Lord Mandelson returns to Corfu holiday isle'    |  Published: 7:00AM BST 05 Aug 2009 | Telegraph.co.uk
Lord Mandelson has returned to the holiday destination that last year sparked a major row with George Osborne, involving Russian oligarchs, yachts and alleged discussion about political donations. While Mr Osborne, the shadow chancellor, is steering clear of Corfu this summer, the Business Secretary said he would not let last year's events put him off the popular Greek isle. Lord Mandelson, who as a Cabinet minister and former European Commissioner is used to only travelling first class, made one concession to this year's grim economic climate - he flew with budget airline easyJet. A fellow passenger told the Telegraph: "He was travelling alone and carrying what looked like Anthony Beavor's D-Day book. After a bit of chat he was able to sit in the first row and was busy on his BlackBerry right up until take off. His spokesman would not confirm last night that Lord Mandelson was staying with Nat Rothschild, the financier at the centre of last years flashpoint with Mr Osborne. Mr Rothschild arranged for Lord Mandelson and Mr Osborne to meet Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch. Mr Rothschild later alleged that, following a meeting on Mr Deripaska's yacht, Mr Osborne had talked about taking a donation from the Russian, via his British company. No donation was ever taken and the meeting would have remained private, but Mr Osborne infuriated Mr Rothschild by revealing that Lord Mandelson had "dripped poison" in the Tory's ear about Gordon Brown at a dinner gathering. That became politically embarrassing for Lord Mandelson as it emerged days after he had agreed to return to the Cabinet at Mr Brown's request, a move that shored up the Prime Minister's position and healed a decade-long rift between the two architects of New Labour. However, Lord Mandelson won the battle of spin and it was Mr Osborne who had to issue an apology for his role in the matter. A spokesman said: "Peter's not going to allow what happened last year to put him off Corfu. He's there for a week but this time without Russians, yachts or George Osborne." Mr Osborne is taking no chances & will spend a holiday in Cornwall and Spain while also spending time in his Cheshire constituency. Lord Mandelson has, along with H. Harman, been standing in for Gordon Brown while he spends his holiday in Scotland & the Lake District

20 July 2009 | 10:34 | EDP 24
Passengers 20-hour delay for Norwich-Corfu flight
Holidaymakers endured a wait of more than 20 hours while trying to travel from Norwich International to Corfu at the weekend, after being stranded at Luton airport overnight. Passengers began checking in for the 4.05pm flight from Norwich to the Greek island early Friday afternoon but, despite being told there was only a slight delay, at 11pm they were driven to Luton Airport by coach and bus. From there they expected to catch a flight almost immediately but at 4am, exhausted passengers were finally told the flight would not be leaving until much later in the day and sent to hotels. Speaking as he was being driven to get on the plane at 10.30am on Saturday - 21 hours after he arrived to go on holiday - 23-year-old Simon Nunn, from Sprowston, said everyone was “furious” about the delay but even more so because no one from holiday company Thomson had apologised. In a statement, a spokeswoman for Thomson said: “Due to technical issues, flight TOM5528 from Norwich to Corfu, was delayed by nine hours. When the issue was resolved, it was too late for the flight to operate from Norwich airport which closes at 10pm. So to avoid further delay, the decision was made to transfer the customers from Norwich to Luton and operate the flight from there. Thomson Airways sourced suitable transport and customers were transferred to Luton. “When the customers arrived into Luton, the crew due to operate the flight had gone out of hours, so due to CAA laws, were unable to fly. Thomson made the decision to take all customers to hotels in Luton to stay overnight before flying out this morning.” People flying back from Corfu were also caught up in the chaos with one Norwich woman, who is six months pregnant, opting to get a taxi home from Luton at a cost of £260 rather than use the transport provided. The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “We checked in at 10am Greek time but flew out at 10.35pm that night arriving at Luton at 11.25pm English time. “We were told coaches would be waiting for us but when we got there, no one was there to help and we wandered around the car park looking for the coaches in the cold and rain. Eventually we discovered they were an hour away so we waited until 12.30am but when they arrived our one was an old double decker which looked like it has seen better days.” The Thompson spokeswoman added: “We had trouble sourcing transport at such late notice and as such, the transport provided was in the form of double decker buses and a coach.

Group 'innocent of Corfu damage'      |     Saturday, 4 July 2009 17:39 | BBC News
Ten teenage students from the north west of England say they are planning legal action against a Greek hotelier
in a row over alleged damage to a bar. The group, staying in the resort of Kavos in Corfu island , say the owner demanded compensation from them for damage and theft to a pool bar. They say he used Greek police to extort £1,000 in spending money from them. The teenagers insist they were innocent and were targeted because of the crisis facing the Greek tourist industry. The hotelier has not been available for comment. The teenagers had travelled to the Greek island in Greece to celebrate the end of A-levels and imminent departure to university. They claim the complex owner accused them of setting fire to a pool bar and stealing alcohol. Matthew Birchill, from Chorley, one of the party, said the Greek police would not let them bring forward their witnesses. "They [local Greek police] just took the owner's word for it, on what her witness said. We're infuriated by the accusations and by the way it has been handled," he said. He added: "We've tried contacting our holiday rep but he's not answering his phone, the owner won't give us her full name and we can't get an incident number from the police. "We're really struggling, as we have little money left and two people have already had to go home." The students come from Chorley, Warrington, Bolton and Manchester areas

Stranded passengers to make easyJet pay up for delays   |  Saturday, 4 July 2009 | dailymail.co.uk
Holidaymakers are using Facebook to launch a ‘class action’ lawsuit against easyJet after their flight was delayed for 31 hours. More than 100 passengers were stranded at Corfu airport on June 21 when their 11.45am return flight to Gatwick failed to get off the ground because of a technical fault. A replacement plane finally took off at 6.30pm the following day. Some who complained were initially offered a £25 ‘goodwill gesture’ by the low-cost airline, but it was dismissed as derisory. Now the passengers have set up a Facebook ‘group’ – bringing together people with a common interest – to demand £340 compensation. They say that is their entitlement under EU law. They are sharing information and pooling resources on the social networking website in what is thought to be the first case of its kind.
The passengers, who were on Flight EZY8752, had to wait at the airport until 5am the day after the plane should have taken off, when the airline put them up in a hotel and told them to return later. So far easyJet has refused to pay, citing ‘extraordinary circumstances’ – a get-out clause frequently used by airlines. However, the Facebook group – called Easyjet Flight 8752 – is refusing to give up without a fight. One of the passengers, barrister Elena MacLeod, has taken up the case with the Civil Aviation Authority in Greece and then plans to sue easyJet in Britain on behalf of the group.

28 June 2009 | 15:51 | FOCUS News Agency
OSCE meeting on Corfu is great success of Greek foreign
Corfu / Greece. Today Europe enjoys unprecedented security and stability, but the challenges we face
remind us that our task has not been completed yet, said Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis during the informal meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe /OSCE/, which takes place on the Greek island of Corfu, Greek Naftemporiki daily writes on its Internet site. Karamanlis says that “we have all necessary tools to turn the crisis into an opportunity.” The prime minister noted that the Greek OSCE chairmanship was working hard and consistently to make the meeting a reality. “It is a great success of the Greek foreign policy that all 56 OSCE member states accepted the invitation of the foreign minister and are here today to discuss in an open and fair dialog all problems that concern Europe, above all security-related issues,” said Konstantinos Karamanlis ...