World Scene

RUSSIA

Space chief promises new spaceship

MOSCOW | Russia will test a next-generation spacecraft, build a new cosmodrome and even consider a manned mission to Mars after 2035, the nation’s space chief said Wednesday.

But Anatoly Perminov conceded that Russian spacecraft depend on imported electronics, speaking to lawmakers a day after the nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.

“We have to acknowledge that imported components account for 65 [percent to] 70 percent of electronics in the spacecraft launched last year and those set to be launched this year,” Mr. Perminov told the upper house of Russia’s parliament in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

ISRAEL

Prosecutor: Foreign minister will face charges

JERUSALEM | Israel’s attorney general announced that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be indicted on corruption charges but allowed him a standard final hearing before charging him.

Mr. Lieberman, a hard-line member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet, has been under investigation on a variety of charges for years.

A statement from the attorney general’s office said Mr. Lieberman would be indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust, aggravated fraud, money-laundering and harassing a witness.

ITALY

Berlusconi likely won’t run for PM in next vote

ROME | Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi indicated his justice minister as a possible successor as conservative leader, further signaling his intention not to seek re-election when his term ends.

Mr. Berlusconi announced in a December news conference that he probably would step aside in 2013. His comments to foreign journalists Tuesday night strengthened the likelihood that his nearly two decades in power are coming to an end.

The 74-year-old said he might still be involved in party politics in an elderly statesman’s role but would not play “an active role in the government.” He said, however, that he will consult polls before making a decision.

Justice Minister Angelino Alfano, a close ally, is seen as the rising star.

MEXICO

16 bodies found in northwestern pits

CULIACAN | Investigators found at least a dozen skeletal remains in a series of pits in this northwestern Mexican state, while officials in neighboring Sonora pulled four bodies from two pits, authorities said Wednesday.

The discoveries came just hours after federal authorities confirmed that a total of 116 bodies had been recovered from pits in the northern state of Tamaulipas, at the eastern end of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The pits in Sinaloa were discovered by a farmer who reported unusual odors coming from a field in the township of Ahome, near the state line with Sonora, state prosecutors’ spokesman Martin Gastelum said.

He said seven pits were found late Tuesday and excavations continued Wednesday. Two sets of remains appeared to belong to women who had been reported missing in October.

The state is the home base of Mexico’s most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa cartel.

CZECH REPUBLIC

President to be sent thousands of pens

PRAGUE | Some say the pen is mightier than the sword. If true, Czech President Vaclav Klaus will soon be a very mighty man.

More than 5,000 Czechs have signed up to a Facebook campaign to mail pens to the president after a video of him sheepishly pocketing a pen he took an obvious liking to during an official signing ceremony last week in Chile became widely popular on the Internet.

Mr. Klaus says it’s customary for leaders to keep pens after signing accords. But the manner in which he sized up the pen - encrusted with semiprecious Chilean stones - and then sneakily slipped it into his pocket while he sat at a desk alongside Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has seen him ridiculed by some of his countrymen.

“It seemed to me absolutely inappropriate to do anything like that during an official ceremony,” said Vojtech Palous, a 23-year-old student of medicine from Prague. “To do that in front of television cameras was just insane.”

From wire dispatches and staff reports