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.

Egypt s Armed Forces announced on Wednesday morning that it has destroyed seven terrorist hideouts and killed eight extremely dangerous terrorists in North Sinai governorate. According to a statement released by the army spokesperson, security forces received intelligence that helped them locate those involved in a terrorist attack last Saturday in North Sinai.

Egypt s security forces killed 16 terrorists in North Sinai governorate on Tuesday morning in two raids. According to the ministry of interior, the ministry s national security department identified two terrorist hideouts from which a number of attack were going to be launched against vital institutions and figures in the city of El-Arish.

Organizers of Pope Francis’ summit on preventing clergy sex abuse will meet this week with a dozen survivor-activists who have come to Rome to protest the Catholic Church’s response to date and demand an end to decades of cover-up by church leaders. These survivors will not be addressing the summit of church leaders itself. Rather, they will meet Wednesday with the four-member organizing committee to convey their complaints. The larger summit of 180 presidents of bishops conferences from around the world begins Thursday.

US President Donald Trump Sunday called on his European allies to take back alleged jihadists captured in Syria, as Islamic State group fighters defended the last scrap of their "caliphate". IS group declared a proto-state across parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but has since lost all of it except a tiny patch of less than half a kilometre square near the Iraqi border. After years of fighting IS group, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold hundreds of foreigners accused of fighting for the group, and well as related women and children.

A suicide attack on Wednesday on a Revolutionary Guards bus in southeastern Iran killed at least 20 people, the official news agency IRNA reported. "The suicide attack on an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps personnel bus happened on the Khash-Zahedan road," IRNA said. "This terrorist act happened a short time ago and according to reports at least 20 have been martyred and 20 have been wounded," an informed source told IRNA.

The Criminal Court has sentenced three police officers to three years in prison for being accused of beating a prisoner to death inside a police station. The case dates back to 2016 when the defendants were referred to the Criminal Court over charges of beating the victim to death inside a police station in Upper Egypt s Sohag governorate.

An Egyptian team has begun documenting celebrations along the Holy Family journey route in Sharqia governorate on Monday as preparation for it s inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The team of experts, coming from the Ministries of Tourism, Antiquities and Culture, will be bringing together data regarding the heritage of celebrations held along the Holy Family s flight route across Egypt.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday blasted a US "conspiracy" against the country as vast crowds in Tehran marked 40 years since the Islamic revolution. "The presence of people today on the streets all over Islamic Iran... means that the enemy will never reach its evil objectives," Rouhani told those gathered on the capital s Azadi (Freedom) square.

Egyptian writers in Wednesday s newspaper issues followed the visit of Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb and Pope Francis to the UAE. Others continued to comment on the recent proposed constitutional amendments as the parliament approved a motion signed by 155 MPs to amend the 2014 Constitution. Pope Francis led on Tuesday a historic mass in the Zayed Sports City Stadium in Abu Dhabi, marking the first ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula. The event came as part of the UAE s 2019 Year of Tolerance. Emad El-Din Hussein, editor-in-chief of the private newspaper Al-Shorouk recalled his old days in the UAE, mentioning stories that he said proved that the Gulf country has always enjoyed an atmosphere of tolerance.

Pope Francis left the UAE Tuesday after a landmark three-day visit – the pope s first to the Arabian Peninsula. Before the pope s departure to Rome a holy mass was held at Zayed Sports City Stadium in the capital Abu Dhabi in the attendance of some 120,000 Christians residing in the UAE. A few other thousands flocked from neighbouring Gulf countries – now inhabited by millions of Christians – to attend the mass.

Pope Francis said on Wednesday he hoped his historic trip to the Arabian peninsula will help dispel the notion of an inevitable clash of civilisations between Christianity and Islam. Francis returned to Rome on Tuesday from the United Arab Emirates, where in Abu Dhabi he presided at the largest public Mass ever celebrated on the peninsula where Islam was born. "In an era, like ours, where there is a strong temptation to see a clash between Christian civilisation and the Islamic one, and even to consider religions as a source of conflict, we wanted to send another clear and decisive signal that encounter is possible," he said at his regular general audience.

Pope Francis held a historic public mass for an estimated 170,000 Catholics at an Abu Dhabi stadium on Tuesday on the first ever papal visit to the Muslim Gulf. The pope waved at an enthusiastic crowd carrying Vatican flags and banners as he drove into Zayed Sports City Stadium, where an altar with a large cross was set up for the unprecedented open-air service in a country where worship is normally allowed only inside churches.

The Grand Imam of Egypt s Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb is meeting on Monday with Roman Catholic Pope Francis, who is currently in the UAE in his first-ever visit to the Arabian Peninsula. The pope is attending the UAE s Global Conference for Human Fraternity, which will be held on February 3-5. Pope Francis will meet on Monday afternoon with a group of Muslim religious leaders to discuss the issue of religious tolerance.