By Jean Christou

Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of information at the ancient site of Dromolaxia-Vizatzia, close to the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque in Larnaca, a city that was destroyed in 1200BC and never resettled.

The department of antiquities said on Wednesday that the site had been excavated by a Swedish team, under the direction of Professor Peter M. Fischer from the University of Gothenburg. The dig in May and June had exposed city quarters dating to the later part of the Late Bronze Age – 14^th to 12^th centuries BC.

“Only a small portion of the city, the history of which goes back to the 16^thcentury BC, has so far been excavated,” the department said.

The city was founded in the 16^th century BC, flourished especially in the 13^th century BC but was destroyed in the 12^th century BC. It was abandoned after the destruction and never reoccupied again.

“The reasons for the decline of the city and its abandonment are still unclear but raids by foreign peoples and climatic changes should be taken into account,” it added.

In order to map structures below the surface prior to the excavations, ground penetrating radar and magnetometer devices were used.

The project resulted in the discovery of hitherto unknown city quarters. Ground penetrating radar produces X-ray-like images of buried stone structures reaching two metres beneath the surface.

A magnetometer showed various man-made structures, areas with fire places, concentrations of pottery and pits for storage or refuse. The 2014 excavations confirmed the radar and magnetometer results, the department said.

In an approximately one metre-wide circular pit a complete, doughnut-shaped, ingot of a copper-tin alloy with a weight of almost exactly 1.5 kg was found.

The ingot was analysed on the spot with a portable XRF device, which established it was 95.5 per cent copper, 2.6 per cent tin with traces of iron, zinc, lead, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, titanium and sulphur.

Excavations next to the copper-producing area exposed domestic buildings where small-scale industrial production was carried out. This includes the production and dyeing of textiles, and the production of pottery. Many finds were made in this quarter where pottery – locally produced and imported – mainly, Mycenaean items were abundant.

Other finds included personal items such as rings, earrings and bronze tools. “The quality of the finds in this specific area of the city demonstrates that the people who produced copper could afford such luxury goods and that they seem to belong to an elevated social class,” the department said.

The expedition also identified five wells which were partly exposed. In one of the wells, a complete figurine of a bull was found. This find was most likely an offer to please the “God of the Well”. But it appeared that after the well dried up, it was used as a dump. The complete skeleton of a horse was discovered there and among the bones  “a beautifully carved cylinder seal of haematite” was found, believed to be of Syrian origin. It shows a hunting scene with three hunters and three hunted horned animals.

Two other wells were also dried out and contained six human skeletons, believed to have been slaves since no items were found buried with them.

“However, one of the skeletons had an intentionally modified skull a characteristic usually connected with people of an elevated social status,” the department said. “Cranial modification (head shaping) was carried out during infancy and may reflect ancient beauty trends.”

It said the production of copper and bronze were essential for the economy of the people at Dromolaxia-Vizatzia as bronze was one of the most coveted materials at the time, and used for the manufacture of objects such as weapons, tools and jewellery.

“The high standard of living of the Cypriots during the Bronze Age was not only based on the production of copper but also on the export of Cypriot pottery of high quality, and purple textiles. In exchange, the Cypriots imported gold, silver, lead, and objects of art mainly from Greece, Egypt and the Levant,” the department said.

The Cypriot 10-year bond exceeded the 5 per cent mark on Tuesday in secondary markets, resuming an upward trajectory since the three-year low recorded on June 12, the Cyprus News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The bond yield on Tuesday reached 5.044 per cent compared to a 4.68 per cent on June 12, which represented a three-year low. The spread compared with the German 10-year bond, considered as benchmark, stood at 3.80 per cent.

The yield of the 5-year bond was issued on June 18 with a 4.75 per cent coupon and a 4.85 per cent yield reached 4.875 per cent.

Cyprus` return to the markets after 2010 came 15 months after the country entered a financial adjustment programme, agreed with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF on March 2013 in return for a €10 billion bailout loan.

According to Fitch rating agency, Cyprus` return to the markets was the quickest compared to other bailed out countries. Ireland and Portugal took 20 months to return to the markets following their entry to a programme, whereas Greece took approximately four years.

By Penelope Karaolis

Former police officer, Nicos Iordanous, who was found guilty of murdering his wife Stavroula in December 2012, will sentenced on Friday, the Larnaca Criminal Court ruled at a mitigation hearing on Wednesday.

During proceedings, defence lawyer Kypros Andreou, argued for a reduced sentence.  Andreou told the court that Iordanous needed to take care of his 41-year old son who suffers from thalasseamia and lives alone in Nicosia.

Iordanous was found guilty of murder on June 21.

According to the police, Stavroulla Iordanous was found dead in her apartment in Aradippou on the night of December 10, 2012. The cause of death was a gunshot to the head from a hunting gun lying next to her. First responders found Iordanous unconscious in a doorway and rushed him to hospital.

When he came around, Iordanous claimed that he was sleeping in his bedroom when the gunshot woke him. He went to the living room and found his wife sitting on the couch dead, with his hunting gun next to her.

Police reports quickly concluded that this was an unlikely scenario. Investigators argued in court that the wound at the back of her head and above the left ear, suggested that the gun was held at an angle where the victim couldn’t reach the trigger.

Investigators also argued that if the gun was indeed in her mouth, the damage would be far greater. Finally, they pointed out that the gun should be soaked with blood, but forensic experts only found drops on the gun’s barrel, and also that the gun had been neatly placed after the shooting.

Prosecution presented witnesses saying that the couple fought constantly and that Iordanous had an extramarital affair. The couple also argued about their apartment, with Iordanous claiming that he should have sole ownership.

By Rafaella Georgiou

Restoration work on the Apostolos Andreas monastery in Karpasia should begin immediately, Archibishop Chrysostomos said on Wednesday, now that a deal had been reached for the project to go ahead.

He said the Church fully supported the use of both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot contractors for the job.

At a news conference, Chrysostomos said the Church wanted the restoration work to begin immediately, “which is why the Church took the initiative to start cleaning the monastery and the surrounding area”.

The cleaning is expected to go on for the next 15 days but since August is usually a holiday month, actual work on the project might not start until September. The first phase is due to be completed after 22 months.

Chrysostomos expressed his belief that the restoration would finish earlier than expected.

He said the monastery has been emptied of all artifacts, along with the icon of Apostolos Andreas and placed in one of the rooms in the residence of the monastery’s abbot, which will be turned into a small chapel.

The icon of Apostolos Andreas will be exhibited in the abbot’s residence.

The Archbishop added that the restoration would cost €2.2 million, €300,000 less than the original €2.5 million estimation.

“Unfortunately, we have only gathered one million of the €2.5 million needed. The Archdiocese has obtained a loan for the remaining amount but financially, we are not in a good state,” he added. He also mentioned that the Church had hoped to obtain half a million from the overseas Cypriots but this was not possible at the moment, he said.

He said the monastery would be restored regardless of the public’s help but he said he was confident that once the work began, the faithful would support the effort any way they could.

The project is funded by the Church of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot religious Evkaf Foundation through two contribution agreements worth €2.5 million each. USAID also contributed $25,000.

Located on the island’s easternmost tip, on the Karpas peninsula, the monastery is in urgent need of repair and it had taken years to reach an agreement on its restoration.

Results from the Wimbledon Men’s Singles Quarterfinal matches on Wednesday
8-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat Nick Kyrgios (Australia) 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4 7-6(4)
4-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat 5-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4 6-4
1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) beat 26-Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-1 3-6 6-7(4) 6-2 6-2
11-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat 3-Andy Murray (Britain) 6-1 7-6(4) 6-2

By Angelos Anastasiou

The Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved the restoration of the Nicosia Municipal Theatre and its transformation into a cultural centre.

Deputy government spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said that “the commencement of restoration works at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre has been approved by the Council of Ministers, aiming at its salvation and reoperation with a view to its utilisation as a venue for top-tier musical events.”

“That is, the Theatre’s restoration was decided to transform it into a culture centre,” he added.

Papadopoulos explained that the Council of Ministers authorised the education ministry to carry out all necessary steps, in collaboration with the Nicosia municipality and the communications and works ministry, in order to prepare the necessary studies that would determine the exact cost of the theatre’s restoration.

Later on Wednesday, Nicosia mayor Constantinos Yiorkadjis issued a statement expressing his satisfaction at the government’s decision.

“The Council of Ministers’ decision gives us great pleasure,” the statement read. “I am certain that the pleasure is shared by the thousands of Nicosia citizens for the reoperation of this historic cultural site.”

Yiorkadjisclaimed credit on behalf of the city council for managing to nudge the government closer to the decision.

“This decision was made possible following the submission to various government levels of our proposals to promote the rescue and restoration of the Nicosia Municipal Theatre,” Yiorkadjis said. “I would like to thank the President of the Republic and the members of the Council of Ministers for today’s decision.”

The decision comes six years after roof of the theatre collapsed, leaving the building abandoned and its  future in doubt.  The building lies just across from the Cyprus Museum and is next door to the House of Representatives. Work to build the theatre began in 1958 but was not completed due to money running out. The first performance did not take place until March 25, 1967.

The municipality had spent €5.6 million refurbishing the building only two-and-a-half years before the roof collapsed on June 11, 2008, just a day before hundreds of school children were to use the place for an end-of-year performance.

At the time, the plan was to find another use for the theatre as the Cyprus Cultural Foundation had already been set up in 2005 and tasked with the creation of the Cyprus Cultural Centre to replace the municipal theatre as the main venue for Nicosia. However the cost of the Centre was estimated at over €80 million, and its construction was suspended in 2013 in light of the country’s dire economic state.

By Martyn Herman

The mayhem created by an Australian firecracker the previous evening was continued in brutal fashion by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov on Wednesday as he annihilated defending Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.

With the dust still settling on 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios’s fourth-round demolition of world No.1 Rafael Nadal, Dimitrov caused the second seismic shock on Centre Court in the space of 24 hours by outclassing Murray 6-1 7-6(4) 6-2.

The Briton’s shattering defeat means that two of the so-called Big Four in men’s tennis have departed in quick succession from the grasscourt grand slam, both walloped by members of a brash new generation of big hitters with no fear and scant regard for reputations.

“Everyone’s starting to get better,” a downbeat Murray said. “The younger guys are now obviously becoming more mature and improving all the time.”

It’s one thing surrendering your crown, but to suffer such a remorseless beating on your own turf in front of Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, was especially galling.

Yet Murray said: “It’s not the toughest loss of my career; that was losing in the final here in 2012 (against Roger Federer).

“I’ve had a good run here at Wimbledon over the past few years. Obviously it’s disappointing for it to end like that.”

Novak Djokovic, the man Murray beat a year ago to end Britain’s 77-year wait for a men’s Wimbledon champion, nearly went the same way before restoring order by digging himself out of a hole to beat dangerous Croatian Marin Cilic 6-1 3-6 6-7(4) 6-2 6-2 and set up a clash with Dimitrov.

UNWELCOME DISTRACTION

The top seed, who was playing on Court One, admitted that the unfolding drama in Murray’s match was an unwelcome distraction.

“(There was) so much noise coming from the Centre Court,” the Serb said.

The Murray contest was one everyone at Wimbledon wanted to watch, Djokovic said, adding: “I said to the chair umpire, ‘Let’s just stop the match, put it live on the big screen and let’s watch it till they’re done. It’s going to be better for all of us’.”

Seven-times champion Federer may be 32 but will be eager to prove that he can still teach the young guns a thing or two after he advanced to his ninth Wimbledon semi-final with a 3-6 7-6(5) 6-4 6-4 victory over fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

He will face 23-year-old Canadian Milos Raonic, who ended the remarkable run of 144th-ranked wildcard Kyrgios 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4 7-6(4).

The Australian’s efforts in saving nine match points to subdue Richard Gasquet and then slay Nadal finally caught up with the teenager as Ranoic blasted down his 39th ace to become the first Canadian man to reach the last four here since Robert Powell in 1908.

With cracks beginning to show in the top echelons of the men’s game, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Romania’s Simona Halep heightened the sense of a changing of the guard in women’s tennis as both reached the semi-finals.

Bouchard, 20, beat Germany’s Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-4 while Romanian third seed Halep, 22, continued her fantastic year to overcome last year’s runner-up Sabine Lisicki 6-4 6-0.

They will face-off on Thursday, when both will become the first women from their respective countries to play in a Wimbledon semi-final.

Of the last four standing in the women’s draw, only 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has tasted grand slam glory. She now faces fellow Czech Lucie Safarova.

DISBELIEF

A growing sense of disbelief settled over Centre Court and outside on the sun-baked hill, where thousands had assembled to watch on the huge screen, as Murray’s imperious charge towards a second consecutive title came off the rails.

Murray had looked impeccable in reaching the quarter-finals without dropping a set but found himself a set down and in deep trouble after only 25 minutes against 23-year-old Dimitrov.

Such was the quality of the 11th seed’s tennis that Murray could have been excused for thinking it was Federer in his prime on the other side of the net.

Comparisons with the Swiss maestro appear to have weighed heavily on Dimitrov since he won the junior title here, but with coach Roger Rasheed and girlfriend Maria Sharapova now in his corner, the Bulgarian looks ready to jump the queue of those waiting to get their hands on some major silverware.

“Dimitrov is in a semi-final and he will say, why can’t I beat Federer or Djokovic and win the title?” former champion Jimmy Connors, who was commentating for the BBC, said of the player who won the Queen’s Club grasscourt title last month.

“He played spectacular tennis today. It won’t get easier, so he has to lift his level again. I don’t think he is just satisfied with being in the semi-final.”

TORRID START

The crowd did their best to lift Murray after his torrid start, but he was clearly having a very bad day at the office. Any hopes for a repeat of his comeback from a two-set deficit at the same stage last year against Fernando Verdasco evaporated in the third set as he was clinically picked apart by Dimitrov.

“As soon as we started warming up I sensed his game was not at the highest level and I was feeling good,” said the Bulgarian after ending Olympic champion Murray’s 17-match winning streak at the home of lawn tennis. “I held my ground through and the (second set) tiebreak was crucial.”

While Dimitrov will contest his first grand slam semi-final, Bouchard will be appearing in her third this year, determined to go at least one better than she did at the Australian and French Opens.

“Yeah, I’m excited to be in the semis,” she told reporters. “But never satisfied. I definitely want to go a step further.”

Turkish Cypriot politician Serdar Denktash was taken to hospital on Thursday when he felt ‘discomfort’ during a session of the ‘parliament’.

According to the portal Haber Kibris, Denktash, 55, son of the late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was first taken to a public hospital in the north of Nicosia and from there to the private Near East Hospital, where he underwent an angiogram.

His attending doctors are expected to make an announcement later in the day.

By Natalia Zinets

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko won parliament’s approval on Thursday to shake up the leadership of the armed forces as they struggle to end a rebellion by pro-Russian separatists.

Parliament endorsed Colonel-General Valery Heletey as defence minister after hearing Poroshenko describe the 46-year-old as a man “who will work day and night for restoring the military capability of our armed forces.” He also named a new chief of the general staff.

Poroshenko took office last month with the country in crisis, as two eastern regions press demands to break away and join Russia, following the example of Crimea earlier this year.

After months of unsuccessful attempts to quash the uprising, he wants to sharpen the army’s effectiveness while exploring diplomatic options to end the crisis, which has revived East-West tensions in ways reminiscent of the Cold War.

Poroshenko on Monday rejected a further extension of a 10-day unilateral ceasefire in the east, where the government says 200 service personnel have been killed since the start of the conflict, as well as hundreds of civilians and rebels.

In Berlin on Wednesday the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, after talks with German and French ministers, supported a further meeting of a “contact group” involving separatist leaders and aimed at trying to work out conditions for a more lasting ceasefire.

The group includes a former president of Ukraine, who is informally representing Kiev, Moscow’s ambassador to Kiev, and a high-ranking official from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

It should meet “no later than July 5th with the goal of reaching an unconditional and mutually agreed sustainable ceasefire”, a document agreed by the four ministers said.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to encourage the separatists to reach an agreement with the Ukrainian authorities, the French president’s office said.

DETERRING AGGRESSION

Poroshenko, looking solemn and at times striking the table with his hand to make a point, did not mention the Berlin talks or the agreement on a possible new ceasefire, but put the emphasis instead on the need for a strong, reformed army to defend Ukraine.

Heletey, who will replace acting defence minister Mykhailo Koval, would enact reforms to build an army which would deter anybody “from planning aggression” against Ukraine, he said.

The new head of the general staff, 52-year-old Lieutenant-General Viktor Muzhenko, was until recently a top official in the “anti-terrorist operation” grouping the army and other security bodies in the drive against the rebels.

Though Poroshenko won backing on the military shake-up, a debate on “decentralisation” proposals for the regions, which is part of his peace plan, ran into trouble when a key coalition partner came out against them.

OVERNIGHT ATTACKS

In Donetsk, the main city of the east, where separatists have controlled key buildings since April, three traffic policemen were shot dead and one was wounded by gunmen in combat fatigues on Thursday, the interior ministry said.

Overnight, one Ukrainian soldier was killed when rebels approached in a car bearing a white flag and then opened fire, a military spokesman, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, said.

The border service also said nine border guards were wounded in a rebel mortar attack on their post in Luhansk region on the border with Russia.

Poroshenko declared a week-long ceasefire on June 20 to give rebels the time to down weapons under an amnesty offered in his peace plan. He extended it by three days on June 27.

But on Monday he refused to prolong it on the advice of his security officials, who said the ceasefire had allowed rebels to regroup and rearm and had cost the lives of government troops.

Poroshenko’s decision to relaunch operations against the rebels won US support but harsh condemnation from Russia.

Moscow denies Poroshenko’s charges that it is stoking the conflict by allowing arms and Russian mercenaries to pass across the joint border to reinforce the separatists.

Parliament was also scheduled on Thursday to hear Poroshenko’s proposals for constitutional changes that will allow him to press a plan to devolve more powers to the regions.

By giving regions a greater say over their own affairs and finances, and by granting language rights to non-Ukrainian speakers, Poroshenko’s “decentralisation” plan aims to address grievances of Russian speakers in the east.

Poroshenko told parliament that the proposed changes would be a “powerful vaccine” against the idea of federalisation for the east which is pushed by many separatists and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, but which the Kiev leadership sees as a first step to break-up of the country.

But the Fatherland party, a key coalition partner whose support Poroshenko requires, criticised the plan and further debate on it was postponed.

Limassol Zoo has just seen its first animal adoptions, it said on Thursday.

The class C3 of the 2nd Primary School of Limassol, on the initiative of the their teacher collected money and adopted a Zebra Finch, the zoo said..

The second animal adoption was by Eugenia Davidovich and her family. They were on holiday in Cyprus from Russia and one day before they left they adopted a a male Weeper Capuchin called Rooney.

The adoption scheme is to help the zoon financially.

“Everyday maintenance costs are high,” it said in a statement. “Zoos cover their costs from grants, sponsorships, donations and animal adoptions.”

All of our animals at Limassol zoo are up for adoption; from the small Zebra finches to the Emu and from the Lama to the lizards. They can be adopted by anyone – families, schools institutions, organisations or companies. The zoo described it as an ideal gift.

For a €50 adoption subscribers receive a certificate, a photo of the animal, a Limassol zoo sticker and a zoo hat.

For a €200 donation, all of the above, along with a single annual pass to the zoo, and with €500 the same applies except the zoo pass would be a family one.

Animal adoptions last one year and the amount of money paid for each adoption depends on the species, based on the cost of feeding and maintenance.

For more information call 25588345

By Isabel Coles

The president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence, signalling his impatience with Baghdad, which is fighting to repel Sunni insurgents and struggling to form a new government.

The United States has urged the Kurds to stand with Baghdad as Iraq faces an onslaught by Sunni Muslim militants led by an al Qaeda offshoot who have seized large parts of the north and west and are threatening to march on the capital.

Iraq’s 5 million Kurds, who have governed themselves in relative peace since the 1990s, have expanded their territory by as much as 40 per cent in recent weeks as the sectarian insurgency has threatened to split the country.

Kurdish President Massoud Barzani asked lawmakers to form a committee to organise a referendum on independence and pick a date for the vote.

“The time has come for us to determine our own fate and we must not wait for others to determine it for us,” Barzani said in a closed session of the Kurdish parliament that was later broadcast on television.

“For that reason, I consider it necessary … to create an independent electoral commission as a first step and, second, to make preparations for a referendum.”

Barzani’s call came days after Kurds and Sunnis walked out of the newly-elected Iraqi parliament’s first session in Baghdad, complaining that the majority Shi’ites had failed to nominate a prime minister.

Many Kurds have long wanted to declare independence and now sense a golden opportunity, with Baghdad weak and Sunni armed groups in control of northern cities such as Mosul and Tikrit.

Barzani, often at odds with the central government, indicated that his people would not wait on Baghdad forever.

“We will not deal with those who have sabotaged the country,” he said. “Iraq has divided itself and we are not responsible for that”

Many see the Shi’ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, as the main obstacle to resolving the crisis and hope he will step aside.

“POLITICAL STABILITY NEEDED”

Maliki himself said a political solution went hand-in-hand with the campaign to recapture areas held by insurgents.

“There is no security without complete political stability,” he said in a televised address on Wednesday. “We will proceed with our political projects but we will be on high alert and ready for the momentum of the battle.”

Security forces are battling fighters led by the Islamic State, which shortened its name from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant this week and named its leader “caliph”, the historical title of successors of the Prophet Mohammad who ruled the Muslim world.

Rising concern and pressure from the United States, Iran, the United Nations and Iraq’s own Shi’ite clerics has done little to end the paralysing divisions between Iraq’s main ethnic and sectarian blocs.

Mithal al-Alusi, a prominent Sunni politician, said he did not think Maliki was prepared to step aside. “Mr. Maliki wants to continue and he believes … that without him nothing can be done in Iraq,” he said.

In the system put in place after the United States toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the premiership is traditionally given to a Shi’ite, while the speaker of the house has been a Sunni and the president, a largely ceremonial role, has been a Kurd.

In his weekly televised address, Maliki said he hoped parliament could get past its “state of weakness” and reach consensus in its next session, planned for Tuesday. But it is far from clear when leaders in Baghdad might do so.

All the main blocs are beset by internal divisions, and none has yet decided who to put forward for its designated position.

Dia al-Asadi, secretary general of the Al-Ahrar bloc, a Shi’ite faction loyal to powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and opposed to Maliki, told Reuters that only Maliki’s own State of Law coalition would support his staying on as prime minister.

“There is objection by almost all of the other groups – the Kurds, the Sunnis, and the other Shi’ites,” he said.

Each of the blocs has said it wants to know who the others will choose for their posts before naming its own – meaning the nominations will have to be done as a package.

FIGHTING IN DIYALA

Maliki’s government, bolstered by civilian volunteers and Shi’ite militias, has managed to stop the militant advance short of the capital, but has been unable to take back the cities that government forces abandoned.

The army failed last week to take back Tikrit, 160 km north of Baghdad, and remained on the outskirts of the city on Thursday, according to the prime minister’s military spokesman Lieutenant General Qassim Atta.

In the northeasterly province of Diyala, 14 militants were killed in fighting with security forces, local police said.

The head of the region’s police, Jamil Al-Shimmeri, said security forces had taken back control of the village of Showhani near the town of Muqdadiya, 80 km northeast of Baghdad.

Insurgents have been present in Diyala for the past several weeks, following their rapid seizure of Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, to the north.

Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television said Saudi Arabia had deployed 30,000 soldiers to its border with Iraq after Iraqi soldiers withdrew from the area, but Iraq denied the report.

Al-Arabiya broadcast footage of what it said were Iraqi soldiers in the desert area east of the city of Karbala after pulling back from the border. But the army spokesman said the border was still under the full control of Iraqi forces.

Far from the heart of the Sunni insurgency, tensions among Shi’te factions burst into violence on Wednesday when security forces clashed with followers of a radical cleric in Karbala.

Security sources said up to 45 people had been killed in clashes when police and army loyal to Maliki tried to arrest the cleric, Mahmoud al-Sarkhi.

Atta, the spokesman, said on Thursday the crisis was finished.

By Jeffrey Heller

Israel beefed up its forces along its frontier with the Gaza Strip and launched air strikes against militant Hamas targets there on Thursday in response to persistent Palestinian cross-border rocket attacks.

Israel also faced a second day of violent Palestinian protests in Jerusalem after the discovery of the body of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy on Wednesday in a forest near the city.

Israeli police are investigating the possibility that he was the victim of a revenge killing over the deaths of three Jewish teenagers, whose abduction on June 12 Israel has blamed on Islamist Hamas militants in the occupied West Bank.

Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said troops were taking up “defence positions” in Israeli communities that have been struck by the rockets from Gaza. He did not comment on the scale of the deployment.

It is the first time since the border began to heat up in mid-June – in tandem with an Israeli military sweep and search for the three abducted Israeli youths in the West Bank – that Israel has announced troop movements near the Gaza Strip.

“We are moving and we have moved forces,” Lerner said in a conference call with foreign journalists. “Everything we are doing is to de-escalate the situation but on the other hand to be prepared if they don’t de-escalate.”

Israel has “no interest in deepening the conflict with Gaza – the absolute opposite is true”, he added.

Abu Ubaida, spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, accused Israel of breaching a ceasefire brokered after a 2012 eight-day cross-border war, and said the group would respond according to developments on the ground.

“Our people know well how to exact a heavy price from the enemy,” Ubaida said at a news conference in Gaza.

FUNERAL

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his security cabinet for a fourth time since Monday, an official said, as tension remained high in Jerusalem in anticipation of the funeral of the Palestinian youth, Mohammed Abu Khudair.

No time has been set for the burial, an event that will stir strong emotions among Palestinians and could trigger further confrontation.

Police clashed with a few dozen stone-throwing Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Arab neighbourhood Shuafat, but the violence was on a much smaller scale than on Wednesday.

The military said Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had fired 20 projectiles into Israel on Thursday and that rockets struck two homes in the southern town of Sderot, causing no casualties.

Israel launched air strikes against at least three Hamas training facilities in Gaza, residents said, adding that 15 people had been injured.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned both Israelis and Palestinians on Thursday for the latest flare-up of violence across the Gaza border and also Abu Khudair’s killing.

“From a human rights point of view, I utterly condemn these rocket attacks and more especially I condemn Israel’s excessive acts of retaliation,” Pillay told journalists in Vienna.

The Palestinian youth Abu Khudair was last seen alive being bundled into a van on Wednesday near his home in the Arab neighbourhood of Shuafat in Jerusalem, a day after the burials of the Jewish teenagers, who were abducted on June 12.

Abu Khudair’s family said police, who have stepped up patrols in the city, told them the body would be released in the pre-dawn hours of Friday.

A police spokeswoman gave no details of the investigation, other than to say a forensic examination was still underway. She declined to say when the body would be handed over.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who accused Jewish settlers of killing the teenager, spoke by telephone with the youth’s father on Thursday.

“Mohammed is one of the martyrs of this great people,” Abbas said, according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

Netanyahu has called the killing a “loathsome murder” and has urged all sides not to take the law into their own hands.

The killing of Abu Khudair also drew international condemnation and the United States urged Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to “take all necessary steps to prevent an atmosphere of revenge and retribution”.

By Pritha Sarkar

It was “a weird match with a weird ending” but all Eugenie Bouchard cared about was the split-second in which she saw Simona Halep’s lunging service return spinning into the net.

It was the moment that confirmed her 7-6(5) 6-2 victory over the Romanian third seed at Wimbledon on Thursday.
More importantly, it was the moment that had been 15 years in the making as she became the first Canadian – man or woman – to reach a grand slam final.

The fact that she had set a final date with 2011 champion Petra Kvitova in an arena she calls the “Temple of Tennis” should have sparked some joyous celebrations.
But there were no tears, no leaps of joy and no sinking to the knees. She briefly raised her arms, blew some kisses and then strode out with the air of a champion-in-waiting who knew her “job was not done yet”.

“It’s not a surprise for me. I expect good results like this. I totally feel like I belong. But I still have another match so it’s not a full celebration yet,” said the remarkably self-assured 20-year-old.
It was a sentiment shared by Kvitova after she came out on top of a semi-final between two Czechs – and two lefties – by subduing Lucie Safarova 7-6(6) 6-1.

“Still one more to come. I want to be focused on that now,” said the sixth seed whose career has somewhat plateaued since her breakthrough win here three years ago.
Following the heart-pumping and nerve-jangling excitement of the previous 48 hours, when Rafael Nadal and champion Andy Murray departed after being thumped by the ‘generation-next’ of brazen big hitters, Thursday’s two semi-finals seemed rather anti-climactic.

Neither contest scaled the heights of a Wimbledon blockbuster but that mattered little to Kvitova or Bouchard.
What Kvitova cared about was that she was now two sets away from shedding her one-hit wonder tag.
“These three years was really up and down… but I’m definitely ready for a final and I’m going to try the best,” said the 24-year-old, who went from carefree wannabe to angst-ridden champion.

Since that 2011 triumph, very little has changed in Kvitova’s life. One of the few luxuries she has allowed herself is to trade in the Skoda she was driving for a BMW.
Bouchard, in contrast, has been on the fast lane to success since winning the junior title at Wimbledon in 2012.
In only her second year on the professional tour, she reached the semi-finals of the Australian and French Opens and is now a win away from living up her billing as the “next Maria Sharapova”.

“I see it as a compliment to be compared to someone like Sharapova who has won five slams. She’s a great champion,” said Bouchard, who is seeded 13th this year, just like the Russian was when she captured hearts with her 2004 triumph.
“But I’m my own person. I don’t want to be the next someone else. I want to be the first of me.”
Her steely resilience and powerful baseline game means she has more in common with her one-time idol than just long blonde hair and glamorous looks.
Her ability to put “blinders on” when things go awry was clear for all to see during Thursday’s 94-minute tussle which John McEnroe described as being “a weird match with a weird ending”.

Just four games into the contest, proceedings were interrupted by a medical time out taken by Halep to have her left ankle strapped after she stumbled on the grass lunging after a Bouchard winner.

Fears that the injury might force Halep to throw in the towel early proved to be unfounded as the world number three went toe-to-toe with the hard-hitting Bouchard right into the tiebreak.

But when Halep went up 3-2 with a mini-break, confusion reigned around Centre Court. French umpire Kader Nouni suddenly clambered down his chair and ran to the opposite tramlines.

He had spotted that a spectator had fallen ill in the stands and the players were forced to take another timeout as the ailing woman received medical attention before being led away.

Rather than being annoyed by the unscheduled distraction, it sharpened Bouchard’s focus.
“It’s pretty tough to stop in the middle of a tiebreak. It was intense, and then to just kind of not play tennis for three minutes messes up the rhythm. But I took it as a challenge,” she said.

A lucky netcord allowed the Canadian to draw level at 4-4 and she then finished off the set with a brutal drive volley that left Halep swinging her racket in vain.
That appeared to take the wind out of Halep and her bid to become the first Romanian to reach a Wimbledon final since 1970s bad boy Ilie Nastase achieved the feat in ’76 quickly faltered.
She did, however, save three match points on her serve at 5-1 down, one of them with an ace which Bouchard felt was unfair.
“When Simona tossed I heard someone scream in the crowd. I didn’t feel prepared to return. So I put my hand up,” said Bouchard.
“The umpire told me he heard it as well, but he just didn’t see my hand go up. I felt like we should have replayed the point, but he said, no, it was her point.
“I took it as a challenge.”
One game later, it was all over.

“It was a little crazy. I have never ended a match like that. I’m happy I kept my focus…and played well in the last game.”
After such a calm and composed performance, there is only thing that she now craves.
“I’m waiting for a big moment to go nuts,” she said.

ANOTHER heatwave is expected to hit Cyprus over the next few days, with temperatures hovering around 41C. According to the Department of Meteorology (DoM), these temperatures will cause high levels of humidity.

An official with the DoM told the Cyprus Mail that the heatwave is expected to last from Friday to Sunday.

The Department of Labour Inspection (DLI) warnED employers that high temperatures and humidity levels, rising above 60 per cent at lowland and coastal areas, can endanger workers or seriously affect their health.

According to the DLI, employers and self-employed people are obliged to take all necessary measures to protect workers and themselves by not excluding shift change and breaks for those working in direct sunlight.

“The code of practice for an occupational health programme on heat stress can help every employer and self-employed person to apply the provisions of the law in order to avoid, or reduce to an acceptable level, the risks related to exposure of workers in thermally exposed workplaces to create a safe, healthy, pleasant and productive working environment.”

A 29-year-old tourist from the UK has died in the intensive care unit of Paphos hospital after a road accident on Wednesday morning.

The man was critically injured when the quad bike he and a 26-year-old woman were riding on Chlorakas Avenue veered into oncoming traffic resulting in a head-on collision with a car driven by a 19-year-old Cypriot woman.

All three were taken to hospital where the 29-year-old underwent surgery for internal bleeding but died later in the day.

The passenger was seriously injured but is out of danger, and the 19-year-old car driver was slightly injured and kept for observation.

“A catalytic role in the fatal injuries of the 29-year-old was the fact that neither he nor his 26-year-old passenger wore helmets,” said Paphos traffic chief Zenonas Psathitis.

There have been a number of deaths in recent years as a result of quad bike accidents and their increasing popularity.

THE Nicosia Criminal Court sentenced a 17-year mentally handicapped boy to five years in jail for burning his father alive in March.

Panayiotis Ioannou, 58, who was blind since birth, was burned alive in another house next to his home in Trachoni, near Limassol. The owner of the house was away and it was originally thought that Ioannou’s death may have been due to an accident.

After questioning the son, police investigators discovered that the boy had set the house on fire but claimed that he tried to get his father out of the blazing house.

Passing sentence, the court said it took into consideration the defendant’s age, the fact that he had no criminal record, as well as that he is “obviously mentally challenged”.

A 19-year old man was remanded in custody for six days in connection with a number of burglaries committed in the Paphos district, police said.

The police source saying that the young man was involved in the burglary of a Russian citizen’s mansion in Tala village from where jewellery and two luxury cars worth €100,000 were stolen.

According to the police, they received a tip that the 19-year old took part in at least five burglaries. Acting on the tip, police officers searched his car where they found a number or electrical devices, including mobile phones and cameras. Police believe that all the devices were stolen. Police also found an assortment of burglary tools.

By Costas Pitas

Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, a household name in his native Australia and adopted home Britain, was jailed for almost six years on Friday for repeatedly abusing young girls during decades as a beloved host of children’s television.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Nigel Sweeney said the 84-year-old host of shows like “Rolf Harris Cartoon Time” had shown no remorse for the harm he had done to his victims.

Harris was found guilty earlier this week of 12 counts of assaulting four girls, some as young as seven or eight, between 1968 and 1986.

It was the second conviction in a long-running investigation into sex abuse by British celebrities that has led to soul searching in the country, revealing that some of its most prominent stars of the 1970s and 1980s were serial paedophiles who evaded detection for decades.

“It is clear from the evidence that what you did has had a significant adverse effect on each victim,” the judge told Harris, detailing how one woman had battled with alcoholism as a direct result of his abuse.

“You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all.”

An artist and musician who first earned fame in the 1950s with the top 10 hit novelty song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”, Harris went on to present prime-time TV shows mostly aimed at children during five decades at the pinnacle of show business. In 2005 he painted Queen Elizabeth’s portrait.

Harris was the biggest name to go on trial since British police launched Operation Yewtree to investigate celebrity child abuse, following revelations that late BBC TV host Jimmy Savile had been a prolific child abuser.

Harris sat motionless as the judge read out the sentence at a packed courtroom at London’s Southwark Crown Court. He was later led from the dock, wearing a grey suit, white shirt and multi-coloured tie.

During the trial, the prosecution had portrayed the bearded, bespectacled entertainer as a predator who groomed and abused one woman for her entire teenage and young-adult life.

The London court was told he first assaulted the woman when she got out of the shower aged 13, and then repeatedly abused her until she was 28 years old.

Police launched Operation Yewtree in the wake of the disclosures that Savile, who died in 2011 at 84, had managed to escape detection while abusing hundreds of children over the course of decades as one of Britain’s best known celebrities, using his fame to gain access to victims and deflect suspicion.

Since then, a dozen ageing British media luminaries have been the target of investigations over decades-old child abuse allegations.

The country’s most well known publicist, Max Clifford, was found guilty in May of indecently assaulting teenage girls some 30 years ago as part of the investigation.

By Isla Binnie

The wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner is set to be refloated within 10 days, to be towed away from the Italian island where it ran aground and capsized two and a half years ago, the group organising the removal said on Thursday.

The hulk of the 290-metre ship was righted and secured in a complex operation off the Tuscan holiday island of Giglio last September and, with the arrival of calm summer weather, is now due to be towed to Genoa to be broken up for scrap.

The last of 30 stabilising devices or “sponsons” was attached to the wreck on Thursday and technicians will now start to test all the systems for the final refloating, the Concordia Wreck Removal Project said in a statement.

“Following installation of the last sponson, we can start the countdown to refloating and final departure of the wreck,” Michael Thamm, chief executive of Costa Cruises, a unit of the liner’s owner Carnival Corp, said in the statement.

The organisers said the last phases of the project to remove the 114,500-tonne vessel, the largest maritime salvage in history, would be explained in detail in the next few days.

A consortium including oil services group Saipem and the Genoa-based companies Mariotti and San Giorgio will carry out the dismantling.

The ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. Thirty-two people died in the catastrophe.

By Dan Williams

Chanting “Intifada, Intifada”, thousands of furious Palestinians called for a new uprising against Israel during the funeral on Friday of a teen they believe was kidnapped and killed by far-right Jews.

Stones thrown at Israeli police were met by teargas, stun grenades and rubber bullets in one of the most highly charged displays of enmity in Jerusalem in years as the body of Mohammed Abu Khudair, 16, wrapped in a Palestinian flag, was carried through his neighbourhood under a sweltering sun.

Medics said 15 demonstrators were treated for injuries. There was no immediate word of arrests by the Israelis.

At another flashpoint, the Gaza Strip border, Palestinian rocket and mortar launches, followed by Israeli artillery shelling, persisted on Friday but no one was hurt.

Palestinian officials trying to calm tensions in recent weeks have said they would prevent any intifada, or uprising, and seek a solution to a crisis that began when three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the occupied West Bank on June 12.

The discovery of their dead bodies on Monday prompted an outpouring of national grief in Israel. Tensions spiked after Abu Khudair was kidnapped on Wednesday in his Arab neighbourhood in Jerusalem and his charred body was found hours later in a forest on the edge of the city.

RISING TENSIONS

Many Palestinians, including President Mahmoud Abbas, assert he was the victim of far-right Jews incensed at the discovery this week of the remains of the three Israeli teenagers.

With Israel having mobilised ground forces outside Gaza on Thursday in a threat to invade, Egypt tried to mediate a truce. Israel and the Islamist Palestinian Hamas movement each said the other had to back down first.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Abu Khudair’s killing, a day after the three Jewish seminary students were buried, “loathsome” and ordered a swift police investigation. Israeli authorities said they did not yet know whether the Palestinian was indeed the victim of a hate crime.

The slayings of the young Palestinian and Israelis ramped up mutual aggravation that has festered since Netanyahu quit U.S.-sponsored peace talks in April over Abbas’s surprise power-share with rival Hamas Islamists.

Netanyahu accused Hamas militants of seizing the three Israelis and the military mounted a 2-1/2-week-long search in the West Bank and a sweep against the movement’s activists and institutions. Hundreds of Palestinians, many of them Hamas members, were detained.

“AVENGE, AVENGE”

Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the West Bank kidnappings. That did not stop some of Abu Khudair’s mourners calling for more seizures to pressure Israel into releasing Palestinians in its jails.

“Oh (Hamas) Qassam Brigades, avenge, avenge. Do it again and free prisoners,” they crowd chanted, along with cries to rekindle an Intifada, or a revolt, which Palestinians last waged a decade ago.

Tensions were further inflamed by Israeli restrictions on Muslim access to the city’s al Aqsa mosque complex during the Ramadan fasting month. Only men 50 or older could enter.

The police presence was already heavy throughout the city this week, to control anti-Arab marches by Israeli ultranationalists and stone-throwing protests by Palestinians.

The Israeli military said it had jailed four soldiers for posting anti-Arab messages on social media. A police spokesman said the force’s cyber-crime unit was also cracking down on racial incitement online, whether by Jewish or Arab citizens.

While vowing to hit Hamas over the three Israeli teenagers’ killings, Netanyahu is reluctant to launch a major operation in that could upend already difficult relations with Abbas.

More powerful Israeli attacks in Gaza could also draw longer-range Palestinian rocket fire capable of reaching Israel’s heartland and its business capital, Tel Aviv.

Israeli cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said any escalation risked disrupting international efforts to negotiate a curb on Iran’s disputed nuclear drive ahead of a July 20 deadline.

“We don’t want, possibly, to divert all of the world’s attention to something else now, of all times, from the matter of the Iranian nuclear programme, which is the existential threat to Israel – more than terrorism, more than riots,” Steinitz told Israel’s Army Radio on Friday.