GAZA: Egyptian forces have flooded smuggling tunnels under the border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip in a campaign to shut them down, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said.

Egypt's main agricultural bank is launching Islamic retail services this month to meet increasing demand in rural areas, a bank official told Reuters. "We are launching sharia-compliant retail banking this month with a portfolio of 50 million pounds ($7.5 million) and can raise that to 100 million" next June based on demand, said Abdel Rahman Al-Kafrawi, head of Islamic transactions at Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC).

Shawqi Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam is to become Egypt's new Grand Mufti following a vote by members of the Al-Azhar Senior Scholars Authority on Monday. It is first time the Grand Mufti has been chosen in a vote as opposed to being appointed by the president.

Egypt’s Gamaa Islamiya and its Construction and Development Party have called for the fulfilment of the January 25 Revolution's goals away from violence in a Monday statement, marking the anniversary of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's departure.

Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the arrest of a Muslim cleric who said leaders of the main opposition coalition should be condemned to death under Islamic law for seeking to topple President Mohamed Mursi, the state news agency said on Monday.

Protesters and several NGOs from around the globe announced they will rally in front of Egyptian embassies on Tuesday in solidarity with Egyptian women who have been protesting against “sexual terrorism.”

Islamists who rose to power following the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled veteran leaders in Tunisia and Egypt are facing an uncertain future because they lack the political savvy to rule, analysts say.

The prosecutor General office ordered the arrest of Al-Azhar University professor Mahmoud Shaaban for his controversial fatwa which stipulated Egyptian opposition leaders should be punished by death for attempting to bring down a leader elected by the public.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday that he would resign on Feb. 28 because he was simply too infirm to carry on — the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March.

Dozens of anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters have blocked the entrance to the Mogamma, the country's largest administrative building, in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

The Palestinian Jihadist movement in Gaza announced on Saturday that Egypt's Salafist Al-Watan Party Chairman Emad Abdel-Ghafour and former presidential candidate Hazem Abou Ismail will visit the besieged strip soon.

President Mohamed Morsy said in a meeting with Nour Party leaders Saturday evening that the national consensus initiative put forward by the party would be added to the agenda of the next national dialogue session, said Nour Galal al-Morra, party secretary general.

Following controversial statements by an Al-Azhar University professor claiming the opposition should be punished by death for attempting to bring down a leader elected by the public, a large number of Egyptians — Islamists and non-Islamists alike — have expressed their condemnation.

Egypt’s prime minister is facing a suit for slander after televised comments suggesting that Egyptian infants contracted diarrhoea from nursing at their mothers’ unclean breasts drew widespread derision and anger

Freedom and Justice Party member Azza al-Garf refuted claims Thursday that the Muslim Brotherhood had hired thugs to harass and assault female protesters.

As increasing reports of sexual harassment and violence targeting female protesters have been creating uproar amongst Egyptians, leading Muslim Brotherhood member and Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) Vice President Essam El-Erian sent a message of appreciation to Egypt's women.

Egypt's prime minister has condemned religious edicts by hardline Muslim clerics calling for the killing of opposition leaders and says the government is considering legal action against them

The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) says 2,028 people have been injured and 56 killed in the upsurge of violence since the second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution.

Representatives of Jama'a al-Islamiya, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nour Party condemned Thursday the assassination of Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid.

Egypt's Coptic patriarch delivered a cautious but unusually sharp criticism of the nation's Islamist leadership in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, dismissing the new constitution as discriminatory and rounds of national dialogues sponsored by the president as meaningless.

Emad Abdel Ghafour, who resigned as chairman of the Salafi Nour Party, is another step closer to formally establishing his new Islamist political force.