Dr. Raoul Amin el-Arabi was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes after he was convicted of malpractice on a Saudi princess.

The 53-year-old doctor is an Egyptian citizen, and both his wife and protesters are calling for his immediate release from Saudi Arabia.

Reportedly, an Egyptian ambassador has met with the mayor of Riyadh to help return el-Arabi back to his country, but negotiations remain at a standstill. El-Arabi’s wife fears the punishment will kill her husband, but it’s believed that the doctor has already received several weekly installments — 70 lashes — of his punishment.

You have to hand it to Benedict Harkins: When he tried to commit insurance fraud against the Farm Fresh Market in Jamestown, NY, he took a few minutes setting things up to help corroborate his story. After arranging a rug in the market to look like he’d tripped over it, Harkins laid down and clutched his back in agony.

He was taken to a hospital and treated for his faked back injury. He then submitted the bill — as well as an $860 bill for ambulance service — to the market’s insurer, and declared his intent to sue the company for his injury.

However, a quick review of the market’s video surveillance system revealed Harkins had spent several minutes making sure the rug he “tripped” over looked just right before laying next to it.

Harkin withdrew his claim to the insurance agency, and faces up to one year in prison.

When Australia’s Queensland Rail Number 81 tilt train collided with a truck and derailed last November, two drivers of the high-speed train were killed, and nine passengers were injured. On its way to Brisbane from Cairns, the train was relatively close (within 50 miles) to its destination before their accident occurred.

Because the train derailed so late in the trip, Queensland Rail offered no refunds — even to those passengers injured — of the $310.20 ticket cost.

The incident came under further fire after another fatal crash on the train line happened on New Year’s Day. However, the 116 people on the second crash were offered refunds or a free trip, regardless of whether or not they were injured.

According to a spokesperson for the train line, the decision was made because the train involved in the second crash had only started its journey, so it made financial sense to compensate the passengers for their losses.

“Each situation gets treated on its own merits,” said a company spokesperson.

Air India, employer of the nine flight attendants, insists it has the right to fire cabin staff it considers physically unfit. Although details were not given about the specific weight of the employees, all were described as “significantly overweight,” based on height, age and gender.

The company has fought for years for the right to terminate its unfit workforce. In 2006, it warned 1,600 cabin crew employees that they’d need to get in better shape within two months — or risk being placed in lesser-paying ground duties.

Last year, an Indian court found in favor of the airline, which lead to the firings earlier this week.

Air India claims fitness and efficiency are the reasons for its weight standards, and that although all nine of the cabin crew terminated were women, there is no gender bias.

According to France’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the average American took only 4.5 sick days off per year. The average European took off 11.3 sick days.

But for government workers at Belgium’s health ministry, that’s child’s play. Government departments averaged 35 days of paid sick leave per employee per year.

Dr. Dick Cuypers, top official of the ministry, has resorted to random, at-home audits of any government employees who call out sick. While some were indeed stricken with illness, investigators found some frequent abusers, including:

• A man who took sick days to work at a black-market job
• An employee who called out with a back injury was preparing for a morning run, and
• Another man answered his door with an undone belt as a prostitute fled his house.

Blatant abusers of the sick time program aren’t the only problem, though. Half of all Belgians on medical leave suffer from depression. Because the country has the highest suicide rate in Western Europe, government workers are pampered with additional time off to combat depression-related problems.

In addition to time off, people are encouraged to spend their sick time enjoying leisurely activities, visiting family and friends, vacationing, etc. — all while picking up at least 80% of their government-backed salaries.

If your company every comes across Jarek Molski, you might want to speak to a lawyer, pronto. Injured in a motorcycle accident nearly two decades ago, Molski has figured out the best way to take advantage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). According to California legal records, he’s filed 400 suits against businesses that don’t follow disability-access rules to the letter.

Because he’s confined to a wheelchair, Molski sues — and usually collects from — business that aren’t up to code. The fines for violating the ADA can run nearly $4,000 a day, and business owners can choose to pay the fines, pay for renovations to get their establishments up to code or settle out of court with Molski.

A federal judge has banned Molski from filing any lawsuits in the Central District of California, but that doesn’t mean his spree is over — he’s free to press his luck anywhere else in the U.S.

An 11-year-old boy playing with a cigarette lighter inadvertently started a fire that caused more than $95,000 in damages to his family’s business.

Fire crews responded to the blaze in downtown Lubbock, TX, at 3:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, shortly after the family had closed down the store for the day. Lubbock’s Fire Marshall claimed the boy accidentally caught some papers in the back office on fire, but thought the blaze was successfully extinguished when he left the store with his mother.

Moments later, the fire rekindled. The entire back portion of “Nothin’ Butt Smokes” was gutted, and both inventory and the company’s personnel fires were destroyed.

Joseph Doescher, a hospital operating room technician, is one of the latest employees to successfully sue an individual and company for bullying in the workplace. At a $325,000 price tag, the suit raises questions about what’s no longer tolerable in the office.

According to Doescher, a surgeon became upset over reports to the hospital administration about his treatment of O.R. techs. After seeing him, the surgeon aggressively advanced toward him while screaming and swearing. The surgeon then stormed past Doescher, muttering, “You’re finished, your history,” under his breath.

Doescher sued the surgeon for assault (even though no physical contact was made), intentional infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with employment. A court agreed, and the surgeon was held responsible for the compensatory damages.

What do you think? Was the incident a real example of workplace bullying, or did Doescher’s suit twist the meaning of the term?

Cite: Supreme Court, Raess v. Doescher, No. 49S02-0710-CV-424.

After an employee was murdered on the job, an insurance firm is denying workers’ comp because the killing was supposedly race-related, but not work-related.

Taneka Talley, an African-American employee at a Dollar Tree store in Fairfield, CA, was murdered in March 2006. Because prosecutors say her killer’s only motive was that she was African-American, Specialty Risk Services is refusing to pay $250,000 in death benefits to Talley’s son.

The insurance company’s lawyers claimed that because Talley’s murder by Tommy Joe Thompson was entirely personal, it shouldn’t be considered an on-the-job injury. Compensation law doesn’t consider an injury to be work-related if motives were personal — for example, if an ex-lover or spouse comes to the workplace and attacks an employee because of a personal grudge. Even though Thompson did not know Talley before he murdered her (he walked into the store and attacked the first African-American he saw), the fact that it was race-related made it “personal.”

But Moira Stagliano, the Talleys’ lawyer, said Taneka’s murder was entirely work-related. She “was at work, doing her job, when she was killed,” said Stagliano. “If she had not been in that store, she would not have been available to the killer, and she would still be alive.”

After word of Specialty’s treatment of the case was publicized, the company decided to abandon its position and has now given Talley’s mother and son the full amount allowed under California compensation law.

A statement issued by Dollar Tree and Specialty claims the companies felt it was “the right thing to do.” Stagliano’s claim: “I think they wanted this to be done with. The media helped settle this claim.”

You don’t need to be a lawyer — or an insurance broker — to see this suit was a dud from the very beginning. Before insurance agent Steve Kaplan sat down to see the movie “Superbad” at New York’s Lincoln Square Cinema, he picked up some overpriced popcorn from the concession stand.

Midway through the movie, Kaplan said he bit down on a kernel of unpopped corn, causing $1,250 in dental damages.

Kaplan took the theater chain to Manhattan Civil Court, where Judge Matthew Cooper threw the case out. The injury was Kaplan’s own fault, said Cooper, and he couldn’t reasonably expect every kernel of corn to be popped.

Here’s a good rule of thumb to use in your workplace: If a bag of popcorn is a serious danger to any of your co-workers, you should probably avoid contact with them as much as possible.