The State Duma adopted in the first reading a bill that increased the one-time benefit for Russian adoptive parents sevenfold. This was reported on April 16 on the website of the lower house of parliament. According to the document, the benefit amount will be 100 thousand rubles. Increased payments will only affect parents who will adopt disabled people, children over seven years old, or blood brothers and sisters.

The Russian company Sollers intends to stop producing UAZ Hunter SUVs in 2014, the Za Rulem newspaper reports. The decision to discontinue production of the car was made at a closed meeting of the company's management in Ulyanovsk in early April 2013. According to Sollers, the production of Hunters can be profitable with a monthly demand of at least three thousand cars, but the real demand for SUVs of this type is much less.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, speaking at a meeting on April 16, criticized the work of the country's energy industry. BelTA reports this. The subject of criticism, according to Interfax-Zapad, was, in particular, the investment and tariff policies of the Ministry of Energy.

On April 15, the DPRK Supreme Command presented an ultimatum to South Korea, demanding that it stop hostile activities directed against Pyongyang. reports this Agence France-Presse .

At least two people were killed and more than 20 were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. This was reported by Fox News. At least 10 victims had their limbs torn off. box#1349204 Boston police confirmed on Twitter that two people were killed and 23 injured. Two large explosive devices went off on the afternoon of April 15 in Boston at the finish line of the marathon taking place in the city. In New York and Washington, increased security measures were introduced after the incident.

Gold prices fell by nine percent during the trading session on April 15, falling below the psychologically important level of $1,400 per ounce. As can be seen from the gold price chart posted on the CME Group website, the intraday low was recorded at $1,355 per ounce. The collapse in gold prices was the largest since 1983, The USA Today newspaper calculated. Compared to the all-time high reached in August 2011, gold is trading $527 cheaper.

A resident of the Chinese city of Kunming (Yunnan Province), Liu Hua, filed a lawsuit in a local court against the US Federal Reserve for “abuse of the monopoly on the issue of money.” The South China Morning Post writes about this. Liu Hua found that the value of her $250 foreign exchange savings had fallen by 30 percent over the past seven years. How the real value of savings was measured and whether adjustments were made for inflation is not specified.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed a decree on amnesty for crimes committed during the civil war before April 16, 2013, AFP reports , citing the Syrian news agency SANA. According to the decree, the death penalty for crimes will be replaced by lifelong hard labor. It is unknown whether opponents of the regime who are currently there will be released from prison. This was the fourth amnesty carried out by the Assad government since the start of the war.

Sberbank agreed with the proposal of the Moscow authorities to hold an architectural competition for the design of the Tsarev Garden multifunctional hotel complex on Sofia Embankment. The newspaper "RBC daily" writes about this. According to the publication, the chief architect of the capital, Sergei Kuznetsov, insisted on holding the competition, who was not satisfied with the façade solutions proposed by the investor.

A golden Easter egg that was stolen from the office of a Kuwaiti company in Geneva in 2009 has been found in France. La Depeche reports this. The egg was discovered during a roadside check. Representatives of the French police found a BMW car suspicious. After they stopped the car and searched it, the stolen property was found in it. After this, government officials detained the driver and passenger of the car, who turned out to be citizens of Belarus.

Police officers completed a search at the office of the social network VKontakte in St. Petersburg. Lenta.ru was informed about this by the press service of the social network. Representatives of VKontakte noted that the police took away the company’s internal video server, which stored recordings from surveillance cameras. At the same time, Fontanka reported that searches were also taking place in the apartment of the head of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, on Kamyshovaya Street.

The National Bestseller literary award announced the 2013 finalists on April 16. As reported in the press release of the award, six authors were shortlisted by Natsbest. Maxim Kantor (“Red Light”), Evgeniy Vodolazkin (“Laurel”), Sofya Kupryashina (“Viewfinder”), Olga Pogodina-Kuzmina (“Power of the Dead”), Ildar Abuzyarov (“Mutabor”) and Figl-Migl are vying for the prize ("Wolves and Bears") Kantor received the most points from the Grand Jury (10 points).

The former general director of Russian Space Systems OJSC (RSS) Yuri Urlichich, who since December 2012 held the position of adviser to the first deputy head of the company Valery Subbotin in the company, has been fired. The Kommersant newspaper wrote about this on April 16, citing sources in the RKS and Roscosmos. As the publication’s interlocutors reported, the order to dismiss Urlichich with the wording “by agreement of the parties” was signed by the head of RKS Gennady Raikunov on March 31.

The price of gold has collapsed in recent days, reaching its lowest level in almost two years. The precious metal, which previously surprised with its stability against the backdrop of any disturbances in the global economy, fell in value by 13 percent in a couple of sessions, unpleasantly surprising most analysts. Meanwhile, the mid-April collapse is only a component of a longer trend: gold, which had been rising in price for 12 years in a row, hit the ceiling and began to fall in price.

The Russian government has decided to get rid of 283 thousand shares of Sberbank. newspaper writes about this in its issue dated April 16, The Vedomosti with reference to amendments to the privatization plan for 2011-2013, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on April 11. 283 thousand shares of the largest Russian financial organization is less than 0.001 percent of its authorized capital.