Main news of October 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Russia and Brunei intend to develop military and energy cooperation, the countries said in a joint statement on Friday after Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah's visit

* At least 12 people were killed and 42 injured by a suicide bomber in a Sunni Mosque in northern Iraq on Friday, Al Jazeera reported

* Azerbaijan's president said on Friday that neighboring Armenia must solve the territorial conflict between the countries before it can re-open ties with Turkey and take part in regional projects

* Russia calls on Israel and Iran to normalize relations and believes this is possible, the Russian foreign minister said

* The U.S. will go ahead with the deployment of a Patriot missile battery in Poland in the first quarter of 2010, a Polish deputy defense minister said

* A court in Kyrgyzstan has overruled the national aviation regulator's order to ground Boeing passenger planes used by national airlines, the head of the regulator said

* A strong earthquake struck off Indonesia's Java island on Friday afternoon, causing skyscrapers in Jakarta to shake, but no casualties have been reported

* The leaders of five ex-Soviet states attended on Friday the final stage of a rapid reaction force exercise in Kazakhstan

* Ireland has ratified the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, national media said

* The ruling Palestinian movement Fatah is waiting for a positive response from its rival Islamist faction Hamas on the signing of the Egypt-brokered reconciliation pact, Fatah parliamentary leader Azzam al-Ahmed said

RUSSIA

* Russia is ready to wipe the slate clean in its relations with the United Kingdom, the foreign minister said

* Russia wants more information on U.S. plans for an alternative missile defense system to be deployed by 2018, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the sultan of Brunei opened their meeting on Friday with a discussion of energy cooperation

* A Moscow court sentenced on Friday a Serbian national who sold Russian classified military information to the U.S. during the 1990s to eight years in prison

* Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus will launch their Customs Union on January 1, 2010, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* A district military court in the North Caucasus sentenced on Friday a Russian sergeant major to ten years in prison on charges of spying for Georgia

BUSINESS

SPORT

* The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Friday the list of contenders for the 2018 Winter Olympics

* Russia were named on Friday as one of the four seeds for November's playoffs to determine the last four European teams to go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa