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Monday, April 1, 2019

Slovenian woman cuts off her hand ~ Insurance Fraud


When Slovenian television viewers turned on their TV sets to watch the main evening news on April 15, 1968, they noticed something very different. For the first time ever, the news was in Slovenian.Up to that point, the main evening newscast had always been always produced in Belgrade. It was broadcast in the Serbo-Croatian language, which many people in Slovenia couldn’t understand well. [Doordarshan Kendra Madras made its first broadcast in Aug 15, 1975]

Slavs are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group who speak the various Slavic languages of the larger Balto-Slavic linguistic group. They are native to Eurasia.   From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit the majority of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Slavs are the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe.  Slovenia is a sovereign state located in southern Central Europe at a crossroads of important European cultural and trade routes.  It is bordered by Italy, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Adriatic sea. One of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Slovenia is a parliamentary republic  and a member of the United Nations. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana.

Slovenia is in the midst of political crisis.  Its health minister resigned recently, becoming the fourth minister to leave the center-left minority government and raising concerns about its ability to survive until the next scheduled election in 2022.SamoFakin quit for what he said were health reasons, nine days after Environment Minister Jure Leben quit amid media reports about alleged corruption linked to a railway project in 2017 when Leben was a senior infrastructure ministry official.Leben has denied wrongdoing, saying he resigned to ease the pressure on the government.In January, Culture Minister DejanPresicek left over infighting within his ministry, and Development Minister Marko Bandelli stepped down in November over an alleged irregularity associated with to EU funding allocations.

A Mediana agency poll last week found 56 percent of citizens backing the government, down from 63 percent a month before. But analysts said the Government is likely to remain in power for at least another year thanks to solid economic conditions.Export-oriented Slovenia narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013. It returned to growth a year later and the economy is expected to expand by up to 3.7 percent this year versus 4.5 percent in 2018.Prime Minister MarjanSarec’s coalition is composed of five parties and holds 43 of the 90 seats in parliament, relying on the opposition Left party with 9 seats to pass major bills.

~ away from Politics and current affairs to insurance – insurance frauds to be more specific.  

Police in Slovenia have accused a woman of cutting off her hand with a circular saw - with the help of her family - to make a fraudulent insurance claim.The 21-year-old and a relative have been detained and face up to eight years in prison if convicted.

The suspects recently took out injury insurance, police say.The woman allegedly stood to gain about €400,000 (£340,000; $450,000 / Rs.3.13 crores) in compensation and monthly payments of about €3,000 from the policy.  Four members of the family were initially detained earlier this year, but two were later released.Police say the group deliberately cut the woman's hand above the wrist at their home in the capital Ljubljana.Relatives took her to hospital, saying she had injured herself while sawing branches.

Officials say the group left the severed hand behind rather than bring it to hospital, to ensure the disability was permanent. But the authorities recovered it in time to sew it back on.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
12th Mar 2019.

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