Bucharest- The Romanian centre-right Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L) is to take the key economic portfolios in the country's new cabinet, while coalition partner - the socialist PSD party - is to receive social portfolios, including the ministry for work, families and social security, party sources said Wednesday.

Chisinau - A Russian import firm imported a lorry shipment of Moldovan wine on Tuesday, ending a two-year Kremlin boycott of bulk imports.

The lorry container load was destined for processing by the Moscow-based Imperial Vin beverage company. Moldova's Gatchinsky Spirit Factory was the exporter.

The Russian government banned all wine imports from Moldova in 2006, citing worries about low quality and possibly dangerous additives.

Moldovan producers said the embargo was groundless, pointing out Moldovan wine had long competed successfully in markets with stricter health standards than Russia's such as the European Union.

Madrid - Spain's National Court on Wednesday acquitted two journalists and a caricaturist of insulting King Juan Carlos by alleging that he had chased a drunken bear in Russia.

Two of the accused created a photomontage published in 2006 by the Basque newspaper Deia, which showed a drunken-looking Juan Carlos with an equally drunken bear leaning on a wine barrel.

The tame bear had been given vodka to make it easier for the king to shoot it, the caricature claimed in a reference to unconfirmed press reports quoting Russian sources.

The third accused called the king "irresponsible" in an article on the bear chase.

Palermo, Sicily - A Sicilian mafia boss caught in a massive police sweep against "Cosa Nostra" has been found hanged in a prison cell just hours after his arrest.

The 52-year-old Gaetano Lo Presti was among more than 90 mafiosi nabbed during police raids in Sicily and Tuscany on Tuesday.

An investigation was underway Wednesday on how Lo Presti managed to commit what appears to have been a suicide in Palermo's Pagliarelli prison late on Tueday night, officials said.

Srinagar, India - Two suspected militants were killed in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state where the penultimate phase of a staggered local election was held Wednesday.

Security forces killed two commanders of the Islamic militant group Hizbul Mujahideen in Pulwama district, police said, while voting was underway in the adjacent areas of Anantnag and Kulgam.

One of the slain militants, identified as Rais Ahmed, had escaped from police custody in November, while he was being escorted to court.

Election officials said balloting in the sixth phase of the seven-phase elections was peaceful and a voter turnout was about 60 per cent despite snowfall in some areas.

Strasbourg - The European Parliament on Wednesday awarded its Sakharov Prize to jailed Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, rebuffing warnings from Beijing that doing so might damage the European Union's relations with China.

The prize, which each year honours worthy human rights activists around the world, was given to Hu in absentia.

"I would like to express my deep concern that our laureate Hu Jia could not be here today with us and receive the award in person as he remains imprisoned for defending human rights in China - freedom of speech, freedom of thought and the basic right of access to the health service," said Laima Andrikiene, the conservatives' spokesman on human rights issues.