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

______

Chinese president leaves for Eastern Economic Forum

Chinese President Xi Jinping left Beijing on Tuesday for the fourth Eastern Economic Forum held in the city of Vladivostok, Russia, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The three-day forum with the theme, ”The Far East: Expanding the Range of Possibilities,” has attracted thousands from more than 60 countries.

The participants will discuss international cooperation in Far Eastern development, industry priorities in the Far East, tools to support investors and measures to improve living conditions.(Xinhua)

______

Beijing releases new rules on preschool education 

Beijing authorities released a regulation on preschool education to improve kindergartens' risk control system and their internal management, Beijing Evening News reported.

The regulation stipulates that every kindergarten should have a safety officer, who should be trained before taking the post. Children should be accompanied by two teachers at the same time. 

Video surveillance should cover all public areas in the kindergarten. Teacher's behaviors, such as abuse, discrimination, physical punishment and humiliating children, will be dealt with severely.

The regulation sets rules on accident management. On the one hand, public security, education, health and food authorities should share information and eliminate potential safety risks; on the other hand, an accident report and investigation system will be set up. 

Once an accident happens in a kindergarten, an emergency plan should be triggered, an investigation will start and the situation will be reported to the public as soon as possible. (China Daily)

______

Seven wounded in Paris knife attack, including British, Egyptian tourists 

A man believed to be an Afghan national was being held in custody Monday as the suspect in an attack with a knife and an iron bar in Paris.

Police said seven people were injured, including three foreign tourists.

In the attack next to a canal in the northeast of the capital on Sunday evening, the suspect, believed to be in his thirties, was overpowered by bystanders who had tried to stop him.

A source close to the case said the man was an Afghan born in 1987.

A source said though the suspect had targeted foreigners, nothing at this stage suggests a terrorist attack. (AFP)

______

US teens prefer remote chats to face-to-face meeting: study

American teenagers are starting to prefer communicating via text instead of meeting face-to-face, according to a study published Monday by the independent organization Common Sense Media.

Some 35 percent of kids aged 13 to 17 years old said they would rather send a text than meet up with people, which received 32 percent.

The last time the media and technology-focused nonprofit conducted such a survey in 2012, meeting face-to-face hit 49 percent, far ahead of texting's 33 percent.

More than two-thirds of American teens choose remote communication -- including texting, social media, video conversation and phone conversation -- when they can, according to the study.

In 2012 less than half of them marked a similar preference.

As for social networks, 81 percent of respondents said online exchange is part of their lives, with 32 percent calling it "extremely" or "very" important.

The most-used platform for this age group is Snapchat (63 percent), followed by Instagram (61 percent) and Facebook (43 percent).

Two-fifths of them said time spent on social media prevents them from spending more time with friends in person. (AFP)

______

Chinese troops take part in Russia's huge military exercise

Russia's largest military drills in over three decades began at the Tsugol training range in Russia's Trans-Baikal region on Tuesday.

Codenamed "Vostok-2018", the drills are said to be the largest military exercises since"Zapad-1981", which was held in 1981 by the former Soviet Union, and involved about 100,000 to 150,000 troops.

About 3,200 troops, along with over 1,000 pieces of weaponry and 30 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters from the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s Northern Theater Command, are scheduled to conduct combat training together with the Russian troops from Tuesday to Thursday.

All Chinese troops participating in the drills were moved to the region by railway and highway before the end of August.

China’s People’s Liberation Army and Russian armed forces have formed a joint operational commanding system, under which military forces from the two countries will hold joint exercises. (China Daily)

______

China makes steady progress in urbanization

China has made steady progress in urbanization during the past 40 years thanks to its reform and opening-up, with a rapidly-growing population of city dwellers.

Permanent urban residents amounted to 810 million at the end of the last year, up by 640 million from 1978, with an annual average growth of 16.44 million, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a report Monday. The urbanization rate stood at 58.52 percent, surging from 17.92 percent four decades ago.

The number of Chinese cities more than tripled to 661 from 1978 to 2017. A total of sixteen cities boast more than 5 million residents according to household registration data, while only Shanghai had reached that level 40 years ago.

There has been a significant improvement in public transport and infrastructure in cities. The total track length of rail transit in 32 cities stood at 4,484 km at the end of 2017, up from 23.6 km, only seen in Beijing, four decades ago. The number of buses rose from 17,000 in 1978 to 477,000 in 2016 in prefecture-level cities. (Xinhua)

______

Dozens feared killed in central Nigeria gas explosion

And dozens of people were killed on Monday following a gas explosion in Nigeria’s Nasarawa State.

Over 50 people with various degrees of burns were rushed to a local hospital.

The incident was caused by a leak from a local gas refill station in Nasarawa’s capital.

Witnesses said many cars and motorcycles were gutted as the fire spread to a major express highway leading to the Nigerian capital city Abuja. (Xinhua)

______

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

(Produced by David Nye and Wang Zi)