A twin suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State killed 70 people in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Sunday in the deadliest attack inside the capital this year, as militants launched an assault on its western outskirts.

Iraqi officials say the death toll from back-to-back market bombings carried out by the Islamic State group the previous day in eastern Baghdad has climbed to 73.

Turkey intends to invite Egypt to the to the 13th Summit of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul next April, Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Aircraft attacked a convoy carrying suspected Islamic State militants near the northwestern Libyan town of Bani Walid early on Sunday, an official said.

Father Theodore Al Antoui from Anba Antonius Monastery in Egypt’s Eastern Desert was consecrated the new Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Jerusalem Sunday following the death of Anba Abraham, Youm7 reported.

The United States and its allies conducted 24 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Sunday.

Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II enthroned a new Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop for Jerusalem and the Near East on Sunday. Archbishop Theodor Antonine was ordained in a ceremony attended by the ambassadors of Palestine and Syria, according to a statement posted on Pope Tawadros II's official website. He was ordained in the name Antonios, in honour of Saint Anotny. The latter is also known as Antony of Egypt and is considered to be the Father of All Monks, Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.

Cairo Criminal Court sentenced three people to 10 years of hard labor Sunday during a retrial of the case known as the “Zeitoun terrorist cell,” Youm7 reported.

Four Coptic Christian school students ages 15 and 16, have been sentenced to five years in jail on charges of contempt of religion.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives approved on Wednesday a bill that urges for the US State Department to either list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization or justify the reason for not doing so.

Aminya juvenile court sentenced Thursday four minors to be imprisoned for five years on charges of contempt of Islam. The four Coptic minors were charged with “mocking Islamic prayer rituals” and publishing a video “which disrupts public order”, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF).

An Egyptian lawyer says a court in the country’s south has convicted four Coptic teenagers of contempt for Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers.

Companies from 20 countries are involved in the supply chain of components that end up in Islamic State explosives, a study found on Thursday, suggesting governments and firms need to do more to track the flow of cables, chemicals and other equipment.

The committee tasked with managing the Muslim Brotherhood group's funds confiscated on Wednesday 7.204 per cent of Juhayna's shares, owned by businessman Safwan Thabet, for alleged Brotherhood ties.

The Syrian army and Islamic State militants waged fierce battles on Wednesday around Khanaser, a strategic town southeast of Aleppo, where an attack by the jihadist group has cut the main land route to the city during three days of fighting.

Islamic State (IS) group in Libya briefly took over the security headquarters in the western city of Sabratha, killing and beheading 12 security officers before being driven out early Wednesday morning, two city security officials said. The incident highlighted the enduring presence and unpredictable striking power of the local IS group militants in this strategic city which serves as a hub for migrants heading to Europe.

Russia is urging the Taliban to start direct talks with the central government in Afghanistan and hopes that such negotiations will begin soon, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Wednesday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Wednesday his government was ready to help implement a cessation of hostilities in Syria.

Prosecutors ordered on Tuesday that a judge be placed under detention for four days pending investigation over alleged contempt of court during a disciplinary board hearing held for a number of judges for supporting former president Mohamed Mursi.

A Cairo criminal court ordered on Tuesday the release of prominent Jihadist Mohamed El-Zawahri on parole pending trial.

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Italy over the 2003 kidnapping by the CIA of an Egyptian imam who had been granted political asylum by Italian authorities.