Islamic State s West Africa branch claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a raid in Nigeria two days earlier in which it said 20 soldiers had been killed, and released a video purporting to show the execution of nine other Nigerian soldiers. A security source and a humanitarian worker, both requesting anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to media, said insurgents struck the northeastern town of Gubio in Borno state on Monday evening, in vehicles mounted with heavy machine guns and on motorbikes.

Cairo Criminal Court has sought the non-binding opinion of Egypt s Grand Mufti on preliminary death sentences passed down on six defendants out of 70 others on charges of murder, terrorism, and forming and joining a terrorist group, in the 2013 case known as the “Kerdasa Public Resistance Committee” trial. The court has set 19 June as the date to issue a preliminary verdict on the six defendants.

During a meeting with the Speaker of the Canadian Senate George Furey on Monday, Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed the importance of boosting Egyptian-Canadian relations on all levels, especially in light of Canada s international influence in advancing peace and stability efforts in the region. The Egyptian minister reviewed positive developments at the economic, social and security levels in Egypt, reviewing ways of boosting bilateral relations, as well as economic and investment cooperation.

Egypt s interior ministry said on Monday that police have killed 12 terrorists from the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Hasm group in raids on their hideouts in Giza and Cairo governorates. According to a ministry statement, the raids were carried out based on intelligence received by the National Security Agency that the terrorists were planning attacks upon directives from leading figures of the terrorist-designated Muslim Brotherhood abroad.

An explosion hit a bus carrying South African tourists while it was on the move near the Pyramids, injuring at least 14 people. According to a security source, a device exploded near the bus – which was carrying 25 tourists from South Africa – shattering the bus windows and injuring many of those on board. The blast also hit a nearby car, injuring four Egyptians.

Fourty-seven militants and five Egyptian troops were killed during recent raids in the Sinai border region, the army said in a statement Thursday. Air forces destroyed 29 hideouts used by "terrorist elements" in operations central and northern Sinai, the statement said. Militants killed were found in possession of rifles and improvised explosive devices.

Germany is suspending military training operations in Iraq due to increasing regional tensions, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday. Germany has indications of potential attacks supported by Iran, he said, adding that this did not mean the training programmes could not resume in the coming days.

Egypt s three main Christian churches are preparing to sign a final draft law regarding personal status for Christians, after Eid al-Fitr. The law is intended to prevent any possible crisis between the Church and the judiciary and to also address the issue of Copts seeking divorce, some of whom have staged sit-ins since 2011.

The Qalioubiya security directorate said on Monday that a priest in St Marks Church in the district of Shubra El-Khaima has been shot dead by a church guard inside the church over a personal dispute. The statement said that the 54-year-old suspect, who turned himself in to the police stqtion, shot 65-year-old priest Makkar Saad Makkar several times over a dispute involving money.

A Cairo criminal court sentenced two men to death on Sunday and handed down prison terms to a number of others over a 2017 terrorist attack on a Coptic church south of Cairo that killed 11 people. The attack took place in Helwan district on the outskirt of Cairo when gunmen opened fire on the Coptic Orthodox church of Mar Mina and a neighbouring Christian-owned shop in December 2017.

Pope Francis on Thursday passed a measure to oblige those who know about sex abuse in the Catholic Church to report it to their superiors, following a global clerical paedophilia scandal. Every diocese in the world will now be obliged to have a system for the reporting of abuse, under a new law published by the Vatican -- but the requirement will not apply to secrets revealed to priests in the confessional.

Egypt s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam has strongly condemned the suicide bombing outside the Data Darbar shrine in Lahore that left at least 10 people dead and 25 injured on Wednesday. Allam stressed that Islamic law categorically rejects all forms of terrorist attacks and intimidation of innocent people.

Clashes between Syrian government forces and militants Monday killed 43 fighters in the country s northwest, where the regime and its Russian ally have stepped up bombardment in the past few days, a monitor said. Militants also fired rockets at a Russian air base in the region but were repelled with the attack causing no casualties or damage, the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Palestinian leaders in the Gaza agreed to a ceasefire with Israel on Monday to end a deadly two-day escalation in violence that threatened to widen into a fourth war between them since 2008. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal, but there appeared to have been no rocket fire or Israeli strikes in the hours after it was due to take effect, an AFP correspondent in Gaza said.

Syrian government forces and their Russian allies pounded the rebel-held northwest with air strikes on Saturday, the fifth day of a campaign that has killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee, sources in the area and a war monitor said. Artillery that may have been fired by Syrian government forces struck near a Turkish military post in the northwest, a Turkish security official said, signalling the risks of escalation in a part of Syria where Turkish troops have deployed under a deal with Russia.

Renewed talk over whether the White House will designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation raises compelling questions. Why would US President Donald Trump take this step now? How will members of his administration sort out their differences over the move? And if, indeed, the Trump administration goes ahead, what repercussions will there be? On Tuesday The New York Times published a report citing officials familiar with the matter, saying the US administration was working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, a move that would mean “wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions” on entities that do business with the group.

Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi extended the state of emergency nationwide by three months on Thursday upon the approval of House of Representatives following the announcement of the results of the constitutional referendum on Tuesday, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) said. MENA added that the state of emergency will commence April 25 and last until July 24. The emergency law allows the military and security apparatuses to take measures to combat terrorism. Sisi first imposed the state of emergency in the aftermath of twin blasts at two churches in the north of Egypt in April 2017, killing 47 people and leaving 120 wounded.

The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka said Monday that the government should crack down on Islamic extremists with more vigor “as if on war footing” in the aftermath of the Easter bombings. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, said the church may not be able to stop people from taking the law into their own hands unless the government conducts a more thorough investigation and does more to prevent further attacks.

Damanhour Criminal Court issued Wednesday death sentences on two defrocked monks on charges of killing the head of their desert monastery last summer. The court issued a preliminary death sentence 23 February and referred the sentences handed down on the two monks, Isaiah El-Maqary and Faltaous El-Makary, to the country s grand mufti for his non-binding opinion, as required by Egyptian law.

Sri Lankan police detained 40 people, including a Syrian national, for questioning about the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels, government and military sources said on Tuesday, as the toll from the coordinated bomb attacks rose to 321. About 500 people were also wounded. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which officials said were carried out by at least seven suicide bombers on three churches and four hotels.