AT EXACTLY one minute after midnight today, millions of excited book readers around the globe were finally able to buy the latest, eagerly anticipated, Harry Potter book. Two years, 11 months and 13 days following the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling has finally released Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the seven-book boy-wizard series.

SEVENTEEN workers from the petroleum refinery in Larnaca were made redundant yesterday, the first victims of the Cabinet decision to transform the grounds into a fuel import terminal. The workers had been employed on April 2 in the Production Unit on a six-month training contract terminating at the end of October.

FORMER Attorney-general Alecos Markides yesterday warned Turkey was preparing a different kind of legal approach to the property issue that needed to be addressed with utmost seriousness to avoid potential traps concerning the status of the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state.

THIRTY-nine beaches in Cyprus have received the ‘Blue Flag’ environmental award, a Cyprus Tourist Organisation (CTO) officer confirmed yesterday. The awards were presented in Oroklini by the co-ordinator of the awards’ international jury, Fin Bolding Tomsen.

THE THREE Kurdish families who spent Wednesday and Thursday living in a Nicosia park have been found temporary accommodation in an old people’s home, Cyprus Human Rights Institute member Vartan Malian said yesterday. The nine asylum seekers are being temporarily housed at the Ayios Pavlos Nursing Home in Ayios Dhometios, but their long-term future remains uncertain, Malian warned.

THE body of a lottery ticket seller was fished out of Limassol harbour yesterday. More than six months after his family had reported him missing. Greek Navy frogmen found 86-year-old Andreas Papas, known as Mornis, in his car lying on the seabed of Limassol harbour late on Thursday.