Last 11^th to 15^th of May, the Badminton Europe Umpire Course was held in Medvode, Slovenia which was done together with the Slovenia International which is an International Series tournament on Badminton Europe’s Circuit.

There were 12 umpires who joined and 9 of them weren’t from Slovenia. The organizers of the event did their best to arrange the finest conditions for the participants and the two instructors namely Carol Ui Fhearghail and Malcolm Banham.

During the first day, the participants were taught regarding the Laws and Recommendations for technical officials. During the Slovenia International, the practical umpiring took place which was played for 4 days in the Sport Hall Medvode. All participants of the event were very eager to learn and take action so they can give a good feedback about the course.

You can visit www.BadmintonEurope.TV to see how the players and the umpires went through the course and likewise watch the matches from the 2011 Slovenia International.

Last week, Slovenian and Norwegian officials signed an agreement to distribute funds to enhance both social and economic development within Slovenia. The deal is said to give Slovenia around EUR 26.9 million sent through Norway Grants and the EEA. It will likewise help not only in Slovenia’s development but through strengthening the Norwegian-Slovenian bilateral relations that focuses on enhancing environmental policies, public health and civil problems.

The said document was signed by Norwegian State Secretary Erik Lahnstein last May 10, 2011 together with other officials from Lichtenstein, Iceland and Slovenia, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo. Around 95% of the whole funds to be given will be provided by Norway and the pact will last until January 2012. Forty percent of the funds will be going to the public health initiatives, work-life balance efforts and gender equality incentives.

Last March 28, 2001, the Ministry of Health in Slovenia did a presentation to give an outline of the upcoming activities for their national eHealth project which is one step in upgrading the eHealth system by 2020. Dr. Mateja de Leonni Stanonik, the head of Slovenia’s eHealth initiative has shared their plans of creating eHealth ICT tools together with creating a telemedicine network intended for medical facilities within Slovenia. She claims that through supporting such links and exchange of information, all health care facilities and individuals under this field can provide better service to their clients. This means top quality and fast treatment, easy exchange of clinical data, lesser cost for treatments, and treatments centred on the patients.

Just recently, surgeons from Slovenia have developed a brand new means of doing breast reconstruction intended for patients with cancer. The said surgeons are from Ljubljana Central Hospital who has utilized three-dimensional mould to create a new breast that comes from the abdominal fat of the patient. After which, then implant the tissue and fixate it in place in replacement of the removed breast.

This technique was developed by the Ljubljana Faculty of Mechanical Engineering that makes use of a laser to generate the exact imprint of the person’s healthy breast. This will then be utilized to create a mirror-image three-dimensional mould for breast reconstruction.

This innovation was developed to help various women who have cancer and has undergone mastectomy to overcome their embarrassment after losing one or both breasts. This procedure is far greater than using artificial implants since they will grow and shrink when the person loses or gains weight. Plus, it comes with the same temperature with the other parts of the body.

The Ljubljana Central Hospital has successfully done 8 breast reconstruction operations for their patients with cancer and this coming week, they will be performing 10 more operations. At present, there are approximately 1,200 Slovenian women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and about 70% of them wish to go through breast reconstruction after mastectomy.

Krsko Nuclear Plant, Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant recently shutdown early this week because of some minor incident. However, it has failed to restart last Thursday due to certain technical problems. According to Ida Novak Jerele, the spokeswoman of the said plant, the system switched off last Wednesday due to an electrical power problem and last Thursday, it failed to restart as planned. But, there is no danger related to the failed restart of Krsko.

Furthermore, the spokeswoman claimed that there were “synchronization” problems discovered that’s why it failed to restarted. There were also “deviations” in the plant’s lubrication oil systems that added to the problem.

Slovenia’s only nuclear power plant was established in 1983 by Westinghouse and was both owned by Slovenia and Croatia. It currently has 2,000 megawatt reactor. The last problem encountered by the plant was in June 2008 wherein there was a faulty valve that led to a water leak causing increase alarms within Europe.

Various environmentalists have pushed the closure of the plant before its scheduled shut down this 2023, yet the Slovenian government is planning to build another reactor this coming 2013.

The only nuclear power plant within Slovenia was shut down last Wednesday because of a minor incident that didn’t cause any danger to human beings or even to the environment as claimed by the operator of the said plant. Krsko plant which is located 90 kilometers from east of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital city shutdown automatically wherein the exact reason behind is left unknown. However, it is been said that there was a drop in power on an outgoing power line to Croatia. In June 2008, Krsko plant likewise shut down for 5 days because of loss in coolant as detected by the reactor’s cooling system.

This year, Adria Airways, Slovenia’s national carrier will be introducing new seasonal routes from its second base which is Priština. At present, Adria continues to have direct flights from Priština to Ljubljana, Frankfurt and Munich. But this summer, they will be adding flights to Brussels, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen and Paris Charles De Gaulle.

Priština Airport will likewise have new seasonal services for this summertime which includes Norwegian Air Shuttle that will have flights from Gothenburg and Oslo, Helvetic Airways from Berne in Switzerland and Belle Air Europe to Stuttgart.

Slovenian athlete Petra Majdic won over her opponents for the cross-country World Cup sprint title while Joensson from Sweden won the men’s division. The Slovenian representative led the race from beginning until the end held at Stockholm’s royal palace. She beat Norwegian pair Marit Bjoergen and Maiken Caspersen Falla that finished two minutes and 28.4 seconds behind her. Bjoergen got 2.8 seconds back while Caspersen Falla was behind for 4 seconds.

Architect Jure Kotnik of Slovenia recently designed the added extension of a Kindergarten situated in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Kindergarten Kekec contains rotating vertical rotating shutters over the facade with the shutters painted with bright colours. It took three days for the architects to build this structure which is made from prefabricated wood.

According to the architect, the building was inspired from the lack of play equipment within the said Kindergarten. They are able to overcome the problem through adding playful elements in the building’s exterior.

Maja Keuc, Slovenia’s representative for this coming Eurovision Song Contest to take place at Düsseldorf will be singing her winning song “Vanilija” in Germany in English. Last Sunday, wherein the Slovenian National Final, EMA took place, Maja gave an interview and at the same time sang a short part of the song she will be singing in English during the Eurovision Song Contest.