The administration of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has announced a three-month extension to a state of emergency it imposed on parts of the northern Sinai Peninsula as the country’s military launches counterterrorism operations against jihadists in the region.

The Isis-linked group that claimed to have downed a Russian plane over the Sinai peninsula has surface-to-air missiles smuggled from Libya, but nothing powerful enough to hit a plane at cruising altitude, experts say. The jihadi group, which calls itself Sinai Province, proved it posed a serious threat to low-flying aircraft when it brought down a military helicopter flying low over the area last year, and they could pose a serious threat to civilian airliners taking off and landing at the region’s airports.

The Salafi-led Nour Party claimed success in taking over ten seats out of the 23 it was competing for in runoffs for the first round of parliamentary elections that ended Wednesday.

Syria’s main political opposition body and representatives of the armed opposition have not been invited to international talks on the country’s war, an opposition politician and a rebel leader said.

An Al-Azhar University professor was suspended for inviting Iranians to a conference he was planning to organize at his department, Youm7 reported Thursday.

Suppression of the Gezi Park protests, press censorship, erosion of the constitution. But Erdogan and ‘his’ AKP party are still popular in Turkey ahead of Sunday’s elections. Daniel Heinrich reports from Kayseri.

A Saudi blogger sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Muslim clerics has won the European Union’s prestigious Sakharov Prize for human rights.

A Nour Party parliamentary candidate was hospitalised on Tuesday after two men forced him out of his car and attacked him.

The Islamic State group advanced on Tuesday to the outskirts of a major government military stronghold in northern Syria, a monitoring group said.

A woman wearing the niqab was caught trying to vote using another citizen’s national ID in a polling station in Kerdasa, Giza on Tuesday. The incident was reported and confirmed by several obvservers, including the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights (NCHR).

The world's oldest bible is among 200 objects tracing Egypt's religious evolution in an exhibition at London's British Museum, which opens Friday and spans the 1,200 years since Cleopatra's death.

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 14 people in an overnight attack on a village in southeastern Niger, security sources said on Wednesday.

The chairman of the Salafi-led Nour Party has said that the low turnout by voters during the runoff elections in the first round of parliamentary elections serves as “a strong message to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi”.

The Court of Administrative Justice lifted the ban on Islamic preacher Mohamed Gibril on Tuesday. Cairo International Airport authorities prevented Gibril from flying to London in July on charges of inciting against the country and the president. He filed a lawsuit in which he said that he usually travels during Ramadan to Islamic capitals and western countries to lead prayers in major mosques and Islamic centers, then comes back to hold the special prayers on the twenty-seventh of the holy month at Amr ibn al-Aas mosque.

A man was sentenced to three years in prison for joining the Muslim Brotherhood’s local branch after it was banned.

Saudi Arabia says one of its citizens carried out the suicide bombing at a mosque in the country's south the previous night — an attack for which the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Former secretary general of Muslim Brotherhood’s dissolved Freedom and Justice Party Hussein Ibrahim was arrested Monday evening in the Mediterranean city of Marsa Matrouh, Youm7 reported.

A total of 25 militants were killed in exchanges of fire with security forces over the past two days, according to a statement by the armed forces Sunday.

A police officer was shot in the shoulder by unknown assailants late Sunday in the Delta governorate of Sharqeya.

A gunfire exchange in Ismailia on Sunday left three suspected militants dead and three security personnel injured including two police officers and one soldier, according to official sources.

Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence for the popular Shiite leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on “sedition” charges. The sheikh’s life now depends on the possibility of a royal pardon by King Salman.