Presidential decree OKs tobacco ads

SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Only days after the Brazilian government threatened to fine five Formula One teams for plastering cigarette ads on their cars, the country's new president backtracked yesterday with a decree allowing the ads until 2005. Earlier this week, the Health Ministry said it might issue up to $8 million Cdn in fines to the teams and to local organizers and sponsors of the Brazilian Grand Prix, which will be held tomorrow at Sao Paulo's Interlagos circuit. But President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva quietly signed the decree Thursday, and it went into effect yesterday after being published in the official government gazette. The fines would have been levied against Ferrari, McLaren, BAR-Honda, Jordan and Renault.