Briefly

RUSSIA

Troops march on Red Square

MOSCOW | U.S., French and British troops strode across Red Square for the first time Sunday in a Victory Day parade marked both by the usual impressive display of Russia’s military might and by an unusual emphasis on international cooperation.

In recent years, the parade commemorating the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany has been used by Russian leaders to launch veiled criticism of the West, but President Dmitry Medvedev struck a different tone this year.

“Today at this solemn parade, the soldiers of Russia, the states of the CIS and the anti-Hitler coalition march together,” he said in his address to the more than 11,000 soldiers on the vast square.

“Only together can we counter present-day threats. Only as good neighbors can we resolve problems of global security in order that the ideals of justice and good triumph in all of the world and that the lives of future generations will be free and happy.”

Foreign leaders in attendance included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Israeli President Shimon Peres and acting Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski.

Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy had been expected to attend, but stayed home in order to be available for possible developments in Europe’s financial crisis.

BELGIUM

EU ministers work on euro plan

BRUSSELS | European Union finance ministers promised Sunday to do whatever it takes to set up a rescue mechanism for financially troubled governments as they struggle to stabilize the shared currency and keep markets from targeting weaker eurozone members — and get it done before trading starts in a few hours.

Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado said the ministers are determined to safeguard the currency used by 16 of the EU’s 27 member states, which has come under increasing pressure since the financial meltdown of one of its members, Greece.

France and Germany, the two largest members of the eurozone, agree on measures to resolve the European financial crisis, according to a two-sentence statement from French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office Sunday.

It provided no details on the deal that will be announced later if a qualified majority of the 27 EU finance ministers sign onto the deal.

The EU’s slow response to the crisis and its failure to keep Greece from getting to the brink of bankruptcy triggered slides in the euro and global stocks last week, and intensified fears the crisis would spread to other countries with shaky finances such as Spain and Portugal.

GERMANY

Merkel’s bloc loses state vote

BERLIN | Voters ejected Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right alliance from power in Germany’s most populous state on Sunday, projections showed — costing the German leader her majority in the upper house of parliament and curbing her government’s power.

The state election in North Rhine-Westphalia — the first electoral test since Mrs. Merkel’s second term started in October — had loomed over European efforts to tackle the Greek debt crisis.

Mrs. Merkel initially held out on agreeing to aid for cash-strapped Athens, prompting German opposition parties to accuse her of avoiding an unpopular decision in the election run-up.

Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democrats won just over 34 percent of Sunday’s vote, and their coalition partners, the Free Democrats, took 6.5 percent, according to projections for ARD and ZDF television based on exit polls and early counting. That left them well short of a majority in the state legislature in Duesseldorf.

The same coalition leads the federal government as well.

The projections found the opposition Social Democrats winning more than 34 percent, the Greens 12.5 percent and the Left Party up to 6 percent.

Mrs. Merkel is likely to have a harder time running Germany — Europe’s biggest economy — without a majority in the upper house, which represents Germany’s 16 states and must approve major legislation.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports