One party — the banned Muslim Brotherhood — will be conspicuously absent from ballot papers Sunday when Egypt's voters head to the polls for long-delayed parliamentary elections.

The defendants faced a number of major charges, including attempting a military coup, terrorism and joining the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as attempting to forcibly occupy public institutions.

Hardline Muslims in Indonesia's conservative Aceh province on Sunday demanded the local government close 10 Christian churches, just days after a mob burnt down a church, leaving one person dead and several injured.

Two bombs exploded Sunday morning, on the first day of parliamentary elections, in front of one of the schools in Kerdasa. No injuries were reported.

Al-Nour Party will lead shuttle-tours in a number of provinces on the last campaigning day for the forthcoming parliamentary elections, to mobilise the largest possible number of votes. Figures of the Salafists community, including Yasser Al Borhamy, and Younes Makhioun will be participating in the conferences.

An Egyptian criminal court cleared on Thursday Mohamed Rabie Al-Zawahri from charges against him in what is known in the media as the "Zawahri cell" case, but prosecutors were quick to file a new case against him for forming a terrorist group called "Alta'efa AlMansoura" (The Victorious Sect).

A conscript and a citizen died late Wednesday in a blast that detonated in the North Sinai city of El-Arish, Egypt's interior ministry announced in a statement.

Islamist parties will be largely absent on the polling cards in Egypt’s upcoming elections, with the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest Islamist group, outlawed and in disarray, and other Islamists boycotting.

The “no to religious parties” popular campaign, which strives to pressure the Egyptian authorities to dissolve all religious parties, announced Wednesday it had collected 2 million signatures of support so far, Youm7 reported.

Four imams have been banned from delivering sermons and transferred to administrative positions until investigations into alleged membership in the Muslim Brotherhood are completed.

Two civilians were injured in blasts caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on Tuesday night, the Interior Ministry said

Islamic State militants battled rival insurgent groups on Wednesday north of the city of Aleppo, where officials say the Syrian army is preparing an offensive of its own backed by Iranian soldiers and Russian jets.

Pope Francis asked forgiveness Wednesday for recent scandals that have hit Rome and the Vatican, showing once again he doesn't much care about making waves if it's for the sake of reassuring his flock.

The Islamic State group's spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the killing of the militant organisation's second in command in a US air strike earlier this year.

The ministry of religious endowment announced on Tuesday the names of Egyptians killed and missing in September's hajj stampede in Saudi Arabia, state news agency MENA reported.

Nigeria has warned civilians that Boko Haram is using deadly cluster bombs but campaigners say the Islamists may have got the banned weapons from the military in the first place.

Egyptian censorship authorities detained on Saturday the director of the Christian TV channel SAT-7 and confiscated studio equipment, on charges of operating without a licence, the channel said on Monday.

Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta announced on Tuesday that Wednesday would mark the Hijiri new year 1437 According to an astronomical observation undertaken by Dar Al-Ifta, Egypt's state religious institution, Wednesday will mark the first day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar.

A group linked to Al-Qaida’s North Africa branch in Tunisia says it has executed a shepherd it abducted Sunday from a mountainous zone near the Algerian border.

Egypt’s Court of Cassation overturned the convictions of five men who were sentenced to death for storming a police station and killing 11 policemen in the town of Kerdasa in 2013.

Islamic State is the focus of investigations into a twin suicide bombing that killed at least 97 people in the Turkish capital Ankara and investigators are close to identifying one of the suspects, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.