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.

Athens  - Archaeologists have uncovered a treasure of gold jewellery, weapons and pottery at a burial ground near the birth place of Alexander the Great, the Greek Culture Ministry said Thursday.

Excavations taking place at an ancient burial site near Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia in northern Greece, have revealed 43 previously undiscovered graves dating from 650-279 BC, a Culture Ministry statement said.

Among the discoveries include the graves of 20 warriors who had been buried between 580-480 BC. Some were buried in copper helmets, iron swords and knives, and their eyes, mouths and chests covered in gold foil decorated with drawings of lions and other animals.

Athens - Greek police on Thursday believe to have found missing 8-year-old "Denise" who was abducted outside of her home in Sicily more than four years ago on an island in the Aegean.

Authorities were led to the little girl after an Italian tourist visiting the Dodecannese island of Kos was sold a bracelet by the little girl, who spoke fluent Italian.

Police on the island informed Interpol who immediately arrested the 30-year-old female companion of the little girl. The woman claimed she was the mother of the
8-year-old girl but she herself could not speak a word of Italian.

Athens/Nicosia - Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are meeting on Thursday to discuss power-sharing and governance in a new round of peace talks set on ending a decades old conflict and reunite the divided Mediterranean island.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkihs Cypriot leader Mehemt Ali Talat launched a new round of peace talks on September 3.

Peace talks have been deadlocked after former president Tassos Papadopoulos led the Greek-Cypriot rejection of a UN reunification plan in a 2004 referendum.

Turkish Cypriots had overwhelmingly voted in favour.

Athens  - A former Japanese ambassador to the Vatican was imprisoned without the possibility of bail by a Greek examining magistrate Tuesday after being charged along with his wife with the murder of their 36-year-old daughter.

The 77-year-old former diplomat, Masami Tanida and his Greek wife, Maria, 67, were arrested on Saturday and charged with murder after police discovered the body of their daughter in the bathroom of their villa on the Greek island of Evia.

Athens  - A former Japanese diplomat to the Vatican and his Greek-born wife will appear before an investigative judge on Tuesday on charges of killing their
37-year-old daughter at their villa on the Greek island of Evia.

Greek police are investigating the mysterious circumstances surrounding the woman's death and have taken her parents, former Japanese ambassador Masami Tanida,
77, and his 67-year-old wife, Maria, into custody, believing it is a homicide case.

Their lawyer, Thanassis Tartis told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, that his clients claim the woman, named Amphithea, took her own life and her parents had tried unsuccessfully to save her.