Athens  - A US arts collector returned a priceless artefact to Greece on Wednesday as the country continues its long battle for other treasures such as the Elgin Marbles to return to their rightful home.

Greece received a fourth century BC bronze vase and remains of a marble tombstone depicting a young warrior from US art collector Shelby White barely a year after it launched a campaign for their return, relying on evidence they were smuggled out of the country.

The archaeological museum in Greece said the top part of the tombstone, which they had in their possession, could finally be reunited with the lower part after it was smuggled out of Greece during the 1960s.

Athens - Marine scientists studying the temperatures of the Mediterranean and Black Sea warned Wednesday of a continued rise in water temperature unless measures are taken to curb global warming.

Scientists currently aboard the Aigaio oceanographic vessel near Sicily studying the impact of climate change said the two seas' temperatures have risen two degrees in the past 25 years and were at risk of rising further if action is not taken.

"This is a large increase for this period," Evangelos Papathanssiou, research director of the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, was quoted by the Greek daily Kathimerini as saying.

Athens/Nicosia  - Cypriot leaders will relaunch peace talks on Wednesday aimed at ending a decades-old conflict and reuniting the divided eastern Mediterranean island.

The launch of the talks on Wednesday will be in the presence of newly appointed UN envoy for Cyprus, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

The two leaders of the ethnically-divided island agreed in July to re-launch full-fledged peace negotiations on September 3, ending a four-year deadlock in efforts to bring the two communities together.

Athens  - Greek efforts to introduce a land register prompted widespread chaos in registration offices across the country Wednesday as owners were queuing up to seven hours in packed offices to have their properties listed.

The new law, under which resident owners have to register their houses and apartments by September 30, and foreign owners by December 30, has created a bureaucratic bottleneck for thousands of owners as well as administrative clerks tasked with processing their applications.

Athens  - The Greek Coast Guard discovered a cargo ship south of the island of Crete with 71 illegal immigrants on board Saturday.

Four Ukrainian members of the ship's crew were arrested.

The would-be immigrants from various Arab countries said they had departed from Egypt three days previously and were heading for Italy.

Storm-strength winds forced the crew to change course and seek a leeward bay on the south coast of the island near Palaiochora.

Athens  - An Australian tourist who was beaten by bouncers while on holiday on the Greek island of Mykonos died after doctors disconnected his life support system, officials said Friday.

Twenty-year-old Doujon Zammit from Sydeny was transferred to a hospital in Athens after being brutally attacked by bouncers near the island's popular Super Paradise beach bar on Tuesday.