Security services in governorates across Egypt resumed on Wednesday tightened measures taken to secure churches ahead of the Christmas celebrations.

The Cairo Criminal Court ordered on Tuesday the release of ten defendants on health grounds in the case known as the “Rabaa sit-in dispersal”, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide and 738 others.

Streets decorated with lights, trees with garlands and ornaments in most malls and city centres, people taking pictures with the tree while Christmas songs play in the background—this is the Christmas spirit in Egypt. Despite the fact that Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus, many Muslims share the different festive rituals of Christmas with Christians. For many Muslims, decorating their houses with Christmas trees, having dinner together on Christmas Eve, and exchanging gifts with friends are as essential as buying “Halawet El-Mouled” (candy distributed to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad).

Pope Francis said on Saturday that Christmas had been "taken hostage" by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows and blinds many to the needs of the hungry, the migrants and the war weary.

The Muslim Brotherhood group has been hit by another internal dispute between two key factions, with rival members of the region's oldest political-Islam movement engaging in a war of statements via the media.

The Muslim Brotherhood group has been hit by another internal dispute between two key factions, with rival members of the region's oldest political-Islam movement engaging in a war of statements via the media.

The Cairo Opera Company has planned two shows for Christmas at the Small Theater of the Cairo Opera House. The shows are scheduled for December 22 and 23 at 8 pm and ticket prices range between LE10 and LE20. Performers who would take part in the two events include soprano Jacqueline Rafiq, baritone Ezzat Ghanem, and pianist Greg Martin.

Islamic State militants in Mosul are deliberately targeting civilians who refuse to join them as they retreat ahead of advancing Iraqi forces involved in a large-scale government operation to retake the militant-held city, an international watchdog said on Wednesday.

A terrorist belonging to the "Islamic State" (IS) group carried out a truck attack that killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, a news agency linked to the jihadists said Tuesday.

10-year-old Maggy Mo'men who was injured in the Botroseya church bombing died of her injuries at Al-Galaa Military Hospital on Tuesday, bringing the death toll of the blast to 26.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a shootout at a Crusader castle in the southern Jordanian city of Karak, in which at least nine people including a Canadian tourist were killed and scores injured.

Egypt Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar on Sunday suspended from work a police officer currently detained for alledgedly torturing a suspect to death.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail decided on Saturday to compensate the families of the victims killed in the St. Paul and St. Peter Church bombing. The families of the deceased will receive EGP 100,000 in compensation, along with a monthly pension of EGP 1,500 per victim, local media reported.

The ministry said investigations revealed the group was led by a suspect who received financial and logistical support and instructions to carry out the attacks by Brotherhood leaders residing in Qatar.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry denounced the statements by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued in the wake of the cathedral blast, which occurred on Sunday in Cairo.

Egypt’s Coptic Catholic Church has cancelled Christmas celebrations on 25 December at its churches in a show of solidarity with the Coptic Orthodox Church over Sunday’s church bombing, though Christmas mass will still be held on Christmas eve at Catholic churches, Church spokesperson Father Rafic Greiche told news outlets on Thursday.

MPs called during a meeting of the Egyptian Parliament's Human Rights Committee on Tuesday, for the cancellation of religion classes at school, saying it creates generations of extremists. MP Essam Farouk said the cancellation of religion classes at schools has become a necessity. According to Farouk the fact that, during religion classes Christian minority students are required to leave their classes to receive Christian religion lessons in other rooms, communicates a negative message about them to their Muslim colleagues.

Egypt’s interior ministry said on Monday that people in connection with Muslim Brotherhood group were behind the bombing of St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Cairo. The blast, which coincided with the Muslim celebration of the Prophet’s Birthday, killed 25 and injured dozens of worshippers at the church attached to one of Egypt’s most symbolic sites for Copts, St. Mark’s Coptic Cathedral.

Egypt's Minister of Defence Sobhi Sedky visited Sunday’s Cairo church bombing injured survivors, who are receiving treatment at El-Galaa military hospital in the capital, the Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson announced on his Facebook page.

The IS group has claimed responsibilty for the bombing at the St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, last Sunday.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi identified on Monday 22-year-old Mahmoud Shafiq Mohamed Mostafa as the suicide bomber behind the attack on the St. Peter and St. Paul Church which left at least 25 dead and 49 injured during mass on Sunday.