Geography of Italy

BRINDISI, Italy — Firefighters boarded the charred Norman Atlantic ferry in the Italian port of Brindisi on Friday to put out residual fires and allow a search for possible dead.

The stricken Norman Atlantic ferry is expected to reach the Italian port of Brindisi on Friday as the effort to establish the exact number of passengers who were on board and how many are missing continues.

The fate of 29 Greeks and several other passengers who are thought to have been on board the Norman Atlantic ferry was still not known on Tuesday night as authorities in Greece and Italy attempted to clear up discrepancies regarding the ship’s manifest and the people who had been rescued from the vessel.

Rescue efforts to aid a freighter which sank after colliding with another merchant ship in a snowstorm off the Adriatic port of Ravenna on Dec. 28 have been suspended due to bad weather conditions, officials have said.

Serbian FM meets with Friuli-Venezia president

BELGRADE -- Serbian FM and First Deputy PM Ivica Dačić met on Wednesday with Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia President Debora Serracchiani.

They discussed regional cooperation and economic relations, primarily in the fields of transport, energy and scientific research centers, the Serbian government said.

More than 2,600 migrants were rescued by the Italian navy this weekend, authorities said Monday, as police searched for new arrivals who landed by night on Sicily's southern coast.
      

Around 75 migrants are lost at sea in the Mediterranean according to survivors of a shipwreck off Italy who were plucked to safety by the navy, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.
      
A group of 27 people rescued on Tuesday off Sicily reported that there another 75 people on board their boat, who are therefore believed lost at sea, the agency said in a statement.

"Croatia wants to be a country where everyone has the opportunity to affirm their culture and tradition," Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said at Thursday's opening of the Serbian Cultural Centre in the town of Pula, on the tip of the Istrian peninsula.

"Croatia is ready to lend a hand to all people of goodwill, including friends from the Republic of Serbia," Josipovic said.

Italian police arrested on Wednesday 24 Veneto separatists, who were were accused of terrorism and subversion of the democratic order. 

Twenty-seven others are investigated by the prosecution.

An Italian prosecutor said that the separatists were planning an ''insurrection'' to obtain independence for the region around Venice.