Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-01-01

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] President Karolos Papoulias receives goodwill wishes for New Year

[02] Twenty-three Greek survivors of 'Norman Atlantic' touch down at Athens airport; Greek officials release list of 9 missing

[01] President Karolos Papoulias receives goodwill wishes for New Year

Cabinet members, armed forces chiefs and religious leaders also conveyed their best wishes to the president.

[02] Twenty-three Greek survivors of 'Norman Atlantic' touch down at Athens airport; Greek officials release list of 9 missing

They are part of several groups repatriated the past few days.

The 23 were flown from Brindisi, Italy, to the Athens International Airport on a Hellenic Air Force C-130 transport plane.

The rescue and coordination is being run by a centre of operations in Rome, Italy, where the "Norman Atlantic" is registered. The mission has been plagued by conflicting numbers of missing, dead and rescued, as survivors were transferred to different cities in Italy.

The Greek Port Authority, which is coordinating operations on the Greek side, on Wednesday released the names of 9 Greek nationals still missing.

In an announcement late Wednesday on its site (www.hcg.gr), the Port Authority said, "The total number of dead to date is 10, of whom 3 are the Greek nationals who have been identified, 4 are identified foreign nationals and 2 are not yet identified. Moreover, a body of unknown identity was found by the Italian Port Authority rescue mission in the sea, but because of adverse [weather] conditions it could not be collected. There is currently no information about 18 individuals, of whom 9 are Greeks and whose names have been uploaded on the Greek Port Authority site. We reserve judgement on the final count of survivors we may announce, as based on the data so far provided by Italian authorities we have found repeats and transposition of letters in the names recorded."

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