Pope Benedict, speaking in his last Sunday address before becoming the first pope in almost six centuries to step down, said he was following God's wishes and that he was not abandoning the Roman Catholic Church.

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will win a majority of seats in upcoming parliamentary elections, the party's media advisor predicts.

Calls from Egypt's opposition to boycott this year's parliamentary elections is considered to be "political bankruptcy" as the voter bloc that will cast ballot for opposition groups is negligible, stated Mohamed Zidan, spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim has denied that a "Brotherhoodization" of the police is underway, and has also said that representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau do not attend meetings of the police's supreme council.

Egyptian prosecutors ordered controversial Islamist preacher Abu-Islam Ahmed Abdullah to be held in detention for four days detention pending investigation into an accusation of insulting Coptic Christian women on his TV show.

A meeting will be held between the presidential council and the supreme body of the Nour Party Sunday, after which the party will decide whether or not it will compete in House of Representatives elections in April, said party spokesperson Nader Bakkar.

Shura Council Speaker Ahmed Fahmy said he has received information from the president's office confirming that the date of House of Representatives elections will be changed in order to avoid conflicts with Coptic Christian holidays.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said it doesn’t interfere in the affairs of the presidency or any other executive bodies.

In recent years, Egypt has witnessed an increase in cases of disappearance among Coptic girls. According to the Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearances (AVAED), 500 cases were reported in 2012 and 10 already in January 2013.

Egyptian prosecutors have questioned an award-winning novelist over accusations he insulted religion, in the latest of a series of cases to cause concern over freedom of expression in Islamist-run Egypt.

The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic Patriarch Tawadros II, has insisted that statements attributed to him in Middle Eastern newspapers, saying the country's rulers should be obeyed, are entirely false.

An Egyptian court ruled on Wednesday that policemen may grow beards, ending a decades-old convention barring them from making what is often seen here as a display of Islamic piety.

The dismissal on Sunday of President Mohamed Morsi's Salafist advisor Khaled Alam El-Din was as an attempt to prevent the presidency's image from being tarnished, the presidential office asserted in a Tuesday morning statement.

Jama'a al-Islamiya on Tuesday announced it has formed squads with 13 other Islamist parties and movements to fight vandals, thugs and groups like the Black Bloc.

Tarek al-Zomor, founder of Jama'a al-Islamiya's Construction and Development Party, said Tuesday his party would try to heal the rift between the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafi Nour Party.

President Mohamed Morsy met with Jama'a al-Islamiya's Construction and Development Party Tuesday at the Ettehadiya Presidential Palace.

Saad al-Katatny, the president of the Freedom and Justice Party, will meet with leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood at the residence of Khairat al-Shater, the deputy supreme guide, on Tuesday to brief them on his meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, the president of the Dostour Party, and Al-Sayed al-Badawy, president of the Wafd Party, informed sources said Monday.

Bassam El-Zarqa, leading member of the Salafist Nour Party and assistant to President Mohamed Morsi, announced on Monday that he would step down from his post as presidential advisor.

Recently dismissed Salafist advisor to the president for environmental affairs Khaled Alam El-Din slammed the presidency at a Monday press conference, strenuously denying claims that he had used his advisory post for personal gain.President Mohamed Morsi dismissed Alam El-Din, a leading member of the Salafist Nour Party, on Sunday.

The first meeting of the United Council for Egyptian Churches was held on Monday in Cairo between Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II and representatives of Egypt's Episcopal, Evangelical, Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches.

Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayyeb has ordered an urgent investigation into allegations related to unspecified sexual harassment within Al-Azhar University.