AUTHORITIES FIND 27 MIGRANT BODIES

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities have recovered the corpses of 27 migrants off the Mediterranean Coast who apparently died trying to reach Italy from Libya. Migrant crossings over the Mediterranean toward Europe have continued to mount in recent weeks, but the death toll has been dropping thanks to a renewed EU-coordinated rescue effort. Tunisian security official Mongi Kadhi said that naval and civil protection units found the migrants since July 3 off the coast of the cities of Ben Guerdane and Zarzis, close to the Libyan border. He said they appeared to be African migrants.