days of the week after members of his family and wrote the new Turkmen national anthem/oath himself. Foreign companies seeking to exploit Turkmenistan's vast natural gas resources cooperated with Niyazov since he also controlled access to the natural resources. His book, Ruhnama (or Rukhnama, 2001 and 2004), which was revered in Turkmenistan almost like a holy text, has been translated into 41 languages and distributed for free among major international libraries. Niyazov once proclaimed that anyone who reads this book three times will "become more intelligent, will recognise the divine being and will go straight to heaven". After Niyazov's death, Deputy Prime Minister Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow became acting president, and was elected president in his own right on 11 February 2007 in elections condemned by international observers as fraudulent. On 20 March, in a decision of significant symbolic weight in the ongoing rejection of Niyazov's personality cult, he abolished the power of the president to rename any landmarks, institutions, or cities. After the death of Saparmurat Niyazov Turkmenistan's leadership made tentative moves to open up the country. Berdimuhamedow repealed some of Niyazov's most idiosyncratic policies, including banning opera and the circus for being "insufficiently Turkmen". In education, his government increased basic education from 9 years to 10 years, and restored higher education from two years to five. He has also increased contacts with the West, which is eager for access to the country's natural gas riches - but fears were mounting that the government would revert to Niyazov's draconian style of rule. The constitution provides for freedom of the press, but the government does not practice it. The government effectively controls all media outlets. Only two newspapers, and , both created by presidential decree, and two private internet news portals, Infoabad and Arzuw, are nominally independent. Cable television, which existed in the late 1980s, was shut down. Access to foreign media is impeded by internet blockage of roughly one third of the world's IP addresses and a ban on use of virtual private networks. Turkmen authorities restrict the activities of all but the officially recognized Russian Orthodox and Sunni Islam faiths. Religious congregations must register with the government, and individual parishes must have at least 500 members to register. Severe measures deal with religious sects that have not been able to establish official ties of state recognition, especially Baptists, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, Hare Krishna, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Baháʼís. Practitioners of these