Islamic State group has planted mines and bombs in the ancient part of the central Syrian city of Palmyra, home to Roman-era ruins, a group monitoring the war said on Sunday.

Egypt's foreign affairs ministry on Wednesday said it rejected some countries "offending the Egyptian judiciary", following mass death sentences on Tuesday against over 100 defendants including ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi.

Boko Haram militants attacked two villages in southern Niger’s Diffa region overnight, killing at least 30 civilians, two security sources said on Thursday.

Defense lawyers representing former president Mohamed Morsi are appealing a 20-year prison sentence handed down on the former leader in April over charges of inciting murder.

In the year since it declared its "caliphate," the Islamic State group has become the world's most infamous jihadist organisation, attracting international franchises and spreading fear with acts of extreme violence.

Pope Francis demanded swift action on Thursday to save the planet from environmental ruin, urging world leaders to hear "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor", plunging the Catholic Church into political controversy over climate change.

The death sentences served to Egypt's ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and five others for escaping prison in 2011 is a "worrying development", the European Union said late Tuesday.

Al Qaeda militants in Yemen executed two Saudi men accused of spying for the United States on Wednesday, two eyewitnesses said, a day after the group announced its leader was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike.

Bombs found at an abandoned stronghold of Boko Haram Islamists exploded, killing at least 13 people and injuring 45 others in northeast Nigeria, locals and a hospital source said.

International human rights organisations condemned Egypt’s criminal court’s new death sentences handed to deposed president Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood leaders on Tuesday.

Pope Francis on Wednesday called for respect for migrants and suggested that "people and institutions" who close doors to them should seek forgiveness from God.

A Cairo court on Tuesday sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death and to life in jail in two different trials, as Egyptian courts continue to rule in cases against alleged supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails.

Security forces have arrested a man on Tuesday in the Daqahleya governorate, claiming he was the leader of a local “Islamic State” (IS) cell consisting of six members, as reported by local Egyptian media outlets.

An Egyptian court's decision to sentence deposed President Mohamed Morsi to death was based on politics, not the law, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday.

After 16 days of forced disappearance, Esra Al-Tawil has been spotted at the Al-Qanater prison, according to the "Freedom for the Brave" Facebook page.

Somali Islamist militants detonated a roadside bomb on Tuesday southwest of the capital Mogadishu when a military vehicle was passing and killed at least three soldiers, a military officer and the rebel group said.

Egypt's ambassador to the Vatican handed Pope Francis an official invitation to visit Egypt from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Al-Ahram newspaper reported Monday.

Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zend met with Pope Tawadros II on Monday to discuss the building of churches and personal status draft laws.

Unknown assailants bombed three electricity pylons in Giza's Awsim late Sunday, which led to a power outage in a number of districts, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

Egypt's public prosecutor referred on Sunday to military prosecution 58 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members who are accused of terrorism-related charges between 2013 and 2014, a step ahead of a military trial.

A 17-year old who left northern England to join Islamic State was reported to have become Britain's youngest suicide bomber when he blew himself up in a car in northern Iraq, British media said after the militants posted pictures on social media.