This law seriously tightens the requirements for the production and placement of advertising. For example, it will be prohibited to advertise beer, alcohol and low-alcohol cocktails, tobacco and tobacco products in outdoor advertising. In beer advertising on television, five seconds of each video must be devoted to information about the health risks of the foamy drink. In addition, it is proposed to ban advertising of umbrella brands.

Today, the Russian magazine Forbes publishes a list of the 100 richest businessmen in Russia. There are 31 newcomers. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who topped the list a year ago, has slipped to 21st place with a capital of $2 billion. In the absence of Khodorkovsky, the Russian “golden hundred” is opened by Roman Abramovich, who simply has no competitors left.

The world price of a troy ounce of gold has grown by $9.8 in a week to $433.4, or by 2.3%. Some Russian commercial banks have also raised the price of measured gold bars. For example, the price of bullion gold at Lanta Bank has grown by 1–1.2%. At Sberbank, it has risen in price by an average of 1.2%, and at Gazprombank, by 0.4%. At the same time, Sberbank has reduced the purchase price of the silver coin “Sable” by 7 rubles from 237 rubles to 230 rubles.

Happiness is the source of health INOPRESSA – People who feel happy in their daily lives are healthier than those who experience joyful moments only occasionally, according to a new study by British scientists. A team of researchers from the University of London Medical College have traced the relationship between daily happiness and normal levels of the so-called stress hormone cortisol in the body. The experiment involved 216 middle-aged men and women living in London.

Yesterday the government approved the main directions of debt policy for 2006-2008. The strategy written by the Ministry of Finance changes the mechanism for investing pension savings: the funds of the “silent ones” can be invested in regional bonds, as well as bonds and shares of Russian and foreign companies, and VEB loses its monopoly on managing them.

As German Savostyanov, deputy head of the commercial department of Northgas, told journalists yesterday, on April 18, Gazprom restricted Northgas' access to the pipeline by a third. This is not the first time something like this has happened. The last time Gazprom restricted the intake of its competitor's gas was in the fall. Then Gazprom changed its anger to mercy only after the intervention of the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

V. Baranov In the fall, Vladimir Putin announced the upcoming merger of Gazprom and Rosneft. The state needed the deal to obtain a controlling stake in the gas monopoly and subsequently liberalize the market for its shares, officials explained. To do this, the government was going to give the monopoly Rosneft in exchange for 10.7% of Gazprom shares. The merger was planned to be completed by the end of the year, but due to Rosneft's purchase of Yugansk, it was delayed.

Eurocement has been among the largest cement producers in Russia since the beginning of the decade, and recently bought the cement assets of Inteko, a company owned by the wife of the capital's mayor, Elena Baturina, and shares in two cement plants owned by SU-155. According to estimates by the investment company AG Capital, Eurocement Group now controls about 60% of the cement market in the Moscow region.

The new law on shared construction has not been in force for even a month, and developers are already insistently asking deputies to urgently rewrite it. In protecting consumers from unscrupulous builders, deputies have clearly gone too far, and now developers will have to pay for the mistakes of officials, utility workers, energy workers, and even equity holders who do not make payments stipulated by the contract on time.

“During the bankruptcy of PIZ, subsidiaries are constantly being created, and tax debts are not being paid off,” says Nina Mamykina, deputy head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) for the Nizhny Novgorod Region, outraged by the situation. According to ZSMI, PIZ OJSC’s accounts payable exceed 200 million rubles, including 172 million rubles to tax authorities (94 million rubles is the principal debt and 78 million rubles are fines and penalties).

The trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is coming to an end. During it, various motives were clearly evident: revenge, envy, the desire to crush. Almost all of this took place. Nothing else happened. This process has nothing to do with strengthening the rule of law in the country or even establishing any kind of order. Instead, it created an atmosphere of intimidation and legal chaos in the country.

The Finance Ministry's proposals to speed up the reduction of the external state debt by means of internal loans have met with no objections – yesterday the government approved the main directions of the debt policy for 2006–2008, developed by the department of Alexei Kudrin. The document provides for a reduction in the share of external debt from 75.3% (which, according to the Finance Ministry's forecasts, it will be by the end of 2005) to 57.3% by the beginning of 2009.

Ecuador's parliament on Wednesday impeached President Lucio Gutierrez, accusing him of violating the constitution. Vice President Alfonso Palacio will rule Ecuador until the next presidential election. Gutierrez is the third Ecuadorian president to step down early in the past eight years. In 1997, Congress removed President Abdallah Bucaram from power, declaring him mentally retarded. Gutierrez became president following the 2002 elections.

Until recently, the sole owner of K-Systems LLC was the head of this company, Eduard Voronetsky. However, as Vedomosti learned, last year the company acquired another co-owner – Georgy Gens, president of the Lanit group of companies specializing in systems integration. Both co-owners confirmed this information to Vedomosti. Gens reported that he is a “minority shareholder” of the company.

Today, the VimpelCom board of directors will discuss the purchase of the GSM operator Ukrainian Radio Systems (URS) for $200 million. Back in 2004, VimpelCom agreed with Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky to purchase URS. The deal is supported by Alfa Group, but another VimpelCom shareholder, Telenor, is categorically against it. The Norwegians already control Ukraine's second operator, Kyivstar, and do not want to raise a competitor.