Tunisia's parliament has adopted a law criminalising racist speech, incitement to hatred and discrimination, in a vote hailed as a historic first in a country with a significant black minority. The legislation was approved on Tuesday night after a lengthy debate with 125 members of parliament voting for it, one against and five abstaining.

Roman ruins stretching over 20 hectares have been discovered off the coast of northeastern Tunisia, confirming "with certainty" a theory that the city of Neapolis was partly submerged by a tsunami in the 4th century AD. "It's a major discovery," Mounir Fantar, the head of a Tunisian-Italian archaeological mission which made the find off the coast of Nabeul, told AFP news agency on Thursday.

The largest ever sea-dwelling crocodile has been uncovered in Tunisia. It was longer than a great white shark and its skull was as big as a person.