Gunmen on Thursday attacked an Egyptian Coptic church in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and started a fire, witnesses said.

Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning, Al-Azhar, said on Thursday that it wants "better relations" with the Vatican under Pope Francis.

Gamal Nassar, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, has resigned from the group's political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), citing its "poor performance."

Pope Francis, 76, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica just over an hour after white smoke poured from a chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel to signal he had been chosen to lead the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing a yet-to-be-ratified UN declaration on women’s rights, asserting that the document contradicts Islamic Law.

The men, Egyptian Copts working in Benghazi, were seized by an Islamist militia but handed over to the government. One, named as Ezzat Atallah, 44, died at the weekend after being "tortured", his brother, Effat, told The Daily Telegraph.

An Egyptian activist who led protests over an iconic torture victim during the rule of Hosni Mubarak was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for allegedly slapping a prosecutor.

Fifty-five Egyptian Christians arrested last month in Libya for allegedly seeking to convert Muslims have been freed, while four others are still behind bars, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

One of the challenges facing the new pope and the Catholic Church is how best to help and bring comfort to Christians who feel persecuted in North Africa and the Middle East. Many Christians living in Egypt worry about their future under a Muslim Brotherhood president.

These stern warnings have met mixed reactions. The interior ministry has called on protests to stay at home. It’s promised to restore order to the country that’s now suffering from an increasing level of crime, daily incidents of road blockings, attacks on governmental buildings, and even forced closures of schools.

Following a strike by Egyptian police at a number of police stations across the country, Islamist group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya has deployed several of its members in the Upper Egyptian city of Assiut to take up the role of security.

Roman Catholic cardinals prayed for divine help on Tuesday, hours before a conclave to elect a new pope to tackle the daunting problems facing the Church at one of the most difficult periods in its history.

A recently-founded political coalition has condemned the strikes initiated by a number of police stations in Egypt, saying that "[police] forces should not withdraw from their duty or refrain from the great service [of protecting the people]."

The Muslim Brotherhood has urged the revolutionary youth, as well as political and media figures, to condemn what it describes as recent acts of vandalism in Egypt.

A young Egyptian man, Karim Farghali, verbally attacked Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie late on Monday as the latter was having dinner with his family at a restaurant in the City Stars shopping mall in Cairo's Nasr City district.

Dar al-Ifta denied a story published on some websites that said it issued a fatwa saying actors who pretend to perform prayers in drama are sinful, state-run newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official says a man suspected of trying to spread Christianity in Libya has died in prison there.

The Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, today issued the following statement congratulating Canadian Copts on the establishment of the first Coptic Orthodox diocese in Canada and the appointment of Bishop Mina:

The Coptic Youth Front has called for a protest on Monday in front of the Libyan embassy in Cairo protesting the death of Ezzat Hakim, an Egyptian Copt declared dead after allegedly being tortured by security in a prison in Benghazi.

Ezzat Hakim Atallah, one of the Coptic detainees in Libya accused of proselytizing, died from torture at the hands of the Libyan Preventive Security following his deportation from Benghazi to appear before the Attorney General.

Seven Islamist political parties have launched the Umma Alliance (Nation Alliance) announcing their collaboration to protect the "achievements of the January 25 Revolution" and stand against those who interrupt the "constitutional path that allows people to choose their ruler."