• Arab states agreed to relaunch a five-year-old peace plan with Israel at their summit this week, a move which could help renewed UN and US efforts to revive peace talks. The peace plan offers Israel normal ties with Arab states in return for full withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel rejected the plan in 2002, but is more upbeat about peace prospects now it is to be relaunched.

• The new head of Italy's Catholic bishops served notice that the Church will not let up in its fight against gay marriage, calling a government plan to give unwed couples more rights "unacceptable and dangerous". Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, appointed by Pope Benedict this month, said in his inaugural address that the Church rejected accusations of interference in Italian affairs and will back a national rally in May to defend the traditional family.

• At least 29 people were killed and 71 reported missing after knife-wielding smugglers forced some 450 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into the sea off Yemen. Some of the survivors and other witnesses said four smugglers' boats were approaching the coastal town of Ras-Alkalb when the crews forced the passengers overboard in rough seas and strong currents. Those who resisted were stabbed and beaten with wooden and steel clubs, then thrown overboard, where some were attacked by sharks.

• Mauritanians have elected former minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi as president to lead a new civilian government after years of authoritarian rule and a military coup. Sunday's run-off vote was the climax of a series of democratic polls in the largely desert Saharan Islamic state after a bloodless military coup in 2005.

• A Tunisian court sentenced 18 suspected Islamist radicals to up to 24 years in prison after finding them guilty of plotting terrorist attacks, lawyers and judicial sources said. The appeals court in Tunis rejected defence lawyers' arguments that the men were singled out because of their religious fervour and had no chance of a fair trial because the Tunisian judiciary was not independent and confessions were obtained under torture.

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