Communist Party

— Political films can be a tough sell in many countries, to say the least. But director Huang Jianxin is confident that he's sitting on a blockbuster with "Beginning of the Great Revival," a historical epic detailing the founding of China's Communist Party. Of course, he's got some advantages that would make almost any other filmmaker green with envy. For starters, his cast includes more than 170 of his country's most famous actors, including Chow Yun-fat, John Woo and Andy Lau, who waived their salaries to take part.

Although her musical tastes run to Mariah Carey and Norah Jones, Vicy Zhang didn't hesitate when she received an instant message inviting her to sing paeans to Mao Tse-tung at a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. "How could I refuse?" said Zhang, a 26-year-old graduate student at Chongqing University who hopes to join the party and have a career in civil service. "I thought it was boring and useless, but I didn't dare say no. " More than 10,000 students and faculty members participated in the event last month.

Last week, Cuban President Raul Castro endorsed sweeping economic reforms, proposed term limits for government and Communist Party officials, and conceded that the party's failure to groom a new generation of leaders will make it harder to find a successor. The proposed reforms could usher in major changes. For the first time since the 1959 revolution, the government would allow Cubans to own and sell houses and cars. Taxis, barbershops, restaurants and other privately run businesses would be allowed to expand and hire workers.

It became official Tuesday: Fidel Castro was formally removed from the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party for the first time since its formation nearly 50 years ago. But despite expectations that the new party leadership would begin to usher in a younger generation, senior stalwarts were appointed to the top posts. The moves came at the end of an extraordinary congress of the ruling party in which participants also endorsed a potentially far-reaching package of economic reforms.

With a huge military parade and amid high public expectation, Cuba's ruling Communists on Saturday convened an extraordinary congress that will shape much of the island nation's future. The Cuban Communist Party opened its four-day gathering — its first in 14 years and only the sixth meeting since the revolution 52 years ago — to examine and endorse crucial economic reforms launched by President Raul Castro. The congress will also appoint a new team of party leaders, with Castro at the helm but, possibly, with a smattering of less-familiar faces as Cubans begin to contemplate a Cuba without Raul and his brother, Fidel, the leader of the revolution.

At first, it seemed to be just another fleeting moment of paranoia, one of those seasonal episodes in which the censors work overtime and the usual suspects are rounded up. This time, however, the crackdown by the Chinese government appears to have staying power — and some observers say it may have more to do with a power struggle within the Communist Party than any threat from without. Since mid-February, authorities have rounded up dozens of activists, bloggers and intellectuals, the Hong Kong-based advocacy group China Human Rights Defenders said Thursday as it released a list of 26 detainees.

After 17 attempts, steadily diminishing expectations and paralysis in local government as budgets and appointments were delayed, Nepal late Thursday named a new prime minister. As fellow lawmakers cheered, the speaker of the assembly announced that Jhalnath Khanal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), had secured 368 of 601 parliamentary votes. The Communist Party is Nepal's third-largest after the Maoists and the Nepali Congress. But Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal withdrew his party candidacy and agreed to back Khanal, ending a six-month logjam that followed the resignation of the government in June.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, arguably the most powerful world leader after President Obama, arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Tuesday for his first visit to the U.S. capital since 2006. Plans called for Hu to have a private dinner Tuesday with Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, then spend Wednesday in meetings with Obama and other officials before attending a black-tie dinner. On Thursday, he'll meet with congressional leaders and business executives before traveling to Chicago, emphasizing China's economic relationship with the United States.

Here in the world's largest democracy, monsoons and Bollywood blockbusters may come and go, but one thing has proven proved remarkably consistent: government in West Bengal. The populous eastern state boasts the world's longest-serving popularly elected Communist government, with 33 years under its (bright red) belt. That record is now threatened, however, by Mamata Banerjee, known as the scrappy "Bengal tigress," who is redefining politics here from her perch atop India's bloated Ministry of Railways.

Unless something goes badly wrong for Xi Jinping over the next two years, it looks like a fait accompli that the 57-year-old Communist Party official, who has been groomed his entire career for leadership, will be China's next president. At the end of a four-day meeting of the party's Central Committee on Monday, Xi was named vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, a position overseeing the People's Liberation Army that is considered a steppingstone for assuming the leadership.