News archive of July 2017

A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.

Crystal clear ice caves, glacial lakes, spewing volcanoes and crashing waterfalls framed by dark lava columns: Iceland's breathtaking landscapes have become a magnet for Hollywood moviemakers looking to conjure up otherworldly scenery.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres may return to the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana to give another push to the Cyprus negotiations, according to a source in the Turkish delegation quoted by the Cypriot state radio on Saturday.

If the government was hoping that last month's agreement with the institutions at the Eurogroup in Luxembourg would mark a sea change in the way that Greeks view their economic future, the opinion polls published since the June 15 meeting will have delivered a sobering reality check.

Business at Greece's two privatized ports, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, could increase the country's gross domestic product by up to 5.6 billion euros a year, a survey by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) has found. The strategic position of Greece's two main ports is seen as crucial for international trade.

The steady drop in consumer spending combined with the problems in the market resulting from the crumbling of the Marinopoulos supermarket chain a year ago continues to hurt suppliers.

Over the last few months several major enterprises in Greece have drawn about 1 billion euros through the sale of corporate bonds and a large part of that was covered by money from mattresses and safe deposit boxes, according to credit sector sources.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Istanbul on July 2, as tension soared on the Syrian border between Turkish troops and the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terrorist group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). 

Qatar faces possible further sanctions by Arab states that have severed ties with Doha over allegations of links to terrorism, as a deadline to accept their demands is expected to expire late on July 2.

A suicide car bomber pursued by security forces blew himself up in eastern Damascus on July 2, with a monitor reporting 18 killed in the deadliest attack to hit the Syrian capital in months.

Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said security forces intercepted three car bombers on their way into the city early on July 2.