IN BRIEF (Page 12)

India

Orbiter takes photos of Mars

India's space agency has released an image of Mars taken by the nation's first interplanetary spacecraft. The blurry image, showing a surface pockmarked with giant craters, was taken after the Martian Orbiter Mission took its position above the red planet. The Indian Space and Research Organisation says the satellite was about 7,300 km from the planet's surface when the image was taken on Wednesday. It takes about 12 minutes for the digital data to reach Earth. Space agency scientists released the image Thursday after first showing it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Ukraine

Nation to ditch non-alignment

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday ordered the cabinet to abandon the non-aligned status of Ukraine, paving the way for the country to join military alliances. Earlier in the day, the presidential press service published a decree signed by Poroshenko, which said "the development of a strategic partnership with the United States, the European Union and NATO in particular is a diplomatic priority for Ukraine in 2014 and the following years".

DPRK

Kim Jong-un not at legislature

Democratic People's Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-un wasn't in his customary seat at Thursday's session of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, the nation's legislature, in his first absence from a session since his father, Kim Jong-il, died in December 2011. The DPRK's Korean Central Television reported that the assembly approved the promotion of Hwang Pyong-so as vice-chairman of the National Defense Commission.

AP - Xinhua

(China Daily 09/26/2014 page12)