Pope Francis is leading a determined push to fundamentally alter the relationship between the Vatican and China, which for decades has been infused with mutual suspicion and acrimony. Interviews with some two dozen Catholic officials and clergy in Hong Kong, Italy and mainland China, as well as sources with ties to the leadership in Beijing, reveal details of an agreement that would fall short of full diplomatic ties but would address key issues at the heart of the bitter divide between the Vatican and Beijing.

Air strikes killed at least 12 civilians including children in two rebel-held neighbourhoods of Syria's Aleppo city on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Britain-based monitoring group said it was unclear whether the strikes were carried out by Syrian government or Russian warplanes.

Acourt in Minya ordered Wednesday the release of eight defendants held against the backdrop of a sectarian strife that occurred in the governorate in May, during which an elderly Coptic woman was stripped off her clothes. The group is the last to be released out of a total of 16 defendants. The defendants were released on EGP 10,000 bail each, reported state-run newspaper Al-Ahram. Dozens had looted and torched at least seven homes belonging to Coptic families in the village of El-Karam, according to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Three army conscripts were killed and another 12 injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) that targeted their armoured vehicle in the North Sinai city of Al-Arish, several residents told Daily News Egypt Wednesday evening on condition of anonymity.

A suspected recruiter for Somalia's al Shabaab militant group being held in a west Kenyan police station shot dead at least four officers there on Thursday after snatching a weapon from a guard, an officer said. The incident took place at Kapenguria police station in a region near the Ugandan border.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the recent murder of a nun and a businessman in the Wadi al-Natrun area, near the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, according to source from Giza security department.

Egyptian authorities said on Tuesday that Muslim clerics will be required to read out identical pre-written weekly sermons as part of the government's campaign against extremism, drawing angry criticism from some preachers.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has issued a decree to extend the state of emergency in parts of North Sinai for another three months, as of July 29.

The Egyptian government said Tuesday that Muslim preachers in the country must now adhere to speeches issued by the Ministry of Religious Endowments during Friday sermons; a controversial move that authorities say is aimed at combating extremism.

At least 11 civilians, including three children, were killed in air strikes on a rebel-held town in Syria's northwestern Idlib province on Wednesday, a monitor said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said it was unclear if the strikes on the town of Ariha in Idlib province were carried out by Syrian government or Russian war planes.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said yesterday that Turkey did not take any steps to normalize its relations with Egypt, but it would like to launch such steps after it had recently improved its relations with Russia and Israel.

Revelations of a secret meeting between a leading Egyptian Salafist and former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni have set Egyptian media ablaze.

Egyptian authorities said on Tuesday Muslim clerics would be required to read out identical pre-written weekly sermons as part of the government's campaign against extremism, drawing angry criticism from some preachers.

A series of attacks against Christians in Egypt has prompted the Coptic Orthodox Archbishop of Minya to call on police to enforce the law protecting citizens from sectarian violence.

A roadside bomb killed two Egyptian policemen on Tuesday in North Sinai, according to the interior ministry. Two other police personnel and a conscript were wounded in the bombing that hit a passing police patrol in the provincial capital of Al-Arish, the ministry added in a statement.

A local official in central Mali was killed on Monday in an attack that left his body "riddled" with bullets, security sources and an eyewitness told AFP.

Two policemen were killed and three injured in a bomb blast in Arish city, according to an Interior Ministry statement released on Monday.

In the first such visit for nearly a decade, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, offering Cairo’s help in reviving peace talks with Palestine. Mr. Shoukry’s visit is the first by a high-level Egyptian official to Israel since 2007.

Egyptian security forces foiled Sunday an attack that was set to target a security checkpoint in North Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid city, the Egyptian military said.

The chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare tells Breitbart News that America’s longtime ally Egypt is turning to Russia for military assistance because the Obama administration has “abandoned” the North African country.