The Islamic State group has launched a counteroffensive in Syria's northern province of Raqqa, retaking wide areas the militants recently lost to government troops.

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the kingdom's Shi'ite Muslim majority, the state news agency reported on Monday, prompting protests outside his home and a sharp rebuke from an Iranian paramilitary chief.

A Harvard professor who caused a huge splash when she unveiled a small fragment of papyrus that she said referred to Jesus being married now says it's likely a forgery. Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King presented the piece of papyrus in Rome in 2012. The fragment, written in Coptic, includes the phrase, "Jesus said to them, My wife."

The Islamic State militant group launched a counter attack against fighters trying to capture the Syrian city of Manbij on Monday, inflicting heavy casualties on the U.S.-backed forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the militants said.

Taliban fighters in the southern Afghan province of Helmand stopped vehicles and detained at least 25 people, officials said on Tuesday, as the insurgents continued a series of abductions on Afghanistan's highways over the past few weeks.

A number of militants opened fire at a policeman outside his home in Arish city, North Sinai, leaving him dead, according to a Monday statement by the Interior Ministry.

Turkish border guards shot dead at least 11 Syrians, mostly from one family, as they tried to cross into Turkey from northwestern Syria, activists and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

More than 20 people were killed in separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan on Monday, including at least 14 when a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying Nepalese security contractors in the Afghan capital, officials said.

Libya's UN-backed unity government condemned an attack by a newly-formed militia group on eastern military forces close to key oil facilities, as clashes resumed on Sunday for a second day.

Somalia's al Shebab militants killed five police officers in a border region in northeastern Kenya on Monday, a regional official said.

After the Cairo Court sentenced former president Mohamed Morsi to life imprisonment on Saturday, Qatar and Egypt have exchanged strongly worded statements, with the Qatari government condemning the Egyptian Judiciary's version of Qatar's involvement in the case and calling into question the judiciary's integrity.

Egypt's foreign ministry slammed Sunday the reaction of its Qatari counterpart to the court verdict against former president Mohamed Morsi in what is known as the Qatar espionage case.

Cairo Criminal Court has sentenced former President Mohamed Morsy to life in prison for spying for Qatar, along with the head of his presidential office Ahmed Abdel Aaty and personal secretary Amin al-Serafy.

The Islamic State (IS) group tried Sunday to break a siege on their last holdouts in Sirte but were pushed back by fighters allied to Libya's unity government, a spokesman said.

Donald Trump says the country should "seriously" consider profiling Muslims in the United States as a terrorism-fighting tool.

Despite suffering major losses in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group can still conduct and inspire attacks across the globe, America's spy chief warned senior lawmakers Thursday. John Brennan, the director of the CIA, testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee amid renewed fears about IS and the threat of terror attacks, after a gunman slaughtered 49 people in a Florida gay nightclub.

Egypt's Interior Ministry says four masked gunmen have stormed a house in the North Sinai city of Arish and shot dead two policemen inside.

Once Islamic State is defeated, Iraq should be divided into three separate entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed, with a state each given to Shi'ite Muslims, Sunnis and Kurds, a top Kurdish official said on Thursday.

Two police officers were killed in Al-Arish, North Sinai, in the early hours of Thursday morning, said the Interior Ministry in an official statement. The officers were killed inside their homes, which are located in the Masaeed district near an Arish police station. Four anonymous gunmen attacked with open fire on their homes, according to the ministry.

CIA Director John Brennan will tell Congress on Thursday that Islamic State militants are training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for their territorial losses.

Prosecution authorities have extended by 15 days the detention of prominent lawyer Malek Adly , said defence lawyer Zyad El-Elaimy.