China to grant Belarus credit on easy terms

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MINSK, March 24 (Itar-Tass) - China has made a decision to grant
Belarus a credit on easy terms worth one billion dollars, China's Vice
President Xi Jinping said at talks with Belarussian President Alexander
Lukashenko in an expanded format.
"China has made a decision to grant a preferential credit of one
billion dollars that will be used for coordinated cooperation projects,"
he said. According to the top Chinese official, the two countries must
drastically increase the level of business cooperation.
He also said that the Chinese government had decided to offer Belarus
non-repayable aid worth an equivalent of about 8.8 million U.S. dollars.

.Rustam Minnikhanov to be inaugurated as Tatarstan president.

KAZAN, March 25 (Itar-Tass) - Rustam Minnikhanov will be on Thursday
inaugurated as President of Tatarstan.
According to Tatarstan's State Council (parliament) speaker Farid
Mukhametshin, top guests have arrived for the ceremony. They include among
others Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, delegations from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Poland.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted his candidacy for
consideration of the republican State Council on January 27. At a meeting
with Medvedev on January 22, the head of the region, Mintimer Shaimiev,
asked not to consider extending his term in office, which expires on March
25. On March 4 deputies unanimously voted for the candidacy of Minnikhanov.
He was born in Tatarstan's settlement of Novy Arysh on March 1, 1957.
In 1978 he graduated from Kazan Agricultural College, and in 1986 - from
Correspondence Institute of Soviet Trade. He worked as engineer, and in
1996-1998 he was Tatarstan's finance minister. Since 1998 he has led the
republican government. Minnikhanov is doctor of economics.

.French Airbus A380 gets permission to fly over Siberia.

PARIS, March 25 (Itar-Tass) - The French Airbus A380 gets permission
to fly over Siberia. An agreement was signed on Wednesday between
officials from civil aviation departments of the two countries, the French
Transport Ministry reported.
In the future, the agreement must be initialled by the Russian
Federation. Earlier, the air space of Siberia was closed for liners with
the number of seats exceeding 500. The Airbus A380 used by Air France has
538 seats, which can be increased in other modifications.
According to the French side, "the signed protocol will make it
possible for A380 aircraft to make flights over the Russian territory to
Japan, China, South Korea and Hong Kong," which account for about 40
percent of the passengers travelling ob board that new airliner.
Russian companies have got the right to four flights a week by
transport planes to Charles de Gaulle Airport, as well as three flights a
week to the French airport Vatry (150 kilometres east of Paris) or
Chateauroux (220 kilometres south of Paris).
This agreement was signed a day after Aeroflot and Air France signed a
code sharing agreement on Tuesday. Code sharing is an aviation business
term for the practice of multiple airlines selling space on the same
flights, where a seat can be purchased on one airline as if it was
actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number
or code.
The agreement will enter into force on March 28, 2010, not only for
Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport but also for the airports of Novosibirsk,
Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhnevartovsk. Aeroflot will be
able to deliver passengers to Strasbourg, Lyon, Marseilles and Lisbon.

.International book fair opens in Paris, Russia in focus.

PARIS, March 25 (Itar-Tass) - One of the biggest book fairs, Paris
Book Fair, opens in France on Thursday. About 1,000 publishing houses from
25 countries take part.
In connection with the Year of Russia in France in 2010, Russia will
be the central exhibitor. The Russian delegation is led by the head of the
Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications, Mikhail Seslavinsky. In
round-table discussions Russian writers will meet with their French
colleagues and readers. Russian-French cultural ties will be discussed.
Events in connection with the 150th birth anniversary of Anton Chekhov and
the 100th death anniversary of Leo Tolstoy will be held. Avant-garde
poetry of Velimir Khlebnikov will also be in the focus of attention. The
65th anniversary of Victory Day will be discussed at one of the meetings.
One of the main topics of the book fair in 2010 is new technologies.
At least 220,000 visitors are expected, which is 15,000 more than last
year. Special programs are envisaged to attract the youth. However, the
global financial crisis has also affected the fair. Some major French
publishing houses will not take part for financial reasons.
The book fair will run for six days.
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