PARALIMNI (Reuters) - A court in Cyprus yesterday acquitted nine British soldiers of involvement in a brawl at a resort on the Mediterranean island, saying prosecutors had failed to prove their guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. The soldiers had been accused of going on a rampage in Ayia Napa in February, causing extensive damage to a pub in the resort and attacking two individuals. One plaintiff who came under attack almost lost his eyesight. All nine soldiers had faced charges of criminal damage and disturbing the peace, and two among them faced additional charges of causing actual bodily harm while one was facing charges of causing grievous bodily harm.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A brown bear has mauled a man to death in a wooded area in Brasov, a city in Romania's Carpathian mountains, a local official said yesterday. A hiker found the body early yesterday some 500 meters from the city center. «A bear dragged the man for about 5-6 meters toward the forest and tried to bury him. It didn't succeed so it abandoned him there,» Flavius Barbulescu, head of local animal management, was quoted saying on Romanian television. Barbulescu said forensic tests showed the bear had killed the man.

BELGRADE (AFP) - For the first time in almost a century, Serbia is to attend an Olympic Games as an independent nation, hopeful of a successful new dawn. Serbia is sending a team of more than 90 participants to the Beijing Games, including some of the biggest names in world tennis, and medal prospects in rowing, shooting, swimming, volleyball and water polo. «Our team has never been stronger. Serbia will be represented by world and European champions,» said Snezana Lakicevic-Stojacic, vice president of the former Yugolsav republic's Olympic Committee. The team boasts the world's No 1 and 2 tennis players Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, world junior champion in athletics Ivana Spanovic and European swimming record-holder Milorad Cavic.

Montenegro has indicted eight former Yugoslav army soldiers of the 1999 murder of 23 ethnic Albanian civilians who fled the war in neighboring Kosovo, prosecutors said yesterday. The eight, all Montenegrin nationals, included Predrag Strugar, a former commander in the army of former Yugoslavia, which was made up of Serbia and Montengro, said a prosecution statement. Strugar was charged with ordering the killings of the 23 Kosovo Albanians who were slain in the Rozaje area of eastern Montenegro on April 18, 1999. The seven others, members of the Yugoslav National Army, were accused of «inhumane behavior toward civilians,» said the statement, which did not elaborate. (AFP)

World soccer's governing body FIFA has offered an interim deal to the Turkish-Cypriot Football Association that could allow the breakaway northern territory, which is recognized only by Ankara, to stage friendly international matches. FIFA and its European counterpart UEFA announced on Thursday that an offer had been made following a meeting with the Turkish Cypriot FA (CTFA) «with a view to improving relations between the football communities on the island of Cyprus.» FIFA did not disclose any further details but Omer Adali, CTFA's chairman, told Reuters the proposal would allow friendly matches to be played against foreign teams as well as sides from the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot part of the divided island. «This is an interim measure prior to a solution to the Cyprus problem,» Adali told Reuters by telephone. (Reuters)

Spanish police said yesterday they had made their biggest heroin seizure when drugs with a street value of more than 54 million euros (84 million dollars) were found in the Mediterranean port of Sitges. The 316.5 kilograms (696.3 pounds) of heroin were taken from a US-flagged ship and loaded on a van with a Dutch license plate, police said in a statement. Five men, four of Turkish origin and a Romanian were detained. (AFP)