Toppled Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and his wife were sentenced in absentia Monday to 35 years in prison each in a trial for misappropriating public funds, a judge said.

Judge Touhami Hafi also fined the exiled ex-leader 50 million dinars (25 million euros) and his wife Leila Trabelsi 41 million dinars on the first day of the trial.

Italy's foreign minister warned Monday that NATO's accidental killing of civilians in the Libyan air war was endangering the alliance's credibility.

"NATO's credibility is at risk," Franco Frattini told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

The United States on Monday demanded "actions, not words" from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who said dialogue could lead to a new constitution and even end his Baath Party's monopoly on power.

"What's important now is action, not words," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said after Assad addressed the demands of pro-democracy protesters who have been violently repressed. "A speech is just words."

Syrian authorities on Monday showed journalists and ambassadors a "new mass grave" that military sources said contained at least 29 bodies near the restive northern town of Jisr al-Shughour.

An Agence France Presse photographer who was among a group of journalists taken by the authorities to the area said he counted eight bodies which were removed from a rubbish dump.

"Outraged" European ministers on Monday agreed to beef up sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad as they cast doubt on his latest offers of change, some demanding he "reform or step aside".

Amid continuing bloodshed in Syria's crackdown on protesters, European Union foreign ministers also angrily demanded action at the United Nations and slammed Russia's resistance to any such move.

President Bashar al-Assad has reached "a point of no return," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Monday following the Syrian leader's speech to his troubled nation.

"Some believe there's still time for him to change his ways and commit to a (reform) process," Juppe said after Assad suggested in a televised speech that dialogue could lead to a new constitution.

Irish activists who plan to join an international aid flotilla to Gaza called Monday on the Irish government to urge Israel to allow the ships free passage to the Palestinian enclave.

About 25 passengers and crew will travel on the ship "Saoirse" (Gaelic for freedom) in the flotilla of about a dozen vessels involving activists from more than 20 countries, the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign (ISG) announced.

France is deeply concerned about Israel's authorization for the expansion of 2,000 settlement homes built on occupied Palestinian land in east Jerusalem, the foreign ministry said Monday.

"Our position is constant: settlement building is illegal in the eyes of international law, in the West Bank as well as in east Jerusalem," said foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero.

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak, whose trial on charges of ordering the killing of anti-regime protesters is due to start in August, has stomach cancer, his lawyer Farid al-Dib said on Monday.

"He has a stomach cancer and the tumors are growing," the lawyer told Agence France Presse.

Indonesia on Monday recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia amid anger over the beheading of an Indonesian maid convicted of murdering her Saudi employer, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.

Riyadh carried out the execution by sword without giving Indonesia prior notice, Natalegawa told reporters after being grilled about the government's response in parliament.