Romanian low cost airline operator Blue Air gave up five of its 11 planes and sacked 300 of its 800 employees, within a restructuring process that is due to end on November 1, said Gheorghe Racaru, strategy and development manager of the group Blue Air is part of.

Oil company Petrom will organize a 4 km running race from Piata Constitutiei in Bucharest, on September 26, from 11,00 hours. This project, the Petrom Running Competition, began in 2006 and for each runner, one more meter of bicycle lanes is being built in Bucharest. Until now, 4.200 meters of the bike tracks were built in the capital city due to this plan.

TEDx Bucharest will host 100 TED fans for the live-streaming of TEDxChange "The Future We Make" event on September 20, at The Ark in Bucharest. The event will start at 17,30 hours with the live streaming, which will end at 19,00 hours with a networking session.

*Banks have to face mass protests for the first time for change of contracts – in Ziarul Financiar
*Over 40,000 Romanians signed mandatory home insurance – in Ziarul Financiar
*Romanian Simona Popovici is part of the Coca Cola Hellenic HR management team – in Ziarul Financiar
*Reuters: Romania could reach a financing crisis in November – in Ziarul Financiar
*Sorin ovidiu Vantu freed from arrest. Basescu about SOV accusations: “An accused cannot be confronted with a head of state” - in Gandul

Ana Aslan was a famous Romanian scientist, who has founded the world’s first Institute of Geriatrics. She discovered the first anti-aging remedy, called Gerovital, that has been used in more than 70 countries around the world.

By Alexandra Fodor

Calendar of events in Bucharest for the period September 17-19.

Romania Green Building Council organizes the second edition of the Greening our Hotels event on September 28 at the Athenee Palace Hilton in Bucharest. The full day workshop will focus on the opportunities and the economic benefits of a responsible environmental approach towards architecture, renovation and management of a green building in the hotel industry.

A leisure biking event under the Cube Days name will take place on Sunday, September 19, starting from Cernica Pool and restaurant at 09,00 hours in the morning. The biking trail will take several hours through the forest.

The Passport is the English translation of Der Mensch ist ein grosser Fasan auf der Welt (Man is a great pheasant in the world), written in 1986. It is a novel (or novella) about a Romanian (ethnic German) man,Windisch, a village miller, who searches a way to bribe the communist officials for a passport which will allow him and his family to return to West Germany.

Romanian media owner Sorin Ovidiu Vantu will be released from arrest, where he was sent initially for 29 days last Thursday, the Appeal Court has recently decided. Two other individuals who were also arrested, Ovidu Turcan and Alexandru Stoian, will be freed along with Vantu.

French retailer Auchan has chosen a smaller format for its future store Iasi, pursuing an area half the size of its usual store formats so far. Auchan will open a 5,000 sqm store in mixed project Palas Iasi in the second half of next year.

Palas Iasi, the mixed real estate project developed by local developer Iulius Group in partnership with the Iasi municipality, has had to shift the project amidst the crisis to comply with the new market realities. The project, which was initially supposed to feature 800 apartments, will only feature 100 apartments, out of which 60 have already been sold, said Iulian Dascalu, president and owner of the group.