Young offenders need help not condemnation to a life of crime, says deputy police chief CYPRUS urgently needs a juvenile facility to avoid turning young offenders into hardened criminals.

ALITHIA: “Talat and Denktash clash”. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat are said to be on a collision course over the Annan plan, with Talat seeing it as deliverance for the Turkish Cypriot people, while Denktash sees it as its demise.

A 20-year-old man with psychological problems yesterday reported to the police that a 70-year-old resident from his village in Paphos had sexually assaulted him. In his testimony he was extremely vague due to his condition and was unable to give police a conclusive story. However pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous examined the young man who said he gave his findings to the police.

THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS’ Association yesterday launched a scathing attack against the Antiquities Department, accusing them of being unorganised, after recently discovered finds in Paphos were dug up and left exposed.

CYPRIOT tennis player Marcos Baghdatis, 19, has been given a wild card to play in the Olympic games in Athens 2004. His application forms for participating in the Olympics were first endorsed by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) before being submitted. Baghdatis was champion in the 2003 Orange Bowl Singles championship in the US and a finalist in the 2003 Mobilux Jr Open.

CYPRUS Airways (CY) is axing its Sri Lanka flights from the end of this month, spokesman Tassos Angelis said yesterday. “We are restructuring our network and this is part of it,” Angelis said. “It was considered by the specialists that it would be better to suspend it.” The Larnaca to Colombo in Sri Lanka flights began in November via Dubai, where CY was already flying twice a week.

ALI Polatkan is a leading Turkish Cypriot travel agent who strongly believes the two communities on Cyprus can live and work together in peace and prosperity. He is also a man who likes to take risks – even if it means facing a barrage of criticism from members of his own community, and stonewalling from his counterparts in the south.

SOCIAL Services head Evanthia Papasavva yesterday sounded the alarm, warning public resources were being drained by soaring benefit payments. The government is this year expected to fork out nearly £60 million in public assistance benefits. Those eligible include any legal residents with no financial means to support themselves – “in other words vulnerable social groups,” Papasavva said.

OVER 200 pupils from the Melkonian Educational Institute (MEI) walked out of their classes yesterday after hearing the news that their school was to be closed down in June next year. During the spontaneous demonstration, the students chanted “Melkonian Not For Sale” at the main gate and in front of the founders’ mausoleum.

TWO recently-formed ring-wing organisations, the National Resistance Movement and the Women’s Platform for the Nation and Sovereignty, staged protests against the Annan plan in the occupied north yesterday. The women’s march through the street of Nicosia attracted around 100 women who chanted anti-Annan plan slogans.