Slovakia closes checkpoints on border with Ukraine over swine flu.

PRAGUE, November 8 (Itar-Tass) - Slovakia has temporarily closed most
of its checkpoints on the border with Ukraine over swine flu fears, Slovak
Interior Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters on Saturday.

On Sunday, a border checkpoint in Ubla will be closed, he said.
Vysne Nemecke, the biggest checkpoint, will be the only one to stay
open.
All those who cross the border will undergo tough medical examination.
Doctors have power to ban anyone suspected of having the H1N1 flu from
entering Slovakia.



.Medvedev to make his state-of-the-nation address November 12.

MOSCOW, November 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
will make his second state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly
on November 12.
This will be the 16th state-of-the-nation address in Russian modern
history.
In his first sensational address on November 5 Medvedev said he wanted
to extend Russia's presidential term to six years from the current four
and that Russia would deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the
Kaliningrad region as a response to the U.S. planned anti-missile shield
in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russia's first President Boris Yeltsin delivered six
state-of-the-nation addresses to the parliament, while President Vladimir
Putin addressed the Federal Assembly eight times.



.Goldstone Gaza report should be debated in Human Rights Council-FM.

MOSCOW, November 8 (Itar-Tass) - Russia believes that the most optimal
action is to further consider the Goldstone report in the United Nations
Human Rights Council without engaging the UN Security Council, Russian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in his comments on the
resolution on the report of the Richard Goldstone fact finding mission on
the Gaza conflict.
"On November 5, there was the voting on this resolution in New York,"
he said. "114 countries voted for the resolution and 18 voted against.
Another 44 countries abstained."
"Russia also abstained adhering to the tough line taken during the
recent debate of the report of the Goldstone-led mission," the diplomat
said. "We persist that all parties should strictly abide by the
international humanitarian law and observe human rights. Undoubtedly, the
facts of violations of such rights during the Gaza conflict require
thorough inquiries, first of all by the conflicting parties themselves."
The main thing "is to prevent recurrence of the tragedy similar to
that in the Gaza Strip and for this it is necessary to focus efforts on
the restoration of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiating process,"
Nesterenko said.
"Russia as the Permanent Member of the United Nations and participant
of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators firmly intends in
cooperation with all interested parties both on the regional and
international level to provide every possible assistance to promoting
peace in the region on the internationally recognized legal basis,
including the relevant solutions of the UN Security Council, the roadmap
and the Arab Peace Initiative," he said.

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