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Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that there is a need to discard the Cold War mentality and seek peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes.

Addressing the 2022 World Economic Forum (WEF) virtual session, the Chinese President further said that ‘our world today is far from being tranquil; rhetorics that stoke hatred and prejudice abound.’

Acts of containment, suppression or confrontation arising thereof do all harm, not the least good, to world peace and security. History has proved time and again that confrontation does not solve problems; it only invites catastrophic consequences, Xi said.

The Chinese leader said that protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one; they ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one's own. Even worse are the practices of hegemony and bullying, which run counter to the tide of history, he said.

Province-2 has been named Madhesh Province while Janakpur has been declared as its permanent capital.

A Province Assembly meeting held on Monday decided to name Province 2 as Madhesh Province and declare Janakpur as its permanent headquarters.

Of the of 99 lawmakers who took part in the voting today, 78 cast their ballots in favour of making Janakpur as the permanent capital of Province 2. 

Similarly, 80 members voted in favour of the proposal to name Province 2 as Madhesh Province while 19 voted against the proposal.

Nepal recorded 6,734 fresh Covid-19 cases on Monday.

As per the latest data provided by the Health Ministry, a total of 17,465 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours of which 5,747 were PCR tests while 987 were antigen tests.

According to the ministry, there are over 30,877 0 active cases in the country.

Similarly, 547 people recovered from the infection while three lost their lives to the virus.

Janakpur has been declared as the permanent capital of Province 2.

During the voting held on Monday, out of 99 lawmakers present in the Province Assembly, 78 cast their votes in favour of the proposal to make Janakpur as the provincial capital.

Speaker Saroj Kumar Yadav announced that Janakpur has been declared provincial headquarters of Province 2 by more than two-thirds majority.

Parmeshwor Sah, Rabindra Baitha Dhobi, Upendra Prasad Kusahawa, Sharada Devi Thapa and Bharat Prasad Sah had proposed to make Janakpur as the provincial capital of Province 2.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a meeting at the former’s official residence in Baluwatar on Monday.

During the meeting, the duo committed to hold the upcoming elections in accordance with the constitutional provisions, Dahal’s personal secretary Ramesh Malla said.

Meanwhile, they have decided to call the meeting of a five-member Coordination Committee at 4 pm tomorrow.

The world’s 10 wealthiest men doubled their fortunes during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic as poverty and inequality soared, a report said on Monday, AFP reported.

Oxfam said the men’s wealth jumped from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion, at an average rate of $1.3 billion per day, in a briefing published before a virtual mini-summit of world leaders being held under the auspices of the World Economic Forum.

A confederation of charities that focus on alleviating global poverty, Oxfam said the billionaires’ wealth rose more during the pandemic more than it did the previous 14 years, when the world economy was suffering the worst recession since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

It called this inequality “economic violence” and said inequality is contributing to the death of 21,000 people every day due to a lack of access to healthcare, gender-based violence, hunger and climate change.

The pandemic has plunged 160 million people into poverty, the charity added, with non-white ethnic minorities and women bearing the brunt of the impact as inequality soared, according to AFP.

The report follows a December 2021 study by the group which found that the share of global wealth of the world’s richest people soared at a record pace during the pandemic.

Oxfam urged tax reforms to fund worldwide vaccine production as well as healthcare, climate adaptation and gender-based violence reduction to help save lives.

The group said it based its wealth calculations on the most up-to-date and comprehensive data sources available, and used the 2021 Billionaires List compiled by the US business magazine Forbes.

Forbes listed the world’s 10 richest men as: Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, US investor Warren Buffet and the head of the French luxury group LVMH, Bernard Arnault.

China's economy posted stable growth in 2021 despite challenges including epidemic resurgences and a complicated external environment, official data showed Monday, Xinhua reported.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 8.1 percent year on year to 114.37 trillion yuan (about 18 trillion US dollars) last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The pace was well above the government target of "above 6 percent," and put the two-year average growth at 5.1 percent, the data showed.

In the fourth quarter, the country's GDP expanded 4 percent year on year.

China's economy has continued stable recovery in 2021, leading the world in both economic development and epidemic control, the NBS said, while warning of the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shocks and weakening expectations amid an increasingly complicated external environment.

National Association of Rural Municipalities Nepal, Municipal Association of Nepal and District Coordination Committee Federation have demanded that the government fix the date of local level elections at the earliest.

Issuing a statement on Monday, all the three associations have urged the government to start the process of holding the local level elections promptly.

It will have a negative impact on democracy and the federal governing system if the elections are not held on time, the statement read.

The works at the local level will be hampered if the elections are not held within the time frame given by the Election Commission.  

The election body has urged the government to hold the elections within mid-May. But, the government has not fixed the date yet.

Though the Election Commission has said that the elections should be held within mid-May, National Association of Rural Municipalities Nepal, Municipal Association of Nepal and District Coordination Committee Federation have said that the elections should be held within mid-June.