MINSK: Belarus is ready to deploy advanced Iskander Russian missiles that could hit targets deep inside Europe.

President Alexander Lukashenko is in talks with Moscow regarding this, a report said.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Lukashenko said that he would like to see closer relations with the West but that he sympathizes with Russia on two flashpoints that have rocked relations — the conflict in Georgia and U.S. plans to place antimissile systems in Europe to counter a potential threat from Iran.

The talks raise the ante in the debate over a U.S. plan to deploy missile defense in Europe.

Mr. Lukashenko said he “absolutely supports” Russia’s plans to place Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad that would target the U.S. missile system.

Mr. Lukashenko said Russia also had proposed putting Iskander missiles in Belarus. The country is situated between Russia and Poland.

Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll died today after a battle with a rare form of cancer. She was 78 and the first woman elected to that office in Pennsylvania history.

She will be replaced as lieutenant governor by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson).

According to the Governor’s Office, Knoll died about 6 p.m. at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, where she was recovering from treatment for neuroendocrine cancer. she was surrounded by her family, when she died.

Knoll announced this summer she was suffering from the disease, which generally affects specialized cells that work to keep many of the body’s hormonal and digestive functions in check.

She had vowed to return to work and did so for a day, presiding over the Senate for the start of its fall session, but she looked drawn and tired.

CHICAGO: Three months after Barack Obama defeated Sen. Hillary Clinton in an intense contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, she will be a candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for the President.

But Clinton was not available for the comment and described by her office as having flown to Chicago on Thursday on personal business.

Her selection as top U.S. diplomat could also mean a more hawkish foreign policy than that advocated by Obama during his presidential campaign.

But both Obama and Clinton were adamant about improving the image of the United States abroad and correcting what they considered the “failed policies” of the outgoing Bush administration.

On the campaign trail, Clinton was more reluctant than Obama to commit to a firm timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

Chinese milk products import in blocked in U.S. The Food and Drug Administration’s effort is to ensure that products contaminated with melamine do not enter the U.S. market.

Not only this, the agency FDA listed dozens of products, including cereals, snack foods, cheese, ice cream, carbonated drinks, candy, puddings and pet foods as potentially contaminated with melamine, which is used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer.

According to an alert published at FDA’s website, the agency is ensuring all measures to stop the import of the harmful products.

The agency said on the website, it learned in September that more than 53,000 infants in China became sick after consuming infant formula containing melamine. Nearly 13,000 were hospitalized and at least four died of illnesses involving the formation of kidney stones and crystals and related complications.

“These contaminated milk components appear to have been dispersed throughout the Chinese food supply chain,” the agency said.

WASHINGTON: CIA has reported that al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden is alive and fighting to survive. IA Director Michael Hayden said hunting down bin Laden remains his agency’s priority.

Though Hayden said al Qaeda has been hurt by a sustained fight with the United States and its allies, but remains a threat.

Regardless of whether bin Laden is actively helping lead the terrorist organization, the CIA believes capturing or killing him would be a huge blow to al Qaeda, according to Hayden.

Hayden said in a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington, “He is putting a lot of energy into his own survival — a lot of energy into his own security.”

“In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he nominally heads,” he said.

In recent weeks, there have been several U.S. missile strikes by unmanned drones around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The United States maintains that Taliban and al Qaeda forces operate with relative impunity in tribal areas.

MIAMI: In a surprising move Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addressed a press conference here. She never held a news conference in her entire campaign as the Republican Party’s vice-presidential nominee.

But the question-and-answer session lasted only four minutes, and for only four questions.
In a reply to the reporters she said, “The campaign is over.”

Ms. Palin tried to play down her celebrity style and look. In her speech, she tried to shift the focus from herself to the work that Republican governors must now do, including developing energy resources and overhauling health care.

According to the sources, the conference has been dominated by soul searching among Republicans worried about their future after last week’s poor Election Day showing.

To that end, Ms. Palin was again asked whether she would run for president in 2012.
“The future is not that 2012 presidential race; it’s next year and our next budgets,” Ms. Palin said. It is in 2010, she said, that “we’ll have 36 governor’s positions open.”

If you want to fight flu, you should take Vitamin C. In a recent study, it’s found that Vitamin C can effectively prevent flu.

The study led by Gorton HC and Jarvis K and published in Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics involved 252 students aged 18 to 30 as study subjects and 463 students aged 18 to 32 as controls.

It was found in the study that those who took 1000 mg of vitamin C three times a day were 85 percent less likely to have flu or more likely to reduce flu symptoms.

Studies have found that taking vitamin C boosts immune responses. Cold symptoms were also reduced and relieved in the vitamin C group.

The researchers found that reported flu cases in the study group decreased 85 percent compared to the controls after administration of high doses of vitamin C.