Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued on Monday a decision to form a committee to legalise the status of churches that were constructed without licenses, in accordance with the 2016 law regulating the construction and renovation of churches.

US President Donald Trump has declared his support for Christians "executed in large numbers" in the Middle East, two days after he issued an immigration order that barred citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US.

Six Syrians including Christians were turned away from Philadelphia International Airport in the United States and sent back to Lebanon, an official at Beirut airport told AFP on Sunday.

The militant Islamist group "Al Shabaab" said its fighters killed dozens of Kenyan troops when they attacked a remote military base in Somalia on Friday, while Kenya's army dismissed the report and said "scores" of militants were killed.

The Ministry of Interior said Wednesday that it arrested several people accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood banned group. “The National Security unit obtained information on plans of some Muslim Brotherhood members to irritate public opinion by taking advantage of the economic circumstances facing the country, and coordinate with extremist bodies to disturb security and order, through assigning their affiliated members to fabricate crises in several popular and workers’ fields,” a statement by the ministry read.

"Islamic State" (IS) militants put at least 12 people to death in execution-style killings in the ancient city of Palmyra, which they re-captured from the government for a second time in December 2016, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday.

Eight leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood group in Cairo have been arrested, the Interior Ministry announced. The arrest took place during a group meeting where members were planning to "provoke the wrath of the public". According to a statement on Wednesday: “the ministry's national security sector was informed that terrorist leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were planning a scheme to provoke the public regarding the country's poor economic situation, and were coordinating with extremist entities to harm national security. The group members were going to create several crises."

Egypt's Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in downtown Cairo's Bab El-Khalq area is set to open its doors to visitors Friday after two years of closure for restoration and repair. On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail and Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany inaugurated the museum, in a ceremony attended by other top officials.

Syria's UN ambassador will head the government delegation to upcoming peace talks, a Syrian daily reported Tuesday, while the opposition said it would be represented by rebel negotiator Mohammad Alloush.

Istanbul's governor says that the New Year's nightclub attack that killed 39 people was executed on behalf of the Islamic State group.

A number of Egyptian MPs told reporters Monday that several parliamentary committees are currently finalising a report on the "crimes of the Muslim Brotherhood" to be submitted to US Congressmen and officials next week. The report will be presented by an Egyptian delegation arriving in Washington 21 January – one day after the inauguration of Donald Trump as the new president of the United States.

Ehab Ramzy, lawyer of the Christian woman who was stripped of her clothes by a Muslim mob in Minya, said he would resort to the last legal step he could take regarding the incident, which is filing a grievance with the top prosecutor to reinitiate investigations.

Egypt blasted the EU and Britain on Saturday for criticizing a recent court decision to freeze the assets of three rights activists, accusing both of double standards, telling them to mind their own business, and demanding that it be left alone to pursue its goal of becoming a "modern" state. An Egyptian court on Wednesday ruled to freeze the assets of three rights activists, including a prominent women's rights campaigner, Mozn Hassan. It's the latest chapter in a widening crackdown against civil society groups that includes travel bans and a recent law that gives security agencies extensive powers over their work.

Egypt's state news agency says the state prosecutor has ordered the arrest of an Al-Jazeera TV news producer for "fabricating reports" on the country's internal situation with the aim of harming national security and sedition against the state.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawky Allam held a meeting in Cairo on Thursday with a visiting Dutch parliamentary delegation, in which he said that terrorism and violent extremism constitute a threat to every country in the world.

France said on Thursday Syrian peace talks should resume as quickly as possible under the auspices of the United Nations and appeared to question plans for Russian-backed discussions on the subject in Kazakhstan.

North Sinai security services thwarted an armed attack against two checkpoints in Sheikh Zuwaid city on Wednesday.

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.