Travel firm Thomas Cook faces a new investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service into the deaths of two children during a £2,000 holiday booked through it at one of its recommended Corfu hotels in 2006.

Christie Shepherd, seven, and her brother Bobby, six, died when a faulty boiler pumped out poisonous carbon monoxide gas which, due to botched building works leaked into their room at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel. At the inquest held last month the coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, and that Thomas Cook had breached its duty of care to customers, aspects that have legal implications for civil liability and corporate manslaughter. Continue reading →

Those who smoke, women who are pregnant or taking the contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), those who have recently had leg or pelvic region surgery and those who are dehydrated are all in extra danger of suffering a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) on a long-haul flight.

This happens when a blood clot forms in a deep vein in the leg, a more common occurrence the older you are, and can be fatal if a piece breaks away and reaches the heart or lungs. (embolism) A warning sign, not always given, is a painful swelling in the leg and at this point the clot will need to be treated, usually with anti-coagulant drugs and occasionally with surgery. Continue reading →

For an amusingly acerbic look at the dark side of the artistic mentality LISTEN UP PHILIP, a stiletto-sharp study of self-absorbed and misanthropic New Yorkers, ticks the boxes for those who can watch the emotional car crashes of the seriously unpleasant.

Philip Lewis Friedman (Jason Schwartzman), a young and angry writer having his second book published, hates everyone except himself and shows it at every opportunity, treating his long-suffering girlfriend Ashley Kane(Elizabeth Moss) appallingly and berating an old college friend, who shared his ambition and is now in a wheelchair, for being a failure. Thus our Phil is truly a compellingly watchable and nasty piece of work too arrogant to promote his book he learns from his publisher that one man out there, older and more successful author Ike Zimmerman (Jonathan Pryce) actually liked his work. Continue reading →