Egypt’s military and police forces have killed 19 militants in an exchange of gunfire and arrested 20 suspects, in a continuing crackdown in Sinai, the military said in a statement on Thursday. Security forces launched a large-scale security operation in February to crush militants who have waged an insurgency that has killed hundreds of security forces and residents over many years. The statement said the militants were killed over the past few days. Their deaths bring the total of those killed since the beginning of the operation to at least 296 including 35 military personnel, according to Reuters calculations based on military statements.

Pope Francis on Wednesday condemned the killing of Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border, saying the deaths would only lead to more violence, and appealed for dialogue to bring justice and peace to the Middle East. "I express my great pain for the dead and wounded and I am close in prayer and affection to all those who are suffering," he told tens of thousands of people at his general audience in St. Peter s Square.

Egypt s Foreign Ministry on Monday hailed the efforts made by Libyan authorities to return the bodies of 20 Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians beheaded by the Islamic State group in 2015 and to hold perpetrators accountable. A video released by the Islamic State group in February 2015 showed the beheading of the Egyptian Christians, who were handcuffed and wearing orange jumpsuits.

The secretary to Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II told Ahram Online on Monday that the church has not yet been officially notified about the planned date of return of the bodies of 20 Egyptian Christians beheaded by the Islamic State group in the Libyan city of Sirte in 2015. Media reports have been circulating that Libya will return the victims bodies to Egypt on Monday.

In the wake of the government’s decision issued on Friday to increase ticket prices of Cairo’s Metro services, many protests popped up inside a number of Metro stations in some cities denouncing the price hikes. In response to the protests, official spokesperson for Cairo Metro service Ahmed Abdel Hady said in media statement to the privately-run TV channel ‘On Live’ that some groups affiliated to the outlawed group of Muslim Brotherhood were behind the boycott calls that erupted directly after the state’s decision to increase the service’s fare.

On Thursday, a three-day celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the apparition of the immaculate mother of Jesus Christ will begin at the Virgin Mary Church in the eastern Cairo district of Zaytoun. Among the special masses scheduled, two will be led by the head of Egypt s Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II – the first on Saturday evening and the second on Sunday morning. The church, which was originally built in the 1920s, was the site of a miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary in the spring of 1968.

An explosion killed at least five people and wounded 10 on Wednesday in a market for the stimulant leaf khat in southern Somalia, police and residents said. The blast, whose cause was not immediately clear, occurred in the busy market in the town of Wanlaweyn in the Lower Shabelle region, about 90 km (55 miles) to the northwest of the coastal capital Mogadishu.

Egypt s Supreme State Prosecution on Tuesday handed down a 15-day detention order for an Egyptian satirical blogger over accusations of "joining an outlawed group and spreading false news." The prosecution charged former satirical show reporter Shady Abu Zeid with joining an outlawed group which aims to subvert the law and constitution, and obstruct the state and its institutions from carrying out its duties.

Egypt s Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek referred on Monday 555 members of Daesh-affiliate Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis to military court on charges of forming 43 terrorist cells. The cells members committed 63 terrorist attacks, including the murder and attempted murder of members of the Armed Forces and police in North Sinai, a statement by the prosecution said.

Syria on Thursday morning shortly after take-off, killing both members of its crew, the Russian military was cited as saying by Russian news agencies. The two-seater Sukhoi-30SM jet crashed after taking off from Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Latakia Province. Agencies cited the Ministry of Defence in Moscow as saying its two crew members had tried in vain to save the plane until the last moment.

In wake of wide Saudi Arabian cultural and social global openness, for the first time in the country s history it has signed a cooperative agreement with the Vatican to build churches for Christian citizens to advocate the important role of religions and cultures in renouncing violence, extremism, terrorism and achieving security and stability in the world. The agreement was signed by the Secretary General of the Muslim World League Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa and the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in the Vatican and the French cardinal of the Catholic Church Jean-Louis Tauran to achieve mutual goals between both sides.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades visited on Tuesday the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa in Alexandria. Patriarch Theodoros II of the Patriarchate welcomed the two presidents at the Greek Orthodox church in central Alexandria.

The Egyptian Armed Forces said on Wednesday that 30 Takfiris, 4 of them are top dangerous, have been killed in a week as part of the comprehensive operation to counter terrorism in Sinai Peninsula. A statement issued by the Armed Forces on Monday said that 173 suspects have been arrested during the last week of Sinai 2018 operation. It added that hundreds of shelters and hideouts of terrorists have been destructed.

The Syrian army said on Sunday it had captured a string of villages from US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) east of the Euphrates river near the border with Iraq where Kurdish-led forces are in control, state television said. The U.S.-backed proxy forces spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG militia since last year have taken over much of the territory east of the Euphrates in Deir al-Zor province as part of a major campaign that drove Islamic State militants from eastern Syria.

A clash between French soldiers and an armed jihadist group in northwest Mali left three "terrorists" dead, Paris said Thursday, while local media reported injuries among French special forces. The three were "neutralised" in a confrontation near the village of Goudam, west of Timbuktu, on April 21, French army spokesman Colonel William Thomas told a press conference.

Egypt s military and police forces have killed 30 Islamist "takfiris" and arrested 173 suspects in a week-long offensive to crush militants in central and northern Sinai, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday. Three army officers were killed and an officer and a solider were injured in clashes with terrorists during raids over the past week, Colonel Tamer El-Refai said in the 20th communique on Operation Sinai 2018, which was published on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian armed forces.

The spokesperson for Egypt’s army denounced a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on Monday detailing the deterioration of humanitarian conditions in North Sinai and the suffering of residents in the governorate due to a siege being imposed by Egyptian Armed Forces. Army spokesperson Tamer El-Rafaai told Egypt Independent on Tuesday that the Egyptian Armed Forces are providing all the necessary goods and food requirements for the residents of North Sinai and added that the army is coordinating with all state entities to assure that the needs of residents in the governorate are being fulfilled.

Egypt has condemned a deadly blast at a voter registration centre in Kabul on Sunday that left at least 57 people dead as Afghanistan prepares for nationwide elections in the autumn. In a statement on Saturday, the Egyptian foreign ministry decried the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State terrorist group, expressing its sincere condolences to the families of the victims.

Air strikes pounded a jihadist-held area near Damascus on Sunday, footage broadcast by Syrian state TV stations showed, as the Syrian government stepped up efforts to wipe out the insurgency s last foothold near the capital. Thick clouds of smoke rose from the al-Hajar al-Aswad area and the sound of jets could be heard in broadcasts from the area just south of Damascus that is controlled by insurgents from the Islamic State and Nusra Front groups.

Military forces from Egypt’s Third Field Army killed the ‘Emir’ (leader) of Sinai Province, the Islamic State-affiliated (IS) group based in North Sinai, during a sweeping operation conducted in central Sinai on Wednesday morning. According to a statement released by the Egyptian army’s official spokesperson Tamer al-Refaei, Third Field Army forces carried out a sweeping operation in a number of rugged mountainous areas in central Sinai where they faced Sinai Province leader Naser Abu Zakoul in an exchange of fire and killed him.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to the Islamic State group, judicial sources said Wednesday. The suspects are being tried by two courts, one near the former jihadist stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq and another in Baghdad which is dealing notably with foreigners and women.