A ROW broke out yesterday between the Justice Minister and the head of an independent police watchdog over the jurisdiction of the newly created team of ‘untouchables’.

On Thursday, the police announced the creation of the Professional Standards Department (PSD) which is tasked with investigating misconduct within the force.

The seven-member team will have the power to launch its own investigation based on information gathered either through its own sources or anonymous tip-offs.

The head of the independent police complaints authority yesterday suggested there would be a conflict of authority between the two bodies.

THE TWO leaders are “inching along” every day in the talks, said the UN’s Special Adviser to Cyprus Alexander Downer yesterday after another session between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

The two discussed property and will continue to do so next week, while their respective aides, Georgios Iacovou and Ozdil Nami, will meet during the course of the week to prepare the groundwork on categorisation of the various properties in question.

Downer noted that property was a “difficult issue” from both a legal and economic perspective, in a possible hint to the cost of compensation for properties that will not be returned in a final settlement.

A 23-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested and a search is on for another two after they were linked to an attempted robbery of a serviceman and woman and an indecent assault on another on October 31.

The man, who has not been identified, is alleged to have indecently assaulted a woman in the scrubland of Curium, along with two other men, after she accepted an offer of a lift home from Erimi to Episkopi.

It is also alleged that the same man and his accomplices attempted to steal a purse from a servicewoman when they were giving her and a serviceman a lift home from Akrotiri strip to Episkopi Camp the same night.

HERMES Airports Ltd should review its pricing policy on service charges paid by airlines operating out of the new Larnaca airport so that it does not deter future growth in the tourism sector, Cyprus Airways (CY) spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said yesterday.

Kyriacou said: “The new airport is a jewel in Cyprus’ crown. We all needed the new airport – airlines, tour operators, the wider tourism sector. It offers very big potential for growth in all areas, but this has to be on the basis of an appropriate pricing policy, one that does not act as a deterrent.

“This is no time to be overcharging. We should be spreading our wings, not folding them.”

WITH EVIDENCE submitted from both sides, all eyes are now on the British Appeals Court to await the outcome of the Orams property dispute.

On Thursday, it was the turn of British couple Linda and David Orams’ lawyers to tell the court why they believed their clients should keep the house they built on land owned by refugee Melitis Apostolides and his family. Yesterday Apostolides’ lawyers put the case as to why the Lapithos property should be returned to the man they see as its legal owner.

Now it is up to the court to decide.

Speaking minutes after leaving the courtroom, Apostolides’ lawyer Constantis Candounas told the Cyprus Mail the verdict could come at any time.

“It could come in a week or in the next few months,” Candounas said.

POLICE ARE looking for Constantinos Spiliotopoulos, a 51-year-old Greek national in relation to a case of indecent assault and the sexual exploitation of an adult.

The offences in question were committed between October 20 and November 1, 2009 in Nicosia and Limassol.

Police have requested that anyone who has any information contact the nearest police station or call the Citizens’ Line on 1460.

THE UNITED States strongly believes that talks aiming to reach a Cyprus settlement “should be a Cypriot-led process”, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Tina Kaidanow has said.

In statements after a meeting she had yesterday with President Demetris Christofias, during her visit on the island, Kaidanow said that she had “a very-very interesting and very productive day here in Cyprus”, noting that this was her first time on the island. Kaidanow later met with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

AUTHORITIES in the occupied north are this weekend celebrating the 26th anniversary unilateral declaration of independence. The move, by then leader Rauf Denktash, in 1983 saw the foundation of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’.

Celebrations began on Thursday evening and will continue through to Sunday night.

There is to be a march by schoolchildren in Nicosia on Sunday morning to commemorate the anniversary. A variety of cultural events will also be taking place including contemporary and folk dance shows, a football tournament and classical music concerts.

MEDICAL officials in the north yesterday confirmed the first death from the H1N1 virus.

The unnamed victim, who is said to have already been suffering from a “chronic lung condition and diabetes,” had been receiving treatment at the north’s hospital since November 4.

“After catching the H1N1 virus the patient developed pneumonia,” an official said yesterday.

The north’s authorities insist they have taken all necessary precautions against the virus. This week, H1N1 5,000 vaccinations arrived in the north and have begun being distributed those believed to be most at risk.

THE GREEK and Turkish Cypriot Teachers’ Platform United Cyprus is organising a public, bicommunal meeting, where the academics Anna Fragkoudaki and Birikim Ozkur will give a lecture on ‘Myths and bias in Education: searching for the truths of the others’.

According to a press release, the lecture is part of activities undertaken by the platform to bring Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot teachers, pupils and students into contact and to promote the education for reconciliation and a peaceful solution of the Cypriot problem.

The meeting will take place on November 18, between 7pm and 9pm at Famagusta Gate. There will be simultaneous translation.