Twelve people went on trial on February 4 regarding the carbon monoxide poisoning of two British children at a luxury hotel in Corfu. Seven-year-old Christianne Shepherd and her 6-year-old brother Robert were found dead in October 2006 in their bungalow at the island’s Corcyra Beach Hotel. Their father, Neil Shepherd, and his partner Ruth-Emy Beatson were found unconscious but made a full recovery. Twelve people, including two British nationals who worked for the Thomas Cook tour operator, have been charged with negligent manslaughter and causing injury by negligence. Some also have been charged with violating building codes. The case was being heard in a misdemeanour court in Corfu.

 

 

Greek philosopher Kostas Axelos (photo) died on February 4 in Paris at the age of 85. Born in Athens, he attended high school at the French Institute and German School of Athens, and later enrolled in Law School to pursue law and economics studies, but became involved in politics with the onset of WWII and joined the Greek Resistance during the German and Italian occupation, and later in the Greek Civil War.

 

He was inspired by the writings of Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Empedocles, Marx, Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky, and the poets Rimbaud, Rilke and Holderlin. An organiser and journalist affiliated with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in 1941-1945, he was arrested and condemned to death by the then government, but escaped after a fake ‘execution’ and incarceration in a camp, and in 1946 abandoned the communist party ranks.

 

In Paris, he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, and from 1950 to 1957 was a researcher in the philosophy department of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CRNS). Axelos wrote 24 books and a plethora of texts in French, Greek and German, which have been translated into 16 languages, with Le Jeu du Monde (Play of the World) being his most important book, which argues for a pre-ontological status of play. 

 

 

Four unidentified gunmen armed with assault rifles held up employees and security guards at the Ethniki Amyna metro station in Athens on February 3 and made off with 250,000 euros. The four gunmen, who had covered their faces with surgical masks, fled on motorcycles.

 

Noted Greek-American actress Olympia Dukakis (photo) and Australian filmmaker Nadia Tass (Tassopulos) visited Athens to shoot a new movie entitled The journey. The script is written by actress Alexandra Lazaridis. Speaking to reporters, Dukakis said she will portray a woman during WWII and resistance to the Nazi occupation of Greece. The film, which is a Spanish, Irish, Australian and Canadian co-production, will be shot in the northeast city of Xanthi, Athens, Paris and New York.

 

 

 

Police have arrested a suspected member of radical anarchist group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire that has mounted a string of small bombings over the past year.

 

The 21-year-old unemployed man was arrested on February 2 in southern Athens. Another six people have been arrested in connection with the group since September. Police said the youth’s fingerprints were allegedly found on a plastic bag and a pamphlet seized in a suspected group safehouse. The group has claimed a series of bombings on politicians, using small devices that caused no injury, as well as a small bomb that exploded in front of the parliament building on January 9. Meanwhile, another anarchist group - the Revolutionary Liberation Action has claimed responsibility for the recent firebomb attack against the office of former prime minister Costas Simitis.