Athens - Greece's merchant marine minister resigned on Friday over allegations of unethical business transactions which were harming the reputation of the ruling conservative government.

Giorgos Vougarakis, 49, is the second minister to resign due to scandals since the conservative New Democracy Party was elected in September 2007.

He has been accused of setting up an offshore real estate company with his wife and using it to avoid paying property tax.

Voulgarakis has also been linked to a scandal involving a monastery in northern Greece which allegedly traded low value plots of land for prime real estate.

Vienna  - Austrian political parties introduced 50 social and welfare bills worth around two billion euros (2.8 billion dollars) in parliament on Friday, in order to sway voters ahead of the September 28 general elections.

Most of the bills were initiated by Austria's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPOe), in a bid to sharpen its social profile.

Werner Faymann, the party's new leader, has proposed an anti- inflation programme consisting of raising several government subsidies, including home care for patients and family support, as well as a bill on retirement payments for manual labourers and a cut of sales tax on food.

The SPOe also seeks to make education at public universities free.

Havana  - Hurricane-hit Cuba on Thursday accused the United States of lying about its conditional offers to help the communist country as it struggles to recover and rebuild.

"The United States government is behaving cynically. It tries to suggest that it is desperate to cooperate with Cuba, and that we refuse. They lie unscrupulously," the Cuban Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Johannesburg/Harare  - After a decade-long political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe, Africa's "sinking Titanic" - as Zambia's deceased president Levy Mwanawasa once called his neighbouring country - was headed for shore Thursday as the 28-year stranglehold on power of President Robert Mugabe was finally prised loose.

La Paz  - Three people died and at least 12 were injured Thursday in clashes between peasants loyal to Bolivian President Evo Morales and supporters of the opposition governor in Pando province.

The long-standing conflict between the leftist president Morales and five eastern, opposition-controlled provinces over regional autonomy had escalated in previous days.

The incident happened in the town of Tres Barrancas, in the Amazonian jungle, some 1,200 kilometres north of La Paz, Bolivian media reported citing the authorities.