In Beijing on Tuesday, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal got the red-carpet welcome at the Great Hall of the People from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Nepal also got China to pledge 100 million Yuan (nearly Rs 1.5 billion) in assistance every year in exchange for controlling anti-China activities in Nepal. Republica writes:

During the meeting, PM Nepal reiterated that Nepal would adhere to the “one-China policy and believe Taiwan and Tibet are inalienable parts of the Chinese territory.” He assured Wen that Nepal would never allow anti-China activities in Nepal’s soil.

In the parliament, the government presented an amendment to the interim constitution to allow the president and vice-president to take oaths in their mother tongues. From The Himalayan Times:

Once the amendment is endorsed by the House, it will reactivate the post of VP-elect Paramananda Jha. As per the proposed bill, the president and vice-president will have to sign two copies of oath text, prepared in Nepal – the country’s official language – and their mother tongue.

In Udaypur, Minister for Federal Affairs, Minendra Rijal, was manhandled by Maoist cadres protesting against the government. The Himalayan Times reports:

The cadres of UCPN-Maoist, who were demonstrating outside the district office on the Nepali Congress with black flags, pounced on Rijal and some [Nepali Congress] activites when they came out of the office. Rijal was hit by a stick. NC activists accompanying him were injured in the incident.

In the Maoists’ politburo meeting on Tuesday, the party decided to launch a ‘nationalist’ movement as part of their fourth round of protests. The Kathmandu Post reports:

Commenting on party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s political dossier, senior part leaders were of the view that the fourth phase of protests should concentrate on forging unity among ‘nationalist and republican forces’.

Elsewhere:

A women is lying in Mahakali district hospital with first degree burns all over her body after her husband set her on fire for reasons unknown.

In Kapilbastu, a woman was refused food for weeks and forced to toil the fields as her body withered away because her in-laws weren’t impressed with the dowry they received.

In Nuwakot, a man slit an 84-year old woman’s throat saying she had killed his mother using black magic. “She lived to be 84 years old because she was a witch,” he told the police.

(Posted by Indu Nepal)