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Here are today's picks from our editors. 

China implements tougher vehicle emission standards

Several provincial-level regions on Monday started implementing the "China VI" vehicle emission standards ahead of schedule to ramp up efforts against a major source of air pollution.

Sales and registrations of new vehicles in regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, along with Hebei and Guangdong provinces, now have to comply with what is believed to be one of the world's strictest rules on automobile pollutants.

The new emission standards were initially set to take effect nationwide from July 1, 2020. (Xinhua) 

Chinese railways to see 720 mln passenger trips in summer

Some 720 million passenger trips are expected to be made on Chinese railways during this year's "summer transport" from Monday to the end of August, according to the China State Railway Group.

The figure is 8.1 percent higher year on year, with a daily average of more than 11.6 million passenger trips, the company said.  (Xinhua) 

34 killed, 68 injured as blast rocks Kabul, Taliban claims responsibility

Up to 34 people have been confirmed dead and 68 injured persons have been taken to hospitals after a powerful blast rocked Kabul in the morning rush hour on Monday, local media reported.

An eyewitness speaking on the condition of anonymity said that militants entered a building that was under construction and exchanged fire with security forces.

The area is close to a branch of logistic department of the defense ministry, a sports stadium, a branch of the information and culture ministry, and some residential apartments.

Authorities have yet to release a statement on the situation. (Xinhua) 

Iran says low-grade enriched uranium stockpile exceeds 300 kg

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Iran's low-grade enriched uranium stockpile has exceeded 300 kilograms, official IRNA news agency reported.

Zarif made the remarks in Natanz, home to a few of Iran's nuclear facilities.

Zarif also blamed the European signatories of the Iranian nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, for their "insufficient" measures to ensure Iran's benefit from the accord after the US exit in May 2018. (Xinhua) 

South Korea to file suit with WTO against Japan's export restrictions

South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo said Monday that his country will file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Japan's export restrictions on materials key to South Korea's tech industry.

Sung said in a statement that South Korea will take necessary measures, including the lawsuit with the WTO, based on domestic and international laws.

Japan announced its plan earlier in the day to impose export restrictions from Thursday on three materials necessary to manufacture semiconductors and display panels, which are vital to South Korea's tech industry. (Xinhua) 

Tutankhamun sculpture's London auction sparks Egyptian outcry

A 3,000-year-old head sculpture of Tutankhamun -- the Egyptian pharaoh known as King Tut -- goes under the hammer this week in London despite an outcry from Cairo.

Christie's expects the 28.5-centimetre (11-inch) brown quartzite relic from the Valley of the Kings to fetch more than 4 million pounds on Thursday.

"The Egyptian embassy in London requested the British foreign affairs ministry and the auction hall to stop the sale," Egypt's foreign ministry said on June 10.

Former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass said on Sunday that the piece appears to have been "stolen" in the 1970s from the Karnak Temple complex of Egypt's great monuments. (AFP) 

Moscow Zoo launches live webcast of pandas

The Moscow Zoo on Monday launched on its website an around-the-clock live broadcast of two giant pandas that arrived from China in late April.

The zoo has installed eight cameras in the enclosure so that Ru Yi, a three-year-old male, and Ding Ding, a two-year-old female, can be observed from different angles.

The pandas from Southwest China's Sichuan Province will spend 15 years at the Moscow Zoo as part of a collaborative research program in accordance with an agreement signed between the Moscow Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association in February. (Xinhua) 

Thanks for listening and be sure to catch us tomorrow.

And now for the Question of the Day:

Which year saw the first Paralympics held in conjunction with the Olympics?

(Answer: 1960 in Rome, Italy.) 

Today's quote is from English poet John Milton (1608-1674).

"A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit."

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