Suspected Boko Haram gunmen on horseback killed at least 11 people in northeast Nigeria this week, two civilian vigilantes assisting the military told AFP on Thursday.

Islamic State militants seized Syrian government-controlled territory in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday, a war monitor and a news agency affiliated with the ultra-hardline Islamist group said.

The lawyer for the victims of the 2011 Two Saints Church bombing said on Thursday he is preparing a file on the case and will submit it to the presidency soon.

A huge fire broke out early on Wednesday at Mar Girgis Catholic Church in Luxor. Fire fighters headed to the church, but the blaze had already gutted the whole building. The reason behind the fire have not been identified yet, according to church sources, but investigation authorities are looking for the cause.

The residents of North Sinai's Arish not only have to put up with the struggle of the "war against terrorism," but they also have to deal with the unavailability of clean drinking water, which has been gone for up to a week.

Three police conscripts were killed and 13 others injured Tuesday after unidentified assailants hit a convoy with a rocket-propelled grenade in North Sinai, the Interior Ministry announced.

Thai police cannot find 15 suspects in connection with a bomb at a shrine in Bangkok last year that killed 20 people, an officer said on Wednesday, as two ethnic Uighur Muslims from China accused of involvement appeared in a military court.

Islamic State militants seized Syrian government-controlled territory in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday, a war monitor and a news agency affiliated with the ultra-hardline Islamist group said.

A total of 26 tourist companies announced they are organizing pilgrimage trips for Coptic Christians from Egypt to Jerusalem despite of the ban imposed by the Orthodox Church since 1979.

There are signs that more Islamic State inspired militants have been sent to Belgium and Europe, Belgian authorities said on Tuesday, maintaining the country’s threat status at the second-highest level.

German police arrested five people near Dresden on Tuesday who they suspected of forming a far-right militant group and preparing attacks on asylum seekers using explosives, the public prosecutor’s office said.

Taliban militants attacked an office of Afghanistan’s main security agency with a suicide car bomb and gunfire on Tuesday, killing several people and wounding over 200, in their first assault on the capital since declaring a spring offensive.

At least three policemen were killed and eight others injured in an attack on their vehicle in the city of Sheikh Zuwaid, North Sinai, officials said Tuesday.

A total of 16 defendants received sentences ranging between 10 to 15 years jail over charges of inciting violence in al-Shohadaa square in Helwan July 26, 2013, southern Cairo, Youm7 reported.

Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail UN-led peace talks.

With Italian lessons and strolls around Rome, the 12 Syrian asylum seekers Pope Francis brought back with him from Lesbos are settling into new lives, their hosts said Monday.

Boko Haram fighters on Monday attacked Nigerian soldiers in the northeast of the country, where the jihadists have been waging a seven-year insurgency, the army said.

Two people were killed and 11 injured in a bomb blast in Arish, North Sinai, on Monday. According to security sources, an explosive device was planted by terrorists on Khazan Street, in the city of Arish.

Egypt's Court of Cassation overturned on Sunday three-year jail sentences for 17 Al-Azhar students convicted of rioting in December 2013.

The United States and its allies have conducted 26 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Sunday.

Founders of an anti-niqab (face veil) initiative will be investigated for “threatening national security and societal peace,” according to an attorney-general decision Sunday.