Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II attempted on Monday to reassure Egyptians after the recent attacks on Copts in North Sinai, stressing that the Coptic families that have fled the governorate out of fear of terrorist violence will return to the city "when the time is right." At the start of this month, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced that 143 Christian families had fled North Sinai to Ismailiya after a spate of killings of Christians by Islamist militants in the governorate.

Islamic State's branch in the Sinai Peninsula posted a video on Tuesday depicting the beheading of two men the militant Islamist group said it had found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. The video, posted on a Telegram channel often used by IS, showed the group forming a religious police unit known as the Hasbah in northern Sinai, where it has waged an insurgency for years. The rugged, thinly populated peninsula borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai released a promotional video on Tuesday showing members of the organization carrying out what it alleges to be Hisba, or religious policing. The group claimed the footage is from locations in North Sinai, which it did not identify. Hisba is defined by religious scholars as the practice of commanding virtue and forbidding vice, professor of Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University Ahmed Kareema told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. He added that Hisba should be conducted by a select few who must be efficient, fair, knowledgeable and capable, describing it as a type of guardianship falling to those who have been entrusted with religious matters.

The Egyptian Armed Forces killed 40 militants and arrested another five in North Sinai during ‘Martyr Right’ army operations, an armed forces official spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. According to the statement, the Second Field Army engaged in military a week-long sweep, as part of the fourth stage of the ‘Martyr Right’ operation.

Cairo Criminal Court convicted 53 defendants Tuesday and cleared 92 others over various charges of violence and damages to public and private properties in the case now popularly known as the ‘Cabinet Incidents.’ The court sentenced 43 defendants to lifetime imprisonment, nine others to 10 years each, and one to 5 years.

Hezbollah said on Monday its battle with Nusra Front jihadists at the Syria-Lebanon border was almost over and urged remaining insurgents in the area to give up, pressing its campaign to take their last foothold at the frontier. With the Nusra Front almost beaten in the mountainous area on the outskirts of the Lebanese town of Arsal, the next phase is expected to focus on adjacent territory held by Islamic State militants. "We call on all militants ... to spare their blood and throw down their weapons," declared a statement from "resistance operations command" published by Hezbollah-run media.

Police and employees of the Nubia Museum in Aswan on Sunday foiled an attempt to steal a statue depicting goddess Isis breastfeeding her son Horus. A statement from the Antiquities Ministry indicated that the attempt occurred some time between 1:00pm and 4:00pm, when the museum was closed for lunch.

The Interior Ministry announced Sunday the assassination of eight Hassm terrorist group members in a shoot-out at a desert camp in Fayoum. Five other members were arrested in the Giza and Ismailia governorates.

Seven months after Libyan forces defeated Islamic State (IS) militants in the coastal city of Sirte, hundreds of bodies of foreign militants still lie stored in freezers as authorities negotiate with other governments to decide what to do with them, local officials say.

The Fatwa Committee of Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy has opened a number of kiosks in one of Cairo’s main underground metro stations to allow commuters to seek guidance on Islamic issues. The kiosks, which opened on Wednesday on a trial basis, are located within Shohada metro station and are open from 9am to 8pm daily.

Cairo Criminal Court found four Muslim Brotherhood members guilty of attempting to assassinate the head of Giza Criminal Court’s Chamber 14, Counselor Moataz Khafaji, and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Another six MB members convicted in the case received a 15-year sentence.

At least 30 civilians were killed Wednesday in separate bombing raids by the US-led coalition and pro-regime warplanes on jihadist-held territory in Syria, a monitor said. Fifteen of the victims died in coalition air strikes on a village near the Islamic State (IS) militant group s stronghold of Raqa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Wednesday that army forces affiliated with the Second Filed Army launched an intensive sweeping operation to arrest militants based in North Sinai. The operation led to the destruction of five 4-wheel vehicles and two stationing points for militants in North Sinai, in addition to targeting two stores of explosives.

Egyptian police have killed two members of the Hasm militant group in a shootout near New Cairo, a statement by the interior ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry says the two suspects, identified as Ahmed El-Bahnasawy and Emad El-Far, shot at police as they attempted to apprehend them. The ministry says the men were suspected of involvement in two deadly attacks in May against security forces, including a drive-by shooting in Cairo s Nasr City that killed three policemen and injured five others.

At least 547 boys at a German Catholic choir school suffered sexual or physical abuse in what victims have likened to "prison, hell or a concentration camp", said an investigator releasing a final report Tuesday on one of the country s worst such scandals. The Regensburger Domspatzen ("Cathedral Sparrows"), a 1,000-year-old cathedral choir in the southern state of Bavaria, was in 2010 dragged into the massive sexual abuse and paedophilia scandal plaguing the Catholic Church around the world.

A delegation of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement arrived in Cairo on Sunday evening, while a Egyptian security delegation headed to the Gaza Strip to discuss the security situation and coordinate on securing the Palestinian-Egyptian border.

Five police conscripts were killed on Monday when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated in North Sinai, a security source told state news agency MENA.

Egypt s army forces foiled an attempt to smuggle arms into the country through its western border with Libya, the military said Sunday. The Egyptian air forces launched a reconnaissance mission Saturday following intelligence received that "criminals" in 4x4 vehicles were in the process of crossing into Egypt, the army said in a statement

Egypt s army forces foiled an attempt to smuggle arms into the country through its western border with Libya, the military said Sunday. The Egyptian air forces launched a reconnaissance mission Saturday following intelligence received that "criminals" in 4x4 vehicles were in the process of crossing into Egypt, the army said in a statement During the operation, which ontinued into Sunday, forces destroyed 15 vehicles "laden with weapons, explosives and other smuggled items."

Egypt’s main Coptic Church decided on Thursday to suspend holding any conferences and organizing the church-sponsored trips to monasteries, Coptic Orthodox Church Head Bolus Hailm said. Halim told Egypt Independent that the decision came following consultations with the Interior Ministry, which recommended the suspension of the aforementioned activities until the end of the month of July. “Due to security concerns raised among churches’ officials against any gatherings of Copts in Egypt, the churches affiliated to the Coptic Orthodox Church consulted the main church to coordinate with the Interior Ministry to undertake any action,” he explained.

Young Muslims who become radicalized often invent a patchwork, imagined version of Islam that has little or nothing to do with the Quran. That s the conclusion drawn by scholars at the universities of Bielefeld and Osnabrück in Germany. They ve just published a book analyzing 5,757 messages from a WhatsApp group of 12 young men ahead of a Spring 2016 terrorist attack. The messages came from a mobile phone, seized by police, that had belonged to one of the young men involved in the attack.