Nokia announced on Wednesday that it will decrease the total number of employees by 4000 people by the end of 2012 and it will mostly lay off personnel from Denmark, Finland and Great Britain. The measure is part of the producer’s plans to cut operational costs by 1 billion euro for 2013. In Romania, Nokia will lay off about 120 employees. read more...

The IMF has “definitely”no doubt to the quality of data on its 2010 budgetary deficit, Romania’s representative to the IMF, Mihai Tanasescu declared in an interview for RFI radio. read more...

Anti graft prosecutors indicted on Wednesday 62 police agents at the Siret customs, North Romania and 4 customs officers from the same customs point, accused of bribe taking, bribe offering and supporting criminal networks, a press release of the institution reads. 49 of them are in temporary arrest while 17 are free. read more...

The government approved the emergency ordinance ruling a supplementary memorandum with the EU to mark the final stage of the financial assistance from the EU worth 5 billion euro structured in five installments. Romania will receive the last installment of 0.15 billion euro. read more...

Former Agriculture minister Ioan Avram Muresan was sentenced to seven years of prison for embezzlement by Higher Court of Justice judges, Romanian news agency Mediafax reads. That decision can be contested. Muresan was indicted on December 18, 2003 by anti graft prosecutors. read more...

PM Boc declared on Wednesday that he is using a tablet PC without any problems related to national security because he only sends public data through the gadget, Romanian news agency Agerpres reports. He revealed his email: emilboc09@yahoo.com. read more...

CFR Infrastructură and Termoelectrica, state-owned companies with spectacular historic losses, are at the centre of the scandal generated by the reservations the EU voiced about the calculation of Romania's 2010 budgetary deficit and public debt, with Finance Minister Gheorghe Ialomiţianu discovering on this occasion that the respective companies have not even filed in their financial statements for 2007-2008. read more...

The Regional Development and Tourism Ministry (MDRT) is tendering modernisation and rehabilitation works for 1,386 km of county and local roads of eight counties, with the total estimated value of these projects amounting to 1.78bn lei (436.6m euros), VAT not included. read more...

At least 2.1 million Romanians work in EU member states, most of them in Italy, Spain and Germany; this is the first official figure released by European Commission representatives. read more...

Romanians working abroad in 2010 sent over 4.5bn dollars (3.4bn euros) back home, slightly down, however, from 4.9bn dollars (3.5bn euros) in the previous year, according to the calculations presented by MoneyGram, one of the main players in money transfer business globally, on the basis of World Bank data. read more...

Germany's Lidl retailer, which entered the Romanian market by acquiring Plus discount store network, has over the past two weeks posted tens of offers for positions with the company on recruitment websites, but has not communicated any data on the number of stores set to be opened or on their location. read more...

An investment fund (Phemus Corporation) registered at the same address as Harvard Management Company, an entity part of the prestigious US university Harvard that manages 27bn dollars' worth of assets, is the majority shareholder in the biggest forest owner in Romania, Scolopax SRL of Focşani. read more...