The possibility of armed militias and vigilante groups run by the Muslim Brotherhood and other hard-line Islamist groups has raised the spectre of a possible confrontation between such militias and the military.

The Construction and Development Party, Jama’a al-Islamiya’s political arm, called on all political parties Sunday to find ways to use popular committees to restore security, which police have been unable to do, rather than asking the army to fulfill that task.

Clashes erupted on Saturday night between protesters and members of the Muslim Brotherhood in front of the group's headquarters in the eastern Cairo suburb of Moqattam.

Controversial Salafist figure Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail criticised the political opponents of President Mohamed Morsi at the first press conference of the Umma Alliance, a newly-formed seven-party coalition, on Friday.

Head of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Diaa Rashwan won the seat of the head of the Journalists Syndicate in elections held on Friday.

Coptic Pope Tawadros II has reached out to Coptic youth movements after recent troubles in Libya for the group, saying, "If you choose the route of struggle, then it has to be peaceful."

Islamist preacher Ahmed Abdullah, known as “Abu Islam", was referred on Sunday to trial in a blasphemy case. Prosecution has charged Abu Islam with contempt of religion and spreading news that are likely to disrupt public security.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood have claimed that a UN declaration calling for an end to violence against women will lead to the "complete disintegration of society".

Gunmen on Thursday attacked an Egyptian Coptic church in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and started a fire, witnesses said.

Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, Al-Azhar, said on Thursday that it wants "better relations" with the Vatican under Pope Francis.

Gamal Nassar, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has resigned from the group's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), citing its "poor performance."

Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal he had been chosen to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing a yet-to-be-ratified UN declaration on women’s rights, asserting that the document contradicts Islamic Law.

The men, Egyptian Copts working in Benghazi, were seized by an Islamist militia but handed over to the government. One, named as Ezzat Atallah, 44, died at the weekend after being "tortured", his brother, Effat, told The Daily Telegraph.

An Egyptian activist who led protests over an iconic torture victim during the rule of Hosni Mubarak was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for allegedly slapping a prosecutor.

Fifty-five Egyptian Christians arrested last month in Libya for allegedly seeking to convert Muslims have been freed, while four others are still behind bars, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

One of the challenges facing the new pope and the Catholic Church is how best to help and bring comfort to Christians who feel persecuted in North Africa and the Middle East. Many Christians living in Egypt worry about their future under a Muslim Brotherhood president.

These stern warnings have met mixed reactions. The interior ministry has called on protests to stay at home. It’s promised to restore order to the country that’s now suffering from an increasing level of crime, daily incidents of road blockings, attacks on governmental buildings, and even forced closures of schools.

Following a strike by Egyptian police at a number of police stations across the country, Islamist group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya has deployed several of its members in the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut to take up the role of security.

Roman Catholic cardinals prayed for divine help on Tuesday, hours before a conclave to elect a new pope to tackle the daunting problems facing the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

A recently-founded political coalition has condemned the strikes initiated by a number of police stations in Egypt, saying that "[police] forces should not withdraw from their duty or refrain from the great service [of protecting the people]."