An offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for last week's car bomb attack on a checkpoint in western Turkey, a news agency which regularly releases news from the PKK said on Wednesday.

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s attacks on North Sinai police checkpoints which Egyptian authorities say killed eight policemen and one civilian. The militant group claimed that the death toll was higher than that reported by Egyptian authorities. “Twenty-five policemen were killed on Monday in a surprise attack launched by the Islamic State’s fighters on El-Matafe checkpoint in El-Masaeed neighbourhood west of Al-Arish in North Sinai,” the group’s Amaq news agency said in a statement.

Iraqi forces have fought their way into two more southeastern districts of Mosul but their advances are being slowed by Islamic State (IS) tactic of using civilians for cover, a military spokesman said on Tuesday. The United Nations said civilian casualties had streamed into nearby hospitals in the last two weeks as fighting intensified in the Islamist militia's last major stronghold in Iraq.

Two militant attacks hit two police checkpoints at dawn on Monday in the North Sinai city of Al-Arish. Both attacks left eight policemen and one civilian killed, according to a statement issued by the Interior Ministry’s official Facebook page.

The Giza Criminal Court decided on Monday to suspend the trial of 379 defendants in the case known as “Al-Nahda sit-in dispersal” until the court rules a final verdict in the dissolution of the case’s judges’ panel.

The Libyan army announced on Sunday that it has killed an Egyptian militant affiliated with the IS group in the east of Libyan town Ajdabiya, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported, citing a Libyan army source.

A car bomb blast killed at least 12 people and wounded 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said. The explosion hit the mainly Shi'ite district of Jamila, the sources said.

Four more suspects have been arrested over involvement in Botroseya Church blast, which occurred last month leaving 28 worshippers dead.

The Shubra El-Kheima Criminal Court sentenced Thursday three Muslim Brotherhood members to five years in prison in the case of blocking Qalyub highway. The sentenced defendants include Abdel-Rahman Al-Bar, the group’s top cleric, local media reported.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayeb paid a visit on Wednesday to the Coptic Cathedral in Cairo to offer tidings to Pope Tawadros II on the occasion of the Coptic Orthodox Christmas on 7 January. El-Tayeb was accompanied by high clergymen and youth from Al-Azhar institution.

Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi and other high ranking officials from the Armed Forces paid a visit on Wednesday to Saint Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral where they met with Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria to congratulate him on the occasion of the Christmas feast, according to a video released on the army spokesperson’s Facebook page.

Egypt's endowments minister visited on Tuesday Pope Tawadros II in the Abbasiya Cathedral to extend his good wishes prior to the Eastern Coptic Christmas on 7 January, state news agency MENA reported.

The Western Cairo Prosecution ordered on Monday that the detention of police officer Karim Magdy and three other low-ranking officers be extended for an additional 15 days. Magdy and the others have been charged with torturing street vendor Magdy Makeen to death last November.

A suicide car bomb attack in a densely-populated neighbourhood of Baghdad on Monday killed at least 32 people and left dozens wounded, police and hospital officials said.

Turkish authorities believe the attacker who killed 39 people at an Istanbul nightclub over the New Year is linked to Islamic State (IS) jihadists and may be from Central Asia, the Hurriyet daily said. Hurriyet said

A military court in Upper Egypt's Assiut sentenced on Sunday 175 people to life in prison and acquitted 10 on charges of committing violence and storming the Malawy museum in Minya in 2013.

The Egyptian Armed Forces announced on Saturday evening that it has finished the renovation work on the St. Peter and St. Paul Church, which was attacked on 11 December by a suicide bomber allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State.

Security services in governorates across Egypt resumed on Wednesday tightened measures taken to secure churches ahead of the Christmas celebrations.

The Cairo Criminal Court ordered on Tuesday the release of ten defendants on health grounds in the case known as the “Rabaa sit-in dispersal”, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide and 738 others.

Streets decorated with lights, trees with garlands and ornaments in most malls and city centres, people taking pictures with the tree while Christmas songs play in the background—this is the Christmas spirit in Egypt. Despite the fact that Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus, many Muslims share the different festive rituals of Christmas with Christians. For many Muslims, decorating their houses with Christmas trees, having dinner together on Christmas Eve, and exchanging gifts with friends are as essential as buying “Halawet El-Mouled” (candy distributed to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad).

Pope Francis said on Saturday that Christmas had been "taken hostage" by dazzling materialism that puts God in the shadows and blinds many to the needs of the hungry, the migrants and the war weary.