Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-01-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Fair weather on Friday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

[03] President Bush confident Greece will organise excellent Olympic Games

[01] Weather Forecast: Fair weather on Friday

Fair weather is forecast throughout the country on Friday, with occasional scattered cloud in the east and south. Winds north-northeasterly, light to strong, turning very strong in parts of the Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from -5C to 10C; in the west from -3C to 15C; and in the rest of the country from -2C to 12C. Scattered cloud in Athens with temperatures between 3C and 12C. Mostly sunny in Thessaloniki with temperatures from -2C to 9C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Friday

Indicative tourist buying rates per euro

U.S. dollar 0.898

Pound sterling 0.622

Danish kroner 7.493

Swedish kroner 9.252

Japanese yen 118.9

Swiss franc 1.495

Norwegian kroner 8.014

Cyprus pound 0.580

Canadian dollar 1.436

Australian dollar 1.710

[03] President Bush confident Greece will organise excellent Olympic Games

WASHINGTON (ANA - T. Ellis) - U.S. President George W. Bush expressed confidence that Greece will organise an excellent Olympiad in 2004, welcoming Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in his Oval Office on Thursday.

"The fact that the Games are returning to Athens will be a wonderful moment for the sports world and I am convinced that your country will do an excellent job," Bush said.

Responding to an informal invitation extended to him by Simitis to visit Greece during the 2004 Olympic Games, Bush said "I look forward to the Olympic Games in Athens and I thank you for the invitation."

President Bush also referred to the improvement in Greek-Turkish relations, expressing both his personal and his government's appreciation over the fact that Greece is cooperating with Turkey and saying "your relations have improved. I thank you for your vision, for the hard effort by the foreign minister to enable the world to become more peaceful and I wish to thank you for this."

He further said that Greece and the U.S. have "much in common" which he would be discussing with Simitis during their 45-minute meeting.

President Bush said he appreciates "your very strong position in combatting terrorism" and termed Simitis a "friend", adding that Washington and Athens are jointly concerned over the need to crack down on terrorism.

On entering President Bush's office, the Greek prime minister, who is the first European leader to visit the U.S. following the introduction of the euro currency, offered to him two coins of one and two euros, as well as a T-shirt bearing the emblem of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

Bush thanked Simitis and underlined the role of Greek Americans "who are living here in our country and are continuing to love Greece."

On his part, Simitis referred, in a brief statement in the Oval Office in the presence of President Bush, to Greece's determination to cooperate in combatting international terrorism.

"We are absolutely committed to combatting international terrorism and we are taking part in the efforts in Afghanistan, while we believe that we should cooperate to enable terrorism to be eradicated everywhere in the world and to break up terrorist groups which are active in certain Balkan countries," Simitis said.

"Terrorism should be placed under control," Simitis went on to say and thanked President Bush "for your contribution towards the improvement in Greek-Turkish relations" and assured him that on its part Greece is working for peace and stability in the region on the basic principle of the implementation of rules of international law so that "we can have a really peaceful southeastern Europe."

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