Iraqi forces retook two villages in Anbar on Monday as part of their operations against the Islamic State group in the western province, security officials said.

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced two defendants to three years in jail over charges of rioting and violence charges outside the Shura Council in November of 2013.

Gunmen suspected to be gang members shot dead five local residents at the weekend near Nigeria's oil city of Port Harcourt, the police said on Monday.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a car bomb that exploded outside the Italian Consulate in Cairo on Saturday, killing one person and injuring ten.

Egypt’s army spokesperson Bridger General Mohamed Samir announced on Sunday that the army had killed 252 alleged militants in raids in North Sinai between 1 and 11 July.

A bomb explosion in a tunnel near Aleppo Citadel in Syria on Sunday damaged a wall of the fortress that is part of the UNESCO-listed Old City, state media and a monitor reported.

At least 18 people were killed Sunday in a suicide car bomb attack near a military base in Afghanistan's eastern province of Khost, where Afghan and foreign soldiers are stationed, authorities said.

Egyptian security forces have detained 21 members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in fresh sweeps, bringing the total number of group members detained over the past week to 231, according to the Interior Ministry.

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria announced on Wednesday that the Coptic church would stop holding its weekly meeting at Cairo's Abbasiya Cathedral, in view of renovations to the building towards its golden jubilee in 2018.

A police detective in Beni Suef died early Thursday morning when unknown attackers shot him in the neck and chest, according to the Health Ministry in the province.

An explosive device went off in North Sinai's al-Arish town on Thursday, targeting a security patrol and injuring 18 policemen, reported the state news agency MENA.

Former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh has urged young members of his party to stay in Egypt, despite the increased number of arrests of anti-government activists.

Pope Francis on Wednesday praised Bolivia's social reforms to spread wealth under leftist President Evo Morales and urged the world not to view prosperity as material wealth, which he warned only breeds corruption and conflict.

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia TV presenter Moataz Matar to ten years in jail and a fine of LE 700 on charges of inciting to overthrow the regime and spreading false news, a judicial source told Aswat Masriya.

Same-sex marriage is a “deviation from normality”, the head of the Egyptian Church said on Monday as defenders of the practice push for its legalization across the globe.

Security forces imposed a total closure on three cities, Arish, Sheikh Zuwayed and Rafah, and their affiliated towns in North Sinai; a security source told Youm7 Wednesday.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack Tuesday on a Shia mosque in the Yemen capital that according to doctors killed one person and left five others wounded.

Pope Francis on Tuesday said protecting the planet was no longer a choice but a duty and called for a new "social justice" where access to the earth's resources would be based on equality instead of economic interests.

Five people were injured on Tuesday morning when a bomb exploded near a court in Egypt's Nile Delta governorate of Beheira, state news agency MENA reported.

A total of 38 NGOs, allegedly affiliated with the Muslim brotherhood, have been dissolved in Menoufia, Farag Suleiman, undersecretary of Ministry of Social Solidarity deputy in the governorate, said Tuesday.

US President Barack Obama said on Monday recent territory losses by Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria show the extremist group will be defeated and pledged to increase US support for the moderate opposition in Syria's civil war.