This is People's Daily Tonight, your news source from China.

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Disgraced official Yao Jinqi extradited from Bulgaria

Bulgaria has extradited a fugitive Chinese official to China.

It's the first for an EU member state.

The extradition of Yao Jinqi was coordinated by the central anti-corruption coordination group's International Office and the law enforcement agencies of China and Bulgaria.

The case marks the first successful extradition after the establishment of the State Supervisory Committee in March this year.

Yao is a former deputy magistrate in East China's Zhejiang Province.

He was suspected of abusing power by accepting bribes in the form of huge amounts of property.

He fled in December 2005. (People's Daily app)

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Mandarin to be included on Russia's college entrance exam by 2019

For the first time in 2019, over hundreds of middle school students in Russia will take Mandarin as a subject on the Unified State Exam, a national college entrance exam that 11th graders must pass to get enrolled into college, announced by the deputy director of Russia's The Federal Service for the Supervision of Education and Science.

Soon, 9th graders in Russia will be given the option of taking Chinese as an elective language test on their final exam, which helps them to prepare for the Unified State Exam, said the deputy.

In addition to English, German, French and Spanish, Mandarin will become the fifth elective language test for Russian college entrance exam. (CGTN)

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Syria fires missile at Golan Heights: Israeli military

Israel's military said Syria fired a missile at the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

This, after Damascus said Israel launched airstrikes on targets in southern Syria.

The Israeli military also denied media reports that an Israeli fighter jet or an airborne target had been intercepted.

Syrian state TV reported that Syrian air defenses destroyed suspected Israeli missiles targeting military posts in the town of Kisweh near Damascus.

If Israel is behind the attack, it would be the first since September when its airstrike confused the Syrian air defenses.

Syria mistakenly shot down a Russian surveillance aircraft, killing 15 Russian servicemen. (Xinhua)

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Engineers working on sample rocket for space station

Chinese engineers have achieved important progress in developing Long March 5B, a launch vehicle for China's space station modules, as development has moved from the prototype phase to flight model phase.

Experts believe the prototype of Long March 5B, a one-stage rocket and upper stage in mission, demonstrated stability through multiple verifications and its tech standards met with demand.

Long March 5B is being developed on the basis of the country's heavy-lift liquid rocket Long March 5, which successfully finished its first mission in November 2016. Long March 5 is a two-stage strap-on launch vehicle.

According to the schedule, China will start constructing its manned space station around 2020, and the Long March 5B will put the station's core module into orbit that year. (China Daily)

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Two Koreas start landmark journey for railway reconnection

A train carrying South Korean engineers and officials crossed into the North on Friday to begin a landmark joint survey to reconnect railway tracks between the two Koreas.

Linking up the railway systems was one of the agreements made earlier this year in a key meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the South's President Moon Jae-in.

It marked the first time in a decade that a train from the South entered North Korea.

Before the division of the Korean peninsula in 1948, there were two railway lines linking the North to the South -- one in the west and the other in the east. (AFP)

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Chemical leak led to blast in Zhangjiakou

The blast on Wednesday that killed 23 people in Zhangjiakou of Hebei province was caused by a leak of chloroethylene from a chemical company, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Friday.

An investigation team supervised by the ministry found a gasometer containing chloroethylene belonging to Hebei Shenghua Chemical Industry Co had a leak, and the out chloroethylene, which diffused to the road outside the company, caused the blast when it met with flame on the road.

The government of Hebei will dig into the specific causes of the leak, the ministry said, adding the ministry will supervise the investigation directly.

The blast, which engulfed 38 trucks and 12 cars on a roadside by chemical companies in Zhangjiakou’s Qiaodong district, happened at 12:41 am on Wednesday, killing 23 people and injuring 22. (China Daily)

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Beijing completed 101 traffic alleviation projects in 2018

And Beijing said it has completed 101 traffic alleviation projects.

One of the priorities was traffic between two main bridges, which were too close to each other, and required the interweaving of traffic, which led to traffic jams.

The road was widened on the right side so that traffic flow on the left lanes can pass more smoothly.

The projects improved sections along the city's ring roads, central business district and west. (China.org.cn)

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

(Produced by David Nye and Wang Xiangyu)