People's Daily Tonight: Podcast News (2/21/2019 Thu.)
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This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China. 

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All Chinese citizens safe in Peru robbery

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One person was killed in a robbery at a luxury hotel in Peru Wednesday night.

The Chinese embassy in Peru said there were no Chinese casualties. 

Preliminary reports said there were 41 Chinese tourists staying in the hotel.

Only one tourist was robbed of his passport.

Peru's interior ministry said the local police have stepped up efforts to track down the suspect.

The hotel's security camera showed more than 10 gunmen wearing hats and covering their faces breaking into the hotel.

Earlier, some media reported that about 40 passengers, including Chinese and American citizens, had been hijacked in the robbery. (People’s Daily app)

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Death toll from Bangladeshi capital fire rises to 81

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At least 81 people have been killed Thursday after a devastating fire tore through a number of buildings in old part of Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s fire service chief Ali Ahmed said the death toll is expected to rise. The Dailystar of Bangladesh reported that flames broke out at around 10:40 pm at a chemical warehouse on the ground floor of the five-story building. The fire then quickly spread to the other three buildings, including a community center.

More than 200 firefighters arrived to fight the fire. The origin of the fire was unclear, but Indian NDTW said the fire originated from a gas cylinder.

In Bangladesh, poorly constructed buildings have long been the source of various accidents, resulting in the death of hundreds.

This has been the second major fire to strike the capital in the last nine years after a building fire killed at least 124 people in the city in 2010. (Xinhua)

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Trump in 'no rush' to push N. Korea to denuclearize

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US President Donald Trump said that while he hoped his next meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would yield much progress, he was also in "no rush" for results.

At their landmark summit in Singapore last year, the US and North Korean leaders produced a vaguely worded document in which Kim pledged to work toward "the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”

A State Department statement said the US Special Representative for North Korea was traveling to Hanoi in preparation for the summit. (AFP)

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Belt and Road highlighted in Putin’s State-of-Nation Address

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Putin promised all attempts to boost relations with China and greater involvement in the Belt and Road initiative during a 90-minute State of the Nation address on Wednesday.

Under Putin’s plan, Russia will step up government spending and investment in areas like artificial intelligence and big data, and strengthen external relations of the Eurasian Economic Union by linking with the Chinese Belt and Road initiative.

Enhancing communication and expanding cooperation are the main orientations for Russia’s foreign policy in 2019, according to Putin, who expressed hope that the European Union would take real steps to restore normal political and economic relations with Moscow. (People’s Daily app)

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French court hits Swiss bank UBS with $5.1 billion penalty

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A French court ordered Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, to pay $5.1 billion in fines and damages for helping wealthy French clients evade tax authorities.

It was one of France’s biggest-ever tax evasion trials.

The Paris court convicted UBS of aggravated money laundering and illegal bank soliciting.

UBS slammed the ruling and vowed to appeal.

It denied criminal wrongdoing, saying in a statement that the conviction was based on “unfounded allegations of former employees.”

Advocacy groups that had fought for more bank transparency since the global financial crisis a decade ago hailed the decision. (AP)

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Beijing promises to improve air quality

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Beijing's environmental watchdog has vowed to further improve air quality in the capital this year.

The city will strive to decrease its annual PM2.5 concentration, as well as its average three-year density of airborne particles, by focusing efforts on three major pollution culprits-diesel-powered trucks, kicked-up dust and volatile organic compounds-the Beijing Ecological Environment Bureau said on Tuesday.

It said greater efforts will be made to improve air quality through better, more detailed management of pollution sources in what it's calling the 1 Microgram Campaign, which underscores the increasing difficulty of reducing PM2.5 density by even a single microgram.

The three-year average metric was introduced to help reduce the skewing of data due to meteorological conditions and show how the public's efforts contribute to overall improvements, the bureau said. (China Daily)

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Su Bingtian takes his third men’s 60m win in Dusseldorf

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And Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian won the men’s 60 meters title with 6.49 seconds in Dusseldorf, Germany.

It’s the final stop of the 2019 IAAF World Indoor Tour.

Running in the center of the track, the Asian record-holder was running about even with Bryce Robinson of the US until the midway point, when he began to pull away.

Robinson was second with 6.57 seconds, edging Michael Rodgers who was credited with the same time.

The win came only four days after Su set his season best in Birmingham, UK, where his winning time was 6.47 seconds. (People’s Daily app)

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And that’s People’s Daily Tonight.  Thanks for joining us.

(Produced by David Nye and Zhan Huilan)