The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Sunday, April 29, 2004.
MOSCOW
* The Federation Council will host a session of the permanent international seminar, Constitutional Status of Upper Houses of Parliaments. The session will focus on the role of upper houses of parliaments in the formation and realisation of the state and legal strategy. Participating in the session will be representatives of the upper houses of parliaments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, the parliament of Uzbekistan and also the Federation Council of the Russian Federal Assembly.
MISSION CONTROL
* Chief of the federal space agency Anatoly Perminov and NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will watch the landing of the descent module with members of the 8th long-term expedition to the ISS Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri onboard, from the mission control centre. Astronaut of the European Space Agency Andre Kuipers from Holland who had stayed at the ISS for ten days will descend to the Earth with them. The descent module of the Soyuz TMA-3 spacecraft is to land at 4.15 Moscow time 70 km north of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan.
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY
* An official delegation of Russian border guards headed by Chief of the North-Eastern Regional Border Guard Department (SVRPU) of Russia's FSB, Lieutenant General Valery Putov will leave for Alaska. The SVRPU leadership and the 17th Coast Guard District of the United States will work out a plan of joint actions to guard conventional districts and patrol the line dividing the two countries' sea areas. Simultaneously, Russian and US border guards will hold joint exercises in the Bering Sea.
TYUMEN
* The World Championship for the oriental Renju game is due to open in Tyumen. Participating in the competition will be sportsmen from Japan, Uzbekistan, Sweden, India, Finland, Ukraine, Estonia, Greece, China and Russia.
MINSK
* The boards of the Russian Audit Chamber and the Belarussian Committee of State Control will gather for a joint session chaired by their leaders Sergei Stepashin and Anatoly Tozik.
BAKU
* The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation organisation (includes Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey) will gather in Baku. The Russian delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny. The session will sum up the work of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation organisation in the past six months and also consider the prospects of further co-operation within this organisation.
KARA-BALTA, KYGRYZSTAN
* The Kyrgyz town Kara-Balta will host the gala opening of the Days of Slavic Culture and Literature, which have been annually held in the republic in the past 12 years. The event is organised by the Slavic Fund, the Russian embassy in Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz-Russian (Slavic) University.
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