Greek island temple complex reveals offerings left by ancient worshippers

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Archaeologists excavating a hilltop sanctuary on the Aegean Sea island of Kythnos have discovered “countless” pottery offerings left by ancient worshippers over the centuries, Greece’s Culture Ministry said Wednesday. A ministry statement said the finds from work this year included more than 2,000 intact or almost complete clay figurines, mostly of women and children but also some of male actors, as well as of tortoises, lions, pigs and birds. Several ceremonial pottery vessels that were unearthed are linked with the worship of Demeter, the ancient Greek goddess of agriculture, and her daughter Persephone, to whom the excavated sanctuary complex was dedicated.

Indonesia to deport Australian surfer jailed for drunken rampage

MEULABOH, Indonesia (AP) — An Australian surfer who was jailed for attacking several people while drunk and naked in Indonesia’s deeply conservative Muslim province of Aceh will be deported to his country after he agreed to apologize and pay compensation, officials said Wednesday. Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, from Queensland, was detained in late April on Simeulue Island, a surf resort in West Aceh regency, after police accused him of going on a drunken rampage that left a fisherman with serious injuries.

Minibus crash kills 25 people, including nine children, in northern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A minibus crash in northern Afghanistan killed 25 people, including nine children and 12 women, a police spokesman said Wednesday. The accident happened in a mountainous area with half-paved roads in Sar-e-Pul province as the passengers were returning from a wedding. They were traveling from one part of Sayyad district to another. Din Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman for the local police commander, blamed the minibus driver for the crash.

More than 1,400 migrants are rescued from overcrowded boats off southern Italy

ROME (AP) — More than 1,400 migrants have been rescued from overcrowded vessels, including a sailboat, in four separate operations in the Mediterranean Sea off southern Italy, the Italian coast guard said Wednesday. There were 47 migrants, including two children in immediate need of medical care, aboard the sailboat in distress off the region of Calabria, in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula, a coast guard statement said. They were rescued by a coast guard motorboat early Tuesday.