Jihadist militants have taken over a monastery in northern Iraq, one of the country's best-known Christian landmarks, and expelled its resident monks, a cleric and residents said Monday. Islamic State (IS) fighters stormed Mar (Saint) Behnam, a fourth-century monastery run by the Syriac Catholic church near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, on Sunday, the sources said. "You have no place here anymore, you have to leave immediately," a member of the Syriac clergy quoted the Sunni militants as telling the monastery's residents.

The Egyptian court that jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste and two other Al-Jazeera journalists for alleged ties with Islamists says "the devil guided" the group to spread false news defaming the country.

Islamic State militants claimed responsibility on Wednesday for an overnight suicide bombing in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad which killed 33 people, one of the deadliest recent attacks in the Iraqi capital.

Cairo Criminal Court adjourned on Tuesday the trial of Muslim Brotherhood leading figures Mohamed al-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy and others for allegedly kidnapping and torturing two policemen during a Muslim Brotherhood sit-in to 4 August.

The Egyptian army launched a security crackdown on Tuesday night in several areas in North Sinai, killing two "extremists", the army spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Cairo Criminal Court decided Tuesday to adjourn the trial of Muslim Brotherhood leaders Mohamed el-Beltagy and Safwat Hegazy to Aug. 4 to discuss the defendants’ request to change judges.

Azhar University will allocate 180 million EGP to develop the faculties that do not have buildings, such as the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine in Damietta. It will also inaugurate branches for the university at Sinai and Minya, head of Azhar University Osama al-Abd told Youm7 Tuesday.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility for the attack on al-Farafra checkpoint in New Valley that left 22 army personnel and border guards dead.

The death toll in Gaza rose to 517 on Monday after Israeli forces attacked Al-Aqsa hospital following the bloodiest day for six years in Palestine.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shells fired at the densely populated Gazan neighborhood of Shajaia, according to medical sources in Gaza, raising the Palestinian death toll to over 500 Palestinians since the two-week Israeli military offensive in Gaza

Minya Criminal Court on Monday acquitted Mamdouh Mabrouk, the director of the Muslim Brotherhood’s administrative office in Minya, along with four others in the Minya violence case.

The Israeli army attacked Gaza Strip on Monday morning and witnesses reported seeing white smoke, believed to be caused by phosphorus bombs. Doctors claimed receiving “charred bodies,” Al-Quds news website reported Monday.

The death toll from a brazen attack on a border post in Egypt’s western desert along the border with Libya has risen to 22 troops, including three officers, the military said Sunday.

The United States on Sunday sharpened its criticism of Hamas and urged the militant Palestinian group to accept a cease-fire agreement that would halt nearly two weeks of fighting with Israel.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Israel to "exercise maximum restraint" and spare the lives of civilians in its campaign in Gaza, where Sunday's Palestinian death toll passed 100.

Egyptian soldiers in north Sinai prevented an aid convoy of activists from reaching the Rafah border crossing with the embattled Palestinian Gaza Strip on Saturday, an AFP correspondent said.

Egypt has no plans to revise its ceasefire proposal to end fighting in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas, which has rejected the initiative, Cairo's foreign minister said on Saturday.

Former Prime Minister Hesham Qandil said in his first remarks after his release from prison that Egypt needs justice.