WORLD
* A real-life million-dollar bionic man with artificial organs, synthetic blood and robotic limbs was showcased at London’s science museum
* As Russia prepared for its one-year countdown to next year’s Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, a prominent human rights group alleged that migrant workers constructing the multi-billion-dollar facilities have often been exploited and underpaid
* Azerbaijan is to launch its first telecommunication satellite, Azerspace, on Thursday night, Information and IT Minister Ali Abbasov said
RUSSIA
* Deaths exceeded births in Russia by more than 2,500 in 2012, the Labor and Social Protection Ministry said underscoring that natural population growth remains an elusive goal despite officials’ earlier expectations
* Russian special services reported on Wednesday that the last remaining rebel allegedly involved in the 2010 twin suicide bombing attacks that left 40 dead on the Moscow metro has been killed
* A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket with six Globalstar-2 low-orbit communication satellites lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Russia’s Federal Space Agency, known as Roscosmos, said after the launch
BUSINESS
* Russia’s most famous firearm designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov, says he is happy to give his name to the brand of a small-arms corporation being formed by the merger of Russian gun makers Izhmash and Izhmekh, the Izhmash press secretary said