The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Sunday, September 26, 2004.
MOSCOW
* The Dynamo Sports Palace is hosting a festival, Martial Arts vs. Drugs: For Russia's Future. The Moscow Board of the Federal Drug Control Service is prominent among the organisers.
* A 7th international Dmitri Shostakovich string quartet contest is opening at the Moscow Conservatory, to last into Thursday, September 30. It has gathered fourteen quartets of Armenia, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy and Kazakhstan. Representing Russia are student quartets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk and Petrozavodsk.
BERLIN-TERMEZ, UZBEKISTAN-KABUL
* Peter Struck, Germany's Defence Minister, is en route to Afghanistan to visit his country's contingents stationed in Kunduz and Faizabad, in the Afghan north. He will make a short stop in Uzbekistan to appear at a German air base in Termez, on the Uzbek-Afghan frontier.
YEREVAN
* President Robert Kocharyan of Armenia is starting a state visit to China. His schedule envisages conferences with President Hu Jintao and other persons on China's political top. The two Presidents are expected to sum up their negotiations in a joint declaration. A number of intergovernmental agreements are also coming up to be signed.
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