Seven people were killed Wednesday in a suicide car bombing claimed by the Islamic State group in a former stronghold of the jihadists in western Iraq, a security official said. The attacker detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at a joint security checkpoint managed by the Iraqi army and the Popular Mobilization Forces at the southern entrance to the town of al-Qaim, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Syrian border, Maj. Gen Qasem al-Dulaimi said.

Al-Azhar mosque, the most prestigious religious institution in the Sunni Muslim world, has issued a statement denouncing sexual harassment following recent incidents where people have been attacked trying to stop it. “We have followed media reports on recently circulated incidents of (sexual) harassment. In some of them the harasser assaulted those who tried to stop him,” Azhar said in a statement on Monday.

Islamic State on Sunday claimed responsibility for an attack on an Egyptian police checkpoint in northern Sinai, the group s Amaq news agency reported, saying 15 soldiers were killed or wounded in what it described as an infiltration operation. Egypt s state news agency MENA said on Saturday that security forces foiled an attack on a checkpoint west of the city of al-Arish, and killed four militants while other fled.

Egypt said it will be opening the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for five days to receive Palestinian pilgrims returning from the hajj in Saudi Arabia. According to official state news agency MENA, travel will be limited to the return of the pilgrims on 27 and 31 August, and 1, 2, and 3 September.

The leader of the Islamic State jihadist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on Muslims to wage "jihad" in a purported new audio recording released on Wednesday. He also called for attacks in the West in the Telegram message on Eid al-Adha, which comes as IS has lost most of its territory in Iraq and Syria.

Pope Francis, facing sexual abuse crises in several countries, wrote an unprecedented letter to all Catholics on Monday, asking each one of them to help root out “this culture of death” and vowing there would be no more cover ups. In a highly personal letter addressed to “the people of God,” Church language for all members, the pope appeared to be launching an appeal for all Catholics to face the crisis together and not let it tear the Church apart.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi performed Eid Al-Adha prayers on Tuesday at the Mohamed Korayim mosque in Alexandria, Spokesperson for the Egyptian President Bassam Rady said in a statement. El-Sisi was accompanied during the prayers by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal and top military leaders.

Egypt s Public Prosecution office in Alexandria referred on Sunday two monks to criminal trial over the murder of Bishop Epiphanius, head of the Saint Macarius Monastery at Wadi al-Natroun. The Public Prosecution charged Ash eyaa al-Makary (Wael Saad Tawadros) and Faltaous al-Makary (Raymon Rasmy Mansour) with premeditated murder.

Two monks have been referred to trial in Alexandria for the murder of the abbot of their former monastery, according to a statement from the prosecutor-general s office on Sunday. Isaiah El-Maqary was detained on 11 August on suspicion for the murder of Bishop Epiphanius, who was found dead at Abu Maqar monastery in July. Isaiah has since been officially defrocked by the church due to behaviour unbecoming of a monk.

A new grand jury report says that internal documents from six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania show that more than 300 “predator priests” have been credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims. “We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands,” the grand jury report says.

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria s Coptic Orthodox Church met on Tuesday with the brother of the expelled monk who murdered Bishop Epiphanius of Waid al-Natroun s Saint Macarius Monastery. The official spokesperson for the Coptic Orthodox Church, Priest Paul Halim, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Tawadros II also spoke through the telephone to the monk s mother.

British police said they believe a man deliberately drove a car into pedestrians and cyclists on Tuesday before ramming it into barriers outside London s parliament in what appeared to be the second terrorism attack on the building in just under 18 months. Three people were injured after the vehicle was driven through a group of cyclists and pedestrians during the early morning rush hour before smashing into a protective barrier on a lane used for accessing parliament.

Head of the Alexandria appeal court, Mohamed Moustafa, has ordered monk Faltaous al-Makary be detained for four days pending investigations over the murder case of St. Macarius Monastery head Bishop Epiphanius in Wadi al-Natroun. Members of public prosecution moved to arrest the 33-year-old monk, birth name Raymond Rasmi Mansour, from the Anglo American Hospital in Zamalek where he is being treated after his attempted suicide last week, which involved slicing his arteries and throwing himself off the Monastery’s tallest building.

Egypt s interior ministry revealed on Sunday the identity of a suicide bomber involved in a failed attack on a church in Qalioubiya governorate on Saturday, and has arrested six others involved in the case, including two women. The attacker has been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mostafa, a member of a terrorist cell that has attempted to carry out a number of attacks, including the one on the Virgin Mary Church in Qalioubiya s Mostord on Saturday.

Pope Francis has changed church teaching about the death penalty, saying it can never be sanctioned because it "attacks" the inherent dignity of all humans. The Vatican said Thursday that Francis had changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching.

Egypt has condemned two terrorist attacks that killed over two dozen people in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Fifteen people were killed in Afghanistan s eastern city of Jalalabad when gunmen stormed a government building after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate. Eleven more were killed in the western province of Farah when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb.

A bishop who was found dead at the monastery he headed in northern Egypt was not killed as an act of terrorism, a monk at the monastery has said. Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on Sunday, in what the Coptic Orthodox Church described as “strange circumstances.”

Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that the funeral of a bishop who was found dead inside a monastery will be held on Tuesday. A post on the church s official Facebook page said the funeral for Bishop Epiphanius, the head of Anba Makar Monastery in Beheira governorate, will take place at the monastery at noon.

The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria s southern province of Sweida, a monitor said Monday. More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when IS carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into people waiting outside a busy polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least 31 and casting a dark shadow on what was to be a historic day for the country as Pakistanis cast ballots to elect their thirds consecutive civilian government. The attack in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, underscored the difficulties this majority Muslim nation faces on its wobbly journey toward sustained democracy. The bombing also wounded 35 people, with several reported to be in critical condition, raising concerns the death toll could rise further, said hospital official Jaffar Kakar, a doctor.

Egypt s security forces killed 13 terrorist elements in an exchange of fire in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday, Al-Ahram s Arabic website reported. According to Al-Ahram, security forces received information that a group of terrorist elements were using an under-construction building as a hideout in a village near Arish city.