones left by rebels on a highway near the southern border town of Birgunj, 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Katmandu. On the Prithvi highway, the lifeline for residents of Katmandu, rebels hurled bombs at a convoy of buses on Sunday but no one was hurt. Nepal has no railway system, and relies on trucks to deliver food, fuel and other supplies. Most of the country's 24 million people travel by bus. The rebels, who are inspired by the late Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, called for the blockade to protest the king's power grab, which has been decried by foreign governments as a setback for democracy. The strike was also meant to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the rebels' struggle to overthrow the government and establish a socialist state. The insurgency, which began in 1996, has claimed more than 10,500 lives. Meanwhile, the guerrillas have refused peace overtures from the new government. Rebel leader Prachanda said the king's action has "ended any and all possibility of peace talks." In the statement issued over the weekend, the elusive rebel leader also asked the international community and donor nations to sever ties with the royal government.