Clashes between the Malian army and Islamists killed seven people Sunday, including a soldier and two civilians, military sources said, after militants infiltrated northern Mali's largest city, Gao.

The fighting took place as the Malian army carried out what it called a "clean-up" operation after Islamist militants opened fire on an army camp in Gao overnight.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition has been invited to the Arab summit this week, bringing the rebels closer to filling Syria's seat in the Arab League, the group's Qatar envoy said Sunday.

The invitation was revealed as differences over the participation of the opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the summit emerged during a ministerial preparatory meeting on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraq to stop allowing Iranian flights apparently carrying military equipment through its airspace headed to Syria, on a surprise visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

Kerry warned Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington was "watching what Iraq is doing", the highest-level criticism yet of Baghdad for not inspecting flights which Tehran insists are carrying humanitarian supplies.

Israel's Shin Bet security service said on Sunday it had arrested five Palestinian teenagers on suspicion of involvement in a stone-throwing attack which critically injured an Israeli toddler.

The domestic security agency said the suspects, aged 16-17, confessed to stoning vehicles driven by Israeli settlers near the Palestinian village of Haris, in the northern West Bank, on March 14.

The Syrian National Coalition has refused the resignation of its leader Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, the opposition bloc said in a statement released hours after he announced he was quitting.

Neither the Coalition's presidential office nor its general assembly has accepted Khatib's resignation. "They are asking Mr Moaz al-Khatib to go back to his work as the president of the Coalition," the English-language statement said.

Pope Francis announced on Palm Sunday that he would make an appearance at this year's global Catholic youth festival in Rio de Janeiro.

Before he decided to step down, Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI had also planned to attend World Youth Day (WYD), an event organised by the Catholic Church that brings together young people from all over the world.

Rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime have seized a 25-kilometer (15 miles) strip of land stretching from the Jordan border to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a watchdog said on Sunday.

"Fighters loyal to Al-Nusra Front, Al-Yarmuk Brigade, Al-Mutaz Billah Brigade and others took control of Al-Rai military checkpoint," east of Sahem al-Golan town in the southern province of Daraa, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iraq plans to hold an auction of gas exploration blocks open to international energy companies later this year, the fifth of its kind since 2009, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Baghdad will offer 10 exploration blocks in the auction, the date of which has yet to be finalized, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told Agence France Presse.

Rebels in the Central African Republic fighting to topple President Francois Bozize seized control of the capital Bangui on Sunday, with the whereabouts of their archfoe unknown.

Fighters in the Seleka rebel coalition launched an assault on the riverside capital after the collapse of a two-month-old peace deal in the notoriously unstable former French colony -- ignoring a call for talks to avoid a "bloodbath".

Japan will seek a bilateral summit between its prime minister and China's new leaders as early as May as part of efforts to defuse an ongoing diplomatic row, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday.

Kishida, speaking on public broadcaster NHK, said the meeting may be possible on the sidelines of the annual trilateral summit with China and South Korea, which usually takes place in May.