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Who Will Get Yukos?
What happens when a company can't pay its bills but is legally barred from selling its parts? Ask fallen oil giant Yukos, the erstwhile flagship of Russia 's economy. "We can expect bankruptcy before the end of 2004," Yuri Beilin, vice chairman of Yukos' board, announced last week, after a Moscow court upheld a Tax Ministry demand that Yukos must pay $3.5 billion in alleged back taxes for 2000. Another court upheld a previous ruling that froze Yukos' Swiss bank accounts worth $5 billion,

INDICATORS Drug Bust Investigators in Italy named 4,713 people, 4,400 of them doctors, for allegedly taking bribes from British drug firm GlaxoSmithKline to prescribe Glaxo drugs rather than cheaper or generic alternatives. A similar probe in Germany two years ago saw several then employees fined; earlier this month, a Munich court gave one person a fine and a two-year suspended prison sentence. The Sound Of Money Sales of mobile telephone ring tones now outpace sales of music singles in Britain . Beginning next week, the British Phonographic Industry will publish a ranked list of ring-tone sales, which sell for about $5.50 for a 30-second clip. Triple XXX-Avier? Xavier Niel, chairman of French Internet service provider Iliad, was detained on accusations of embezzlement and running a prostitution ring. Niel is accused of running three peep shows allegedly used as fronts. Company shares plunged 10.77% by week's end.

leaving the company with only $800 million, while former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky remains in jail on fraud charges widely thought to have a political motive.

Not surprisingly, Yukos stock had fallen 10.7% by the end of the week. Says Mikhail Krutikhin, an analyst with RusEnergy: "My clients now have just a single question left. Who gets Yukos, once it bankrupts?" Apparently there is an answer. "We know that the successor has been picked — we still don't know exactly [who it is]," says a senior Russian Cabinet official. "The person does not matter, though. It's the type that does: someone close and demonstrably loyal to Putin."

Car Trouble
Maybe this is a good time to buy a car. Last week Roger Putnam, chairman of Ford in Britain , lamented that new E.U. directives on auto safety, to be implemented by 2008, would add about 35,000 to the sale price of every new car. Among other things, the rules require that carmakers minimize the amount of chemicals used in the manufacture of their autos and dictate that new cars be 95% recyclable. Ford also complained that some directives cancel each other out — explaining that pedestrian safety rules will add weight to cars, while fuel efficiency directives anticipate lighter cars. Sighed a Ford spokesman: "We're piggy in the middle."

But — to mix animal metaphors — is Ford crying wolf? "Think of the discussions in the late '80s about how the cost of controlling emissions would make cars more expensive," says Garel Rhys, head of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research at Cardiff Business School . "The figures that were bandied around turned out to be nothing of the sort." Rhys argues the industry is so competitive that when one carmaker absorbs rather than passes on the cost of compliance, the rest will have no choice but to follow. Perhaps. In the meantime, buyers should fasten those seat belts. — By Jennie James

The Bottom Line
	In other words, they are being choked by their own fat
		SHEILA MCKENZIE, pediatrician, on severely obese British children, in a report claiming that obesity could eventually cost the U.K. $13.5 billion a year and bankrupt the health service