Briefly

UNITED STATES

Rocket launch brings moon return step closer

NASA's new moon rocket blasted off on its debut flight with three test dummies aboard early on Wednesday, bringing the United States a big step closer to putting astronauts back on the lunar surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo program 50 years ago. If all goes well during the three-week, make-or-break shakedown flight, the rocket will propel an empty crew capsule into a wide orbit around the moon, and then the capsule will return to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific in December. After years of delays and billions in cost overruns, the Space Launch System rocket thundered skyward, rising from Kennedy Space Center on 4 million kilograms of thrust.

UNITED KINGDOM

Inflation hits 41-year high of 11.1 percent

Surging household energy bills and food prices pushed British inflation to a new 41-year high in October, according to data published a day before Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announces tax hikes and spending cuts to control price growth. Consumer prices rose by 11.1 percent in annual terms last month, the highest reading since October 1981 and a big jump from 10.1 percent in September, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the inflation rate would rise by less to 10.7 percent. The figures come a day before Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt is scheduled to unveil a new budget.

PAKISTAN

6 police officers killed in terror attack

At least six police officers were killed on Wednesday in a terrorist attack on a police mobile van in Lakki Marwat district of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, the country's state media reported. According to the reports, the incident took place when the terrorists opened fire on police officers while they were conducting a routine patrol in the area. The deceased included four police constables, an assistant sub-inspector and a driver, the state media reported. The dead bodies were shifted to a local hospital, the media reported, adding that the police have started a search operation in the area.

Agencies - Xinhua