The United States has launched a social media offensive against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, setting out to win the war of ideas by ridiculing the militants with a mixture of blunt language and sarcasm. Diplomats and experts are the first to admit that the digital blitz being waged on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube will never be a panacea to combat the jihadists.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, a semi-governmental religious body responsible for issuing fatwas, said Saturday that chatting between male and female strangers on the internet is prohibited unless it is extremely necessary.

Residents of Mahdia village, south of Rafah, uncovered two beheaded bodies, buried without their families being informed, bringing the number of bodies found during the past few days to seven.

An Egyptian jihadist group on Thursday (Aug 28) released a video in which it claimed responsibility for beheading four men accused of being "Israeli informants" before showing the victims' decapitated bodies.

Minya's criminal court on Thursday sentenced two alleged supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi to life in jail and seven others to 28 years on charges of attacking a police station during last summer's violent upheaval, Egypt's state-run TV reported.

Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has refused to answer questions on allegations he leaked top secret documents to Qatar, Al-Ahram Arabic newspaper reported.

The Islamist Al-Wasat Party, one of the most prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood-led National Alliance in Support of Legitimacy, withdrew from the coalition on Thursday, citing the need to be part of a wider alliance.

Egypt's police said on Wednesday that the mastermind of a new alleged militant group in south Cairo is the son-in-law of Khairat El-Shater, the Muslim Brotherhood's second-in-command.

One year after the attacks, Mina Thabet can still see the ruins in his mind; a seemingly endless series of scorched, hollowed-out church buildings, schools, homes and businesses stretching out across Egypt. On Aug. 14, 2013, thousands of Muslims began a four-day rampage throughout the country seeking revenge for the military-backed, popular ouster of the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. They attacked anything remotely associated with Christ, Christians or Christianity.

A year after dozens of churches in Egypt were destroyed in a wave of anti-Christian violence, some Coptic Christians are still gathering to worship on top of church ruins.

The Canadian wife of an ex-aide to Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, whose husband has been detained more than 400 days in solitary confinement, says she has brought a case to the United Nations this week, seeking support for his release.

The United Nations accused Islamic State insurgents on Wednesday of committing war crimes including amputations and public executions, sometimes in the presence of children, and said it believed Damascus had used chlorine gas in combating its enemies.

Following the arrest of five militants of the jihadist cell calling itself Helwan Brigades on Tuesday, security Wednesday were able to detect the whereabouts of seven other suspects, an official source told Youm7.

Israel and the Palestinians have reached a Gaza ceasefire deal and an official announcement will be made in Egypt, where the agreement was mediated, a Gaza-basedHamas spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that Qatar, Turkey, the United States and the Muslim Brotherhood are funding new online media projects that "aim to undermine Egypt's stability."

Military spokesperson Mohamed Samir said the Second Army arrested four wanted terrorists in Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah, destroyed a vehicle and six motorcycles without license plates that were allegedly used in carrying out terrorist attacks, and destroyed five tunnels in Rafah.

The situation of Coptic Christians in Egypt has improved since the 2013 military overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood, and conversions from Islam to Coptic Christianity are on the rise, according to a report that appears on the website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The Canadian wife of an ex-aide to Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, whose husband has been detained more than 400 days in solitary confinement, says she has brought a case to the United Nations this week, seeking support for his release.

Cairo Criminal Court decided on Monday to postpone the trial of deposed President Mohamed Morsy and 14 other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood to 11 October.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said that Egypt will not give up on supporting the Palestinian cause, adding that his stance is clear in establishing a Palestinian state on lands that were occupied in 1948 with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

Hamas political deputy Samy Abu Zoheiry denied Monday media reports claiming Egypt would announce a new cease-fire proposal between Palestine and Israel.