Warplanes flew near Baghouz in eastern Syria early on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, as the final remnants of the Islamic State group held a narrow strip of land along the Euphrates in a last-ditch defence of its dwindling territory. Defeat there would signal the end of the ultra-hardline Islamist movement s control in eastern Syria, having held more than a third of Syria and Iraq at one point in 2014 as it sought to carve out a huge caliphate in the region.

The Jewish Community closed New Zealand s synagogues in a show of religious support and unity on the Saturday Sabbath following the mass shootings at al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, leaving at least 50 Muslims dead and dozens injured. Jewish officials called the precaution an “unprecedented move” as a country s synagogues have never closed on a Saturday in recorded history to date.

Four Egyptian nationals were among those killed in the New Zealand mosque attack, Egypt s Minister of Immigration, Nabila Markam, said on Saturday. Makram said that the ministry agreed with the Misr El Kheir Foundation (MEK) to transfer the bodies of victims to Egypt if their families requested that.

A U.N. envoy condemned Gaza s ruling Hamas group on Sunday for what he called its campaign of arrests and violence in confronting street protests over the past few days against high prices. Hundreds of people have taken to the streets across the enclave in "We want to live" demonstrations. Human rights officials said dozens of people have been detained or hurt.

U.S.-backed fighters besieging Islamic State s final shred of territory in eastern Syria said they had pushed further into the enclave following clashes and air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition. "Our fighters advanced deep into areas controlled by the terrorist organisation and established a number of new points, following clashes in which terrorists sustained a number of deaths and injuries," a statement from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) press office said.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday slammed human rights violations in China, saying the sort of abuses it had inflicted on its Muslim minorities had not been seen "since the 1930s." U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo highlighted abuses in Iran, South Sudan, Nicaragua and China in the department s annual "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," but told reporters that China was "in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations."

At least 20 civilians, including women and children, have been killed in a village in northern Yemen, Saudi and Houthi media reported on Monday, in an attack both sides blamed on the other. The Houthis Al Masirah television said air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition killed 23 civilians in Kushar district. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said the Houthis had killed several members of the Hajour tribes who had begun an uprising against the movement. It quoted unnamed sources as saying 20 women and children from two families were killed.

Forty-six "extremely dangerous" terrorists have been killed in northern and central Sinai during operations by Egypt s armed forces, according to a military statement on the latest developments related to Operation Sinai 2018. In the 32nd statement on the comprehensive counter-terrorism operation, which was launched in 2018, the Egyptian armed forces said the terrorists were killed following shootouts in northern and central Sinai.

Israeli aircraft struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early Sunday after a rocket from the Palestinian enclave hit Israel, the army said. “Fighter jets and aircraft struck several military targets in a Hamas compound in the northern Gaza Strip in addition to two Hamas vessels,” a statement from the army said.

Egyptian police killed on Thursday seven terrorists from the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated terrorist group Hasm in Cairo s 6 October City. "The State Security Department acted upon reliable intelligence that a group belonging to Hasm had been planning to plant an IED on Thursday morning," the statement said.

Parcel bombs sent to London s main airport and two other major transport hubs on Tuesday had Irish stamps and Irish police are now assisting British counter-terrorism officers, broadcaster Sky News said on Tuesday. No one was injured by the bombs, one of which caused a small fire in an office building at London s Heathrow airport and the others were discovered at London City airport and the city s biggest rail station, Waterloo.

Prominent French extremist Jean-Michel Clain was killed last month, his wife told AFP Tuesday after fleeing the last redoubt of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria. Clain s wife Dorothee Maquere said he was killed in mortar shelling after being wounded in the coalition drone strike that killed his brother Fabien, who was France s most wanted Islamist militant.

Kurdish-led forces supported by air strikes from an international coalition evacuated civilians held as "human shields" Monday after smashing their way into the jihadists last scrap of territory in eastern Syria. The Syrian Democratic Forces and its allies from the US-led coalition unleashed a deluge of fire on the village of Baghouz at the weekend to break the defences of Islamic State group fighters in the final sliver of their "caliphate".

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday welcomed President of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, a representative of Pope Francis of the Vatican, to Egypt, with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry present. Presidency Spokesperson Bassam Rady stated that Sisi extended his greetings to Pope Francis and referred to the esteem and respect that the Egyptian people have for him.

Hamas called for Israel to be held accountable on Thursday after a UN probe said its soldiers may have committed crimes against humanity in their response to Gaza unrest. "The report indicates beyond any doubt that the Israeli occupation has committed clear war crimes against the Palestinians who came out to protest peacefully to demand the right of return and lift the siege," Bassem Naim, a senior official for the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip, told AFP. He called on "the international community to hold the Israeli occupation accountable for the war crimes that it continues to commit against the Palestinians."

The Egyptian cabinet approved on Wednesday amendments to some provisions of the terrorism law, requiring that apartment tenants notify police in the area within 72 hours of signing rental contracts. Under the amendments, anyone who rents a home without notifying the neighbourhood s police station within 72 hours can face a jail sentence of at least one year and a fine ranging between EGP 5,000 and 10,000. Owners of any already rented housing units have one month to adjust their conditions once the law goes into effect.

Egypt s High Administrative Court approved on Monday a decision of dissolving the Muslim Brotherhood group, stating that the group is already banned. The court said in its reasons behind the ruling, in the case number 4976 of the year 1965 that the brotherhood group was dissolved by a decision of the Revolutionary Command Council after the 1952 revolution. The court noted that the group is considered dissolved and has neither constitutional nor legal status. The court mentioned a verdict issued in 2013 that ruled the banning of all the group s activities and the seizing of its assets.

Following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s harsh criticism of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over the execution of nine defendants, accused of assassinating former prosecutor general Hisham Barakat, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry released a statement on Sunday rebuking Ergodan. In a telephone interview with presenter Amr Adib on his show Al-Hekaya, Shoukry told him that “We won’t slip down to this level; this is an attempt to take attention away from the first Arab League-European Summit.”

Pope Francis on Sunday vowed to tackle every single case of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, comparing pedophilia to “human sacrifice”. But his public address to the Church’s top bishops at the end of a landmark summit in the Vatican on tackling clerical assault of minors threatened to disappoint victims.

A total of 16 militants were killed in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday morning during two raids by Egypt s security forces, according to the ministry of interior. This came after the National Security Apparatus identified two terrorist hideouts, with its members planning an attack against vital institutions and figures in the city of El-Arish, the ministry said.