Pope Francis has changed church teaching about the death penalty, saying it can never be sanctioned because it "attacks" the inherent dignity of all humans. The Vatican said Thursday that Francis had changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teaching.

Egypt has condemned two terrorist attacks that killed over two dozen people in Afghanistan on Tuesday. Fifteen people were killed in Afghanistan s eastern city of Jalalabad when gunmen stormed a government building after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance gate. Eleven more were killed in the western province of Farah when their bus was hit by a roadside bomb.

A bishop who was found dead at the monastery he headed in northern Egypt was not killed as an act of terrorism, a monk at the monastery has said. Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on Sunday, in what the Coptic Orthodox Church described as “strange circumstances.”

Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Church has announced that the funeral of a bishop who was found dead inside a monastery will be held on Tuesday. A post on the church s official Facebook page said the funeral for Bishop Epiphanius, the head of Anba Makar Monastery in Beheira governorate, will take place at the monastery at noon.

The Islamic State group kidnapped dozens of Druze women and children when it attacked their villages last week in Syria s southern province of Sweida, a monitor said Monday. More than 250 people were killed on Wednesday when IS carried out a string of suicide attacks and shootings in the provincial capital Sweida and villages to the north and east.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into people waiting outside a busy polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least 31 and casting a dark shadow on what was to be a historic day for the country as Pakistanis cast ballots to elect their thirds consecutive civilian government. The attack in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, underscored the difficulties this majority Muslim nation faces on its wobbly journey toward sustained democracy. The bombing also wounded 35 people, with several reported to be in critical condition, raising concerns the death toll could rise further, said hospital official Jaffar Kakar, a doctor.

Egypt s security forces killed 13 terrorist elements in an exchange of fire in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday, Al-Ahram s Arabic website reported. According to Al-Ahram, security forces received information that a group of terrorist elements were using an under-construction building as a hideout in a village near Arish city.

The Syrian army has captured some areas held by Islamic State (IS) militants in a region of the southwest near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state media said on Tuesday. Engineering units were sweeping the areas taken in the Yarmouk basin region for mines and booby traps, it reported, citing a military source.

Eighteen people have been killed in an attack by suspected Boko Haram jihadists in the Lake Chad region, a Chadian military source said Sunday. “Boko Haram elements attacked a village south of Daboua,” not far from Chad’s border with Niger, at around 9:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Thursday, the military source said.

Kurdish security forces killed gunmen who had stormed a government building in the Kurdish city of Erbil on Monday and took hostages in an attack suspected of being carried out by Islamic State (IS) militants, security officials said, Armed with pistols, AK-47 rifles and hand grenades, the assailants shot their way into the building housing the governorate from the main gate and a side entrance.

Several thousand residents evacuated two pro-regime towns in northern Syria on Thursday, putting an end to one of the longest sieges of the country s seven-year civil war. Fuaa and Kafraya in Idlib province were the last remaining areas under blockade in Syria and a rare example of pro-government towns surrounded by rebel forces.

Egypt s Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb met on Wednesday with officials from the Christian-Muslim forum, originally established in the UK in 2006, to discuss challenges currently facing religious clerics all over the world. He explained that the main challenge facing clerics, especially in the west, is to spread the true teachings and values of religions, as many societies are subject to a consumer lifestyle far from religious ethics and values.

Islamic State group fighters attacked the house of a Taliban commander in the northern Afghan province of Sar-e Pul on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people as they were attending a prayer ceremony, the provincial governor s office said. The attack, in Sayyad district of Sar-e Pul, followed reports from local officials of fighting between Islamic State group and Taliban militants in other northern provinces over recent days.

At least nine pro-regime fighters died in an overnight strike in northern Syria blamed on Israel, a monitor said Monday. Syrian state media had accused Israel of bombing a military position in Aleppo province late Sunday, in what would be a rare Israeli attack so far north in the war-ravaged country.

Syrian government forces widened their offensive in the country s southwest on Sunday to Quneitra province, a region adjoining the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, a war monitor and rebel sources said. Government forces, backed by the Russian military, have captured most of the southwest s Deraa province in the offensive that began in June.

The chairman of a US House of Representatives subcommittee on national security said on Wednesday that the Muslim Brotherhood has committed numerous acts of terrorism and that the “jihadist ideology” has continued to fuel the group despite its renunciation of violence decades ago. Ron DeSantis said during a hearing held to examine the potential threat the Brotherhood poses to the United States that the group s one year in power in Egypt under president Mohamed Morsi had produced "chilling" results.

Israel launched a Patriot interceptor missile on Wednesday at a drone spotted approaching from Syria, the second such incident in as many months, the Israeli military said. The incident set off air defence sirens on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the nearby Jordanian border, the military statement said.

Pope of Alexandria Tawadros II held a meeting with the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella on Monday in Rome, discussing various topics related to Christianity in Egypt, such as the outstanding role the Coptic Orthodox Church and Al-Azhar institution played in combating extremism. According to the Ambassador of Egypt to Italy Hesham Badr, Mattarella said that Christians enjoy more peace alongside Muslims and better living conditions in Egypt compared to other countries in the Middle East, where they still suffer conflict and persecution.

Italy hailed Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II for his role in spreading a message of love and tolerance and renouncing violence and terrorism during a visit by the Coptic Pope to Rome. In statements reported by state owned MENA agency, Italy s foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi welcomed on Sunday Pope Tawadros II s visit to Rome, praising his role.

Pope Francis said on Saturday that building walls, occupying territories and religious fanaticism would never bring peace to the Middle East. Speaking at the end of a summit of Christian religious leaders, Francis also repeated his view that the “status quo” of the contested city of Jerusalem should be respected, and backed a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Syrian government and its Russian ally pounded rebel-held areas of the southern province of Daraa on Thursday with the heaviest air strikes of a two-week-old offensive, an AFP correspondent and a monitor reported. "Hundreds" of missiles and barrel bombs were unleashed before dawn by both Syrian and Russian aircraft, after talks on rebel surrenders broke down on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.