Pope Francis criticized Western powers for trying to export their own brand of democracy to countries such as Iraq and Libya without respecting indigenous political cultures, according to an interview published on Monday.

Angelina Jolie lashed out at US presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday for his controversial remarks against Muslims, comments that have prompted waves of anger in Islamic communities

A group of 51 Muslim states has blocked 11 gay and transgender organizations from attending a high-level meeting at the United Nations next month on ending AIDS, sparking a protest by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta, the authority that issues Islamic edicts, warned on Monday against a reported android application that is made by the Islamic State militant group and is geared towards children.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has praised an initiative launched by Egypt’s Islamic Sunni Institute of Al-Azhar and the Coptic Orthodox Church against child abuse.

The United States and other world powers say they are ready to supply Libya’s internationally recognized governments with weapons to counter Islamic State and other terrorists and will push for exemptions to an arms embargo imposed on the country.

The United States and its allies conducted 14 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Sunday, the coalition leading the operations said.

Myanmar police said Monday said they have begun legal action against five protesters over a weekend rally intended to promote religious tolerance.

One police conscript was killed and a junior officer injured in a terrorist bomb blast in Arish, North Sinai, on early on Sunday.

There are signs that Nigeria's Boko Haram jihadists are sending fighters to join Islamic State in Libya, and of increased cooperation between the two groups, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 Yemeni police recruits in the southeastern port city of Mukalla on Sunday, medics said, the second attack this week claimed by the Islamic State group.

The Islamic State( IS) group launched a coordinated assault on a natural gas plant north of Baghdad that killed at least 14 people, while a string of other bomb attacks in or close to the capital killed 15 others, Iraqi officials said.

A Turkish soldier and six members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed on Sunday, the Turkish military said, in the latest violence related to the insurgency in the largely Kurdish southeast.

Pope Francis says he’s willing to create a commission to study whether women can serve as deacons in the Catholic Church, signaling the possibility of letting women serve in ordained ministry.

Donald Trump, who issued a December press release "calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," said Wednesday such a ban "hasn't been called for yet" and it was "only a suggestion."

The United States and its allies conducted 19 strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement Thursday.

Witnesses say a bomb has exploded outside the state secretariat offices in a bustling downtown area of Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Pope Francis said Thursday he is prepared to set up a commission to study the possibility of women entering the Catholic clergy at the rank of deacon, one below a priest.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkish forces have killed some 3,000 Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, insisting that no other country has matched Turkey’s efforts against the extremist group.

Forces in western Libya are preparing to advance on the city of Sirte, seized by Islamic State last year, their spokesman said, pushing ahead with plans for a counter-attack after the Islamists made territorial gains in the last week.

The US-led coalition on Tuesday staged 14 strikes against Islamic State in its latest round of daily strikes on the militant group in Iraq and Syria, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement.