IN BRIEF (Page 12)

Russia

Putin to meet Merkel in France

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in France on Friday during a visit for the 70th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings in World War II, Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said. Plans for meetings with French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron during the visit to France have already been announced, but Ushakov said no meeting with US President Barack Obama was planned.

India

Minister dies in road accident

Rural Affairs Minister Gopinath Munde was killed when his car was hit by another vehicle in an accident in New Delhi on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his death was a major loss for the nation and the government. Munde was appointed to the cabinet last week. India has the world's deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed annually in road accidents.

$20 billion jets deal in sight

India expects to seal a deal worth close to $20 billion to buy 126 fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation within three months, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, as part of a $100 billion defense modernization plan. Completion of the deal would mean the first 18 Rafale jets arriving from mid-2016, with manufacturing of the remaining 108 beginning in India in 2018, the Times of India said.

United Kingdom

Pakistani partyleader seized

British police arrested on Tuesday leading Pakistani politician Altaf Hussain on suspicion of money laundering - a move that sparked fears of violence in his home base of Karachi. Hussain, 60, heads the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, one of Pakistan's major political parties. He has lived in self-imposed exile in Britain since 1992 but regularly addresses large gatherings in Pakistan by telephone link.

AP-AFP-Reuters

(China Daily 06/04/2014 page12)