An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia TV presenter Moataz Matar to ten years in jail and a fine of LE 700 on charges of inciting to overthrow the regime and spreading false news, a judicial source told Aswat Masriya.

Same-sex marriage is a “deviation from normality”, the head of the Egyptian Church said on Monday as defenders of the practice push for its legalization across the globe.

Security forces imposed a total closure on three cities, Arish, Sheikh Zuwayed and Rafah, and their affiliated towns in North Sinai; a security source told Youm7 Wednesday.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack Tuesday on a Shia mosque in the Yemen capital that according to doctors killed one person and left five others wounded.

Pope Francis on Tuesday said protecting the planet was no longer a choice but a duty and called for a new "social justice" where access to the earth's resources would be based on equality instead of economic interests.

Five people were injured on Tuesday morning when a bomb exploded near a court in Egypt's Nile Delta governorate of Beheira, state news agency MENA reported.

A total of 38 NGOs, allegedly affiliated with the Muslim brotherhood, have been dissolved in Menoufia, Farag Suleiman, undersecretary of Ministry of Social Solidarity deputy in the governorate, said Tuesday.

US President Barack Obama said on Monday recent territory losses by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria show the extremist group will be defeated and pledged to increase US support for the moderate opposition in Syria's civil war.

The Salafi-led Nour Party has demanded the controversial anti-terrorism bill approved by the government to be suspended until it has been subjected to social debate.

A suicide bomber from Syria's al Qaeda offshoot the Nusra Front blew himself up in a Syrian army outpost in a contested neighbourhood in the divided northern city of Aleppo and killed at least 25 soldiers and allied militia and injured scores, a monitor said.

The Egyptian army has killed 241 terrorists in North Sinai over the past five days, the army's spokesman said in a statement on Monday.

An official source said that Egypt is among the least countries in the world that implement the death penalty, as onlyseven executions were implemented in the past two years. The sources predicted that the implementation of death sentences would increase in the coming period in light of the ongoing war on terrorism.

The Malian Islamist rebel group Ansar Dine claimed it carried out a series of attacks against U.N. peacekeepers and Malian army targets in the country’s capital, Bamako, and border areas near Ivory Coast and Mauritania.

The Cairo Criminal Court submitted the grounds on which former president Mohamed Morsi and five others were handed death sentences. They were given the sentences on charges of participating in storming Egyptian prisons, attacking police facilities, and killing security personnel.

The Egyptian army has killed 241 militants over the past five days, military spokesman Mohamed Samir announced on Monday.

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced on Sunday 23 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to ten years in prison over violence at the Media Production City (MPC) in August 2013.

Egypt’s military launched air strikes and ground operations that killed 25 Islamist militants in North Sinai on Sunday, security sources said, as the country grapples with an increasingly ambitious insurgency based in the region.

The Supreme Administrative Court on Sunday upheld an earlier verdict in which it turned down a petition demanding the dissolution of the Salafi-led Nour Party, citing its religious background that allegedly violates the political parties law.

The ultra-conservative Salafist Nour Party has launched a campaign against extremism and terrorism. "Egypt stronger than terrorism' aims to raise public awareness of the dangers of extremist ideas and protect the youth against them," Nour Party leader Younis Makhyoun said in a statement on Sunday.

Two civilians were killed and a third was injured in a blast in North Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid on Saturday, police sources said, raising the civilian death toll on Saturday to six.

With wooden crosses around their necks and others tattooed on their arms, several dozen Iraqi Christians are training to recapture their homes overrun by the Islamic State jihadist group.