The Bucharest Court of Appeals sentenced business people Corneliu Iacobov and Toader Gaurean to seven and six years in prison, respectively, for defrauding the RAFO Onesti oil refinery. The Court also sentenced Marin Marin to seven years in prison, for abuse of office, and acquitted Liliana Luchian and the other defendants, charged with money laundering.

The number of Romanians who emigrated stands at 2.7 million this year, accounting for 13.1 percent of the population, but is expected to drop considerable on the long term, in 10 -15 years, as Romania converges toward Europe, according to the World Bank. Most Romanians emigrated to Italy, Spain, Hungary, Israel, USA, Germany, Canada, Austria, France and the UK.

Ursus Breweries will close down one of its oldest production centers in Romania, the 130-year old Cluj – Napoca factory, which employs 161 people, the company has announced. The factory had the highest operating cost of all Ursus' production units in Romania and was located downtown, which made it harder to run logistically wise.

The CliniClowns Romania charity and the Netherlands Embassy to Bucharest organize the CliniClowns Charity Dinner Gala, a fund raising event which will take place on November 24, at Casa Vernescu (133 Calea Victoriei), starting 18,00 hours.

Romania's Embassy in London and the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in London, at 1 Belgrave Square SW1X 8PH, has inaugurated the Romanian library, a joint project of the two institutions, dedicated to the Romanian community in Great Britain and carried out with the support of one of the leaders of the business community in London, Romanian-born George Iacobescu.

Hewlett Packard (HP) Romania plans to hire 600 people in 2011 for its Bucharest-based services center Global eBusiness Operations (GeBOC), which is similar to the number of people the company hired in 2010, GeBOC general manager Alexander Weigl has said.

German drug producer Boehringer Ingelheim expects the Romanian subsidiary to grow its sales by 14.6 percent this year, to around EUR 23.3 million, according to the company's general manager in Romania, Franz Zinsberger.

Arval Romania, part of BNP Paribas, has appointed Christian Busch managing director. Busch has been running the Arval subsidiary in Germany for the last six years and was head of logistics with Muller-Brot AG until then. He replaces Arnault Leglaye, who has been running the Romanian subsidiary since 2008.

Make up Art Cosmetics (M•A•C) will open a Pop Up store in Baneasa Shopping City in December this year, the first such unit on the Romanian market.

A Brasov-based company called Visual Fan will next month launch a tablet PC called Allview AllDro. The tablet is produced in China based on Visual Fan's technical specifications and will be sold for EUR 200.

Romania and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on a budget deficit target of 1.3 billion for the first quarter of next year, one third lower compared to the same period of 2010.

Romanian company Bioromoil Automatic Stations will open the first automatic gas station in Craiova this month and plans to reach a network of 40 such stations close to large retail centers by the end of next year.