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This is People's Daily app.

Here are today's picks from our editors. 

Xi congratulates Derung ethnic group for fully getting rid of poverty

Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulates the Derung ethnic group for achieving complete victory over poverty and encourages them to make concerted efforts for better lives.

Xi, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a letter of a reply to the Derung ethnic group in Gongshan Derung and Nu Autonomous County, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, on Wednesday.

“Letting all ethnic groups live a good life is my long-cherished wish and the goal of our common struggle,” Xi wrote, according to the letter published by the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.

“This vividly shows that with the strong leadership of the party and the concerted efforts of the broad masses, the people's dream of pursuing a happy life will surely come true,” Xi said. (Xinhua) 

China ready to better align BRI with Slovenia's development strategy: Li

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Thursday that China is willing to better align the Belt and Road Initiative with Slovenia's development strategy.

Li made the remarks while meeting with Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec, here to attend the eighth leaders' meeting of China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik. 

As important cooperation partners, China and Slovenia enjoy sound and stable development in bilateral ties and cooperation, Li said, adding the two countries enjoy complementary advantages and have achieved a series of cooperation results in various fields. 

For his part, Sarec said Slovenia and China are important partners, and have maintained frequent high-level exchanges, adding that bilateral ties and cooperation in various areas have seen smooth development. (Xinhua) 

Sudanese protesters reject army procedures, decide to continue sit-in

Sudanese protesters disagreed on the measures announced by the Sudanese Army on Thursday and continued their sit-in at the front of army headquarters. 

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an opposition organization, rejected the statement made by Sudan's Defence Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf. 

In a statement, the Sudanese association said they will continue with the sit-in until power is handed over to a civil authority. 

Earlier Thursday, Sudan's Defense Minister Ibn Auf announced the ousting of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his government. (Xinhua) 

WikiLeaks' Assange arrested in London, faces US charge

A bearded and shouting Julian Assange was pulled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and hauled into court Thursday, the start of an extradition battle for the WikiLeaks founder who faces US charges related to the publication of tens of thousands of secret government documents. 

Police arrested Assange after the South American nation revoked the political asylum that had given him sanctuary for almost seven years. 

In Washington, the US Justice Department accused Assange of conspiring with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to break into a classified government computer at the Pentagon. The charge was announced after Assange was taken into custody. (AP) 

7 killed, 14 injured in chain car accident in Iran

At least seven people were killed, and 14 others injured in a chain car accident in Southern Tehran on Thursday, Iranian state media reported. 

The accident occurred on the Tehran-Saveh highway where several cars were damaged and one passenger bus caught fire, said Pir Hossein Kolivand, chief of Emergency Organization of Iran.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation. (Xinhua) 

China, US researchers find special signal from magnetic star

A joint team of researchers from China and the US have picked up a special X-ray signal that lasted for around seven hours powered by a magnetar, or magnetic star, 6.6 billion light years away.

The signal, detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, offers proof that the direct result of the mergers of neutron stars can be a magnetar, rather than just a black hole as believed by many scientists.

A magnetar is a neutron star that spins rapidly with a magnetic field hundreds of millions of times stronger than the strongest magnetic field humans can create in a lab environment. (Xinhua) 

Thanks for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow.

And now for the Question of the Day:

Who wrote the contemporary children's books about mermaids set on the coast of Cornwall?

(Answer: British poet Helen Dunmore.)

Today's quote is from English dramatist William Shakespeare (1564-1616).

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Ryan Yaoran Yu, Lance Crayon, Elaine Yue Lin, and Chelle Wenqian Zeng. Music by Eugene Loner.)