Main news of October 23

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Ukraine's opposition Party of Regions on Friday officially nominated as presidential candidate its leader Viktor Yanukovych, seen as a frontrunner in the upcoming elections

* The Israeli foreign minister has urged the UN Secretary General to prevent both the General Assembly and the Security Council from considering a report on Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in the Gaza Strip

* Neither Russia nor Ukraine are seeking to revise the terms of an agreement on the presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea, the countries' foreign ministers said

* Ukraine is ready to step up dialogue with Russia to improve relations, the country’s foreign minister told his Russian counterpart on Friday at a meeting in Moscow

* The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has put Ukrainian-born businessman Semion Mogilevich, an alleged organized crime boss also known as Sergei Shnaider, on its Ten Most Wanted list

* A mini-sub with 10 metric tons of cocaine onboard has been seized some 180 miles of the coast of Guatemala in the country's largest ever drug seizure, Mexican media reported

RUSSIA

* Russia's special investigations committee on Friday charged the interior minister of the east Siberian republic of Buryatia with smuggling

* An attempt on the lives of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and a federal parliament member has been prevented in Grozny, the Russian southern republic's deputy interior minister said

* A Finnish national at the center of a tug-of-love dispute with a Russian national has been charged with illegally taking his son across the Russian border, prosecutors said

* Russia's United Aircraft Corporation has bought a 100% interest in the MiG aircraft making corporation, UAC said

* The lower house of the Russian parliament passed on Friday amendments to a law on defense which expands the use of the Russian Armed Forces abroad in certain situations

* The chief of Russia's energy giant Gazprom pledged uninterrupted natural gas supplies to Europe on Friday, saying no more New Year conflicts are expected

* Countries that do not threaten Russia have no reason to fear its new military doctrine, the Russian foreign minister said

* Russia's lower house of parliament passed an energy efficiency bill on Friday, aimed at creating a legal and economic basis for stimulating energy saving technology and reducing excessive electricity use

* The official number of swine flu cases in Russia has reached 1,040, the country's top sanitary official said

* The first formal Russia-NATO Council ministerial meeting since the military conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 may be held in early December, Russia's envoy to NATO said

* The chairman of Russia's Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov told a government daily on Friday he saw no reasons to resign amid alleged election violations

SPORT

* Russia's Mikhail Yuzhny beat Ukraine's Serhiy Stakhovskiy on Friday to make the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup

* Russia's Alisa Kleybanova knocked defending champion Jelena Jankovic out of the Kremlin Cup on Friday to progress to the semifinals

* Russian Olympic champion Evgeni Plushenko won his first international skate since taking gold at the 2006 Torino Games on Friday at Moscow's Rostelecom Cup