Two months after winning the World Cup, Germany opened its 2016 European Championship campaign with a 2-1 victory over Scotland on Sunday, while Portugal and Greece both slumped to defeats in their qualifying matches.

Thomas Mueller scored both Germany's goals — a difficult backward header in the 18th minute and a close-range effort in the 70th — just four minutes after Ikechi Anya had grabbed a deserved equalizer for Scotland.

Dick Advocaat's first match in charge of Serbia ended with a 1-1 draw against Euro 2016 host France in a friendly on Sunday.

France took the lead in the 13th minute through Paul Pogba but had to settle for a draw after Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov equalized in the 80th.

€”Gay rights protesters gathered outside Greece's parliament late Friday after the government said it would delay legislation allowing civil unions for same-sex couples. The decision came despite a European court ruling that found Greece has been discriminating against gays.

About 500 people joined the peaceful protest in central Athens as lawmakers prepared to vote on an anti-racism bill.

Panama Canal expansion work has uncovered an unexpected trove of archeological and paleontological treasures, scientists said, as the massive construction project winds down.

Workers who have blasted through mountains and dug up thick vegetation, have also uncovered the fossils of some 3,000 invertebrates and 500 vertebrates, as well as of more than 250 plants -- including the remains of a forest consumed by fire after a volcanic eruption.

Motorola rolled out a circular smartwatch Friday, counting on a more traditional design to win over consumers who have so far shunned other computerized wrist devices.

Smartwatches so far have had rectangular faces, a shape that has turned off many consumers, said Steve Sinclair, Motorola's vice president of product management. Motorola's Moto 360 is round and has an all-metal frame, making it look more like a regular watch.

For many of the game designers showing off their latest creations at the recent Penny Arcade video game expo in Seattle, the push to feature more mature storytelling has been one of their most significant challenges.

"We are changing as a medium," said Richard Dansky, a writer who has worked on several "Tom Clancy" games, in a talk called "You're So Mature! Is Storytelling in Games Coming of Age?"

The U.S. and its allies are trying to hammer out a coalition to push back the Islamic State group in Iraq. But any serious attempt to destroy the militants or even seriously degrade their capabilities means targeting their infrastructure in Syria.

That, however, is far more complicated. If it launches airstrikes against the group in Syria, the U.S. runs the risk of unintentionally strengthening the hand of President Bashar Assad, whose removal the West has actively sought the past three years. Uprooting the Islamic State group, which has seized roughly a third of Syria and Iraq, may potentially open the way for the Syrian army to fill the vacuum.

The National Institutes of Health said it has uncovered a nearly century-old container of ricin and a handful of other forgotten samples of dangerous pathogens as it combs its laboratories for improperly stored hazardous materials.

The agency began an intensive investigation of all its facilities after a scientist in July found vials of smallpox dating from the 1950s, along with other contagious viruses and bacteria that had been stored and forgotten in one lab on the NIH's campus.

A bow-hunter was attacked by a bear while looking for deer near the southwest Washington city of Longview.

The 61-year-old Longview man, Jerry Hause, tells The Daily News (http://bit.ly/1oMQysG) he was sitting down to take a rest Monday when the bear came at him at a dead run.

A monocled cobra that roamed a California neighborhood for days could have given a potentially deadly bite, a snake expert said Friday.

"There's no indication that it's had its venom glands removed," said Ian Recchio, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Los Angeles Zoo.