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A meeting of the Maoist factions has decided to hold a joint interaction and press conference on the issue of war-era incidents. A meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar made the decision to this effect. The meeting has decided to hold the press conference on March 12 and joint interaction on March 14. Civil society leaders, law practitioners, journalists and stakeholders related to the peace process will take part in the interaction. The Maoist factions have become united to conclude the peace process at the earliest and to continue the campaign in favor of the peace process. Talking to journalists after the meeting, CPN (Maoist Center) General Secretary Dev Gurung said that they would confront the activities against the peace process. The Maoist factions have become united after writ petitions were filed against CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Leaders of CPN (Maoist Center), CPN (Revolutionary) Maoist, Nepal Community Party and Baigyanik Samajbadi Party among other parties took part in the meeting.

Xi Jinping has been handed an unprecedented third term as president, capping a rise that has seen him become China’s most powerful leader in generations, The Guardian reported.

In a carefully choreographed ceremony in Beijing, Xi held up his right fist and placed his left hand on a red leather copy of China’s constitution.

In the oath - beamed live on state television across the nation - he vowed to “build a prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and great modern socialist country”.

The appointment by China’s rubber-stamp parliament comes after he was handed another five years as head of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and the military – the two more significant leadership positions in Chinese politics – in October.

Those issues have been avoided at this week’s National People’s Congress (NPC), a closely watched event that over the next two days is also set to appoint Xi ally Li Qiang as the new premier, putting him in charge of managing the world’s second largest economy, according to The Guardian.

The lawmakers have focused instead on a sweeping revamp of Beijing’s science ministry and tech capabilities in the face of what one NPC deputy described as foreign attempts at “containment and suppression” of the country’s rise.

The body on Friday passed reforms to government institutions unveiled earlier this week, including a sweeping overhaul of the country’s science and technology ministry in the face of what one NPC deputy described as foreign attempts at “containment and suppression” of the country’s rise. New reforms also included the formation of a financial regulatory body and national data bureau.

The beginning of China’s new political term also saw former vice premier Han Zheng elected as its new vice-president and Zhao Leji, former chief of the party’s top anti-corruption commission, as the new parliamentary chair. Both are members of China’s highest political decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee. The election process, carried out at the Great Hall of the People at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, lasted around an hour.

Xi’s reelection is the culmination of a remarkable rise from a relatively little-known party apparatchik to the leader of a global superpower.

For decades China - scarred by the dictatorial reign and cult of personality of founding leader Mao Zedong - has eschewed one-man rule in favour of a more consensus-based, but still autocratic, leadership.

That model imposed term limits on the largely ceremonial role of the presidency, with Xi’s predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao relinquishing power after 10 years in office.

Xi has torn up that rulebook, abolishing term limits in 2018.

His coronation this week sets him up to become modern China’s longest-serving head of state, and will mean Xi will rule well into his seventies and - if no challenger emerges - even longer.

But the beginning of his unprecedented third term leading China comes as the world’s second-largest economy faces major headwinds, from slowing growth and a troubled real estate sector to a declining birthrate.

Relations with the United States are also at a low not seen in decades, with the powers sparring over everything from human rights to trade and technology, according to The Guardian.

In a speech to delegates at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which runs alongside the NPC this week, Xi criticised Washington’s “containment, encirclement and suppression of China”.

China, he said, must “have the courage to fight as the country faces profound and complex changes in both the domestic and international landscape”.

Xi will make a speech on Monday before the annual parliamentary session closes, as China faces multiple challenges including an economy hobbled by three years of Covid curbs and worsening relations with the West.

Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) Devraj Ghimire held a meeting with President-elect Ram Chandra Paudel. During the meeting, he congratulated Paudel on his election to the post of President and wished for a successful tenure. Nepali Congress senior leader Paudel was elected as the President in the election held on Thursday. Paudel was a joint candidate of CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajwadi Party Nepal, Loktantrik Samajbadi Party Nepal, Janmat Party, Nagarik Unmukti Party, Rastriya Janamorcha and Nepal Samajwadi Party along with his party, the Nepali Congress. On the occasion, Speaker Ghimire informed the President-elect about his upcoming visit to Bahrain. He is leaving for Bahrain to take part in the 146th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The 146th Assembly is being held in Manama, Bahrain from March 11-15. Speaker Ghimire's Press Advisor Shekhar Adhikari said that the Speaker also informed President-elect Paudel that he would not be able to attend his swearing in ceremony as he has to leave Bahrain to take part in the program. Meanwhile, Paudel expressed his greetings for the success of the IPU Assembly.

Born to Durga Prasad and Hrishimaya Poudel on 14 Oct 1944 in Tanahun, Ram Chandra Paudel completed his schooling from Nandiratri Secondary School, Naxal, Kathmandu in 1963. He has a master’s degree in arts from Tribhuvan University. He is married to Sabita Poudel and they have four daughters and a son.

Paudel was inspired to join the democratic movement at the age of 16 after the dissolution of the  popularly elected parliament and imprisonment of leaders including then prime minister BP Koirala in Dec 1960. He was associated with the Armed Insurrection Movement for the restoration of democracy, and initiated the students’ movement in 1962. Paudel was given a role in organizing Nepal Student Union in 1970 and got elected as a senior member of the committee of the union. His national political career began in 1977 after he was elected a member of the Nepali Congress Tanahun District Committee. Soon he rose the ranks and became the vice-president and president of the district committee.

In 1983, he was made the coordinator of the Nepali Congress’s Central Publicity Committee. Paudel went on to become a member of the Central Committee member of the party and was made the chief of its central level Publicity Bureau in 1987. In the general election of 1991, he was elected a Member of Parliament from Tanahun-1. He served as the minister for local development and agriculture for around three years. Poudel was reelected from Tanahun-2 In 1994.

This time he was elected the speaker of the House of Representatives (lower house) and served until 1998. He also served as Minister for Home and Deputy Prime Minister from 1999 to 2002. In 2006, after the Maoists joined peaceful politics, Paudel was appointed the coordinator of the Peace Secretariat that included representatives from top political parties. He was appointed Minister for Peace and Reconstruction in 2007.

In between, he was made the General Secretary of the Nepali Congress’ Central Committee and was later promoted to Vice-president of the same committee in 2007. In 2008, he was elected as a member of the first Constituent Assembly from Tanahun-2 and was elected as Parliamentary Party Leader of Nepali Congress.

After Pushpa Kamal Dahal resigned from the post of prime minister in 2009, Poudel contested for the post of premier for 13 times, but failed to pass the threshold. Poudel was elected the vice-president of Nepali Congress from the 12th general convention of the party. He served as the acting president of the party after the demise of then party president Sushil Koirala.

Paudel was elected as a Member of Constituent Assembly from Tanahun-2 in 2013 and Member of Parliament in 2022. He was defeated in the parliamentary election in 2017 by CPN-UML candidate Krishna Kumar Shrestha.

In his political career, Paudel was detained and jailed several times. The longest time he spent in jail was from 1971 to 1975 for being involved in various activities of the student movement, soon after the release of deposed Prime Minister BP Koirala from Sundarijal Jail. He was charged for taking part in a protest program against the Ramailo Jhoda scandal (Morang). In this period, BP Koirala met him at Central Jail and told him not to be distracted, which inspired Paudel to lead the democratic movement, he often says. It was there that Paudel met Koirala for the first time.

He has also published a few books: ‘A Brief history of Nepali Congress’, ‘Democratic Socialism A Study’, ‘What does the Nepali Congress say?’ and ‘Agrarian Revolution and Socialism’ among others. Within the party, Paudel is known as a coordinator and moderate leader. He also played a moderate role in the historic negotiations and consensus to bring the Maoists into mainstream politics and is also known as the drafters of the 12 points Consensus and Comprehensive Peace Agreement.