Saviana Stanescu is a Romanian-born playwright and one of the most outstanding Eastern European writers. She lives in New York City and teaches at the Drama Department at the New York University. Her plays have won important awards such as the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting or the MARULIC Prize for Best European Radio-drama.

A recently published WikiLeaks document quotes former EU commissioner Chris Patten saying in 2004 that Romania was a “feral nation.” Patten's comments were recorded and send to US by the US Embassy in Brussels. “Croatia, Patten said, is probably far more prepared for EU membership than either Bulgaria or Romania, who will likely enter the Union earlier”.

Oil company OMV Petrom, which inaugurates its new Petrom City headquarters on Thursday, December 2, says it was not easy to continue the real estate project during the crisis. “As CFO, I must say it has not been easy to continue a project of such a scale, during a time when the economic environment proved to be unbeneficial.

*Fondul Proprietatea moves to court the fight for Romgaz' money – in Ziarul Financiar
*France say Romania is riskier than Spain – in Ziarul Financiar
*Oradea builds industrial park with EUR 10 million – in Ziarul Financiar
*Piraeus makes EUR 147 million revenues form Romanian operations in nine months – in Ziarul Financiar

The freezing rain in Bucharest triggered airline Tarom to cancel all its flights, according to Romanian media. In total, 47 domestic and external flights have been canceled, according to Realitatea TV, which didn't mention the period during which the flights will be canceled.

With the winter holidays knocking on our doors, Romanian-Insider.com reviews some of the best places in Romania to spend the winter holidays. Plus, it adds a useful list of ski slopes in Romania, but before choosing a destination, check the weather forecast, as most of the slopes rely on natural snow. You can choose winter sports, spend some time in the nature, traditional holidays, uncovering less known areas of Romania or taking outdoors baths at low temperatures. Either way, let us know what your favourite places in the country are.

WikiLeaks has published the first confidential document sent from the US Embassy in Bucharest to the US. The document, sent in 2006 by the then US Ambassador to Bucharest Nicholas Taubman refers to adoption cases.

Search engine Google has added the Romanian flag on its logo for Romania's national day on December 1. This is one of Google's regular country national day logos, which it calls Doodle. See here the entire collection of Google Doodles over the years.

City Compass launched the third edition of its English - language guide, 'Bucharest, Romania and Beyond 2011' on November 25, at the Grano - Fine Italian Food in Bucharest.

Franklin Templeton Investment Management Limited, the investment manager of Fondul Proprietatea says the fund will go to court against the recent Romgaz decision to donate EUR 93 million to the state budget. Romgaz's shareholders decided on their November 30 meeting to make the donation to the state, which is the main shareholder in the gas company.

Romania's national day - December 1- will be celebrated in capital city Bucharest only in some districts of the city, which are still on a party budget this year. Street celebrations with food and boiled 'tuica' will be organized only in districts 2 and 6. The other district city halls said they lack funding for such events this year.

Telecom company RCS &RDS will put EUR 10 million in Zece TV, a generalist TV station which will be launched on December 10 and will be broadcasted to all of the company's cable and satellite TV customers. The telecom company hopes it will attract more subscribers to its services, in a battle with competitors Romtelecom and UPC Romania.