Magdi Abdelhadi

World News from the BBC

MPs in Britain have voted by a

margin

of more than 10-1 in favour of keeping a complete ban on prisoners voting in elections. The result is seen as a

rebuff

to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled six years ago the ban was illegal. The Attorney General Dominic Grieve said there would have to be a

lengthy

dialogue between the government and the European Court. The vote is not binding.

The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, says his government will set up a $1.2bn fund to create jobs in a country where more than one in five people are unemployed. In his annual state of the nation address, Mr Zuma said he was concerned that unemployment and poverty

persist

ed despite 10 years of economic growth.

"While looking to the private sector

in particular

to help us create most of the jobs, government will certainly play its part. We are pleased to announce the establishment of a jobs fund of nine billion rand over the next three years to finance new job creation initiatives."

India and Pakistan have agreed to resume peace talks suspended since the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which India

blamed on

militants from Pakistan. In a joint statement, the nuclear-armed neighbours said they'd agreed to resume dialogue on all issues including the disputed region of Kashmir. They said Pakistan's foreign minister would visit India by July to review progress. A BBC correspondent in Delhi says mistrust between India and Pakistan remains huge.