Pope Francis said Monday that the Church was "not a museum" but a place for progress, as members of a key synod on the family rolled up their sleeves for the first day of what promises to be a spicy debate.

The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II is travelling to the United States at the end of this week, Father Pals Halim, a spokesperson for the church, said on Sunday.

Al-Azhar University has boosted its security measures during the first week of the academic year 2015/2016 that started on Saturday.

Apolice captain and a police conscript were shot dead in Al-Arish in North Sinai on Saturday, as the self-proclaimed “Revolutionary Punishment” and “State of Sinai” militant groups continue to claim drive by attacks and ambushes on police officials.

Anas el-Beltagy, the son of a prominent Muslim Brotherhood politician and two other students were sentenced to five years in prison for arms possession by a criminal court in Cairo on Saturday.

The Tanta Criminal Court sentenced four members from the Muslim Brotherhood, on Sunday, to life in prison in absentia. Six other defendants received a 15-year sentence on charges of joining a banned group, inciting riots and intimidating citizens.

Egypt's Coptic Pope Tawadros II on Tuesday called on Christian members of religious parties to "reconsider their position," a statement that media reports conjectured was specifically directed to Copts who are members of the Salafist Nour Party.

Cairo cassation court postponed Thursday the retrial of 38 sentenced defendants’, including 14 journalists, to 15 October, in the case known as the ‘Rabaa operations room’.

Two consecutive explosions were heard in Zagazig City, Sharqiya, in the early hours of Thursday morning. The first took place near Sharqiya Security Directorate and the second near the wall of Zagazig public prison. No deaths were reported.

Cairo University, Egypt's oldest higher education institution, issued a ban that would bar lecturers or teaching assistants wearing the niqab (full face veil) from teaching, the university announced.

Many Egyptians feel as though they are floating in an ocean towards insecurity, stuck between a “dinosaur” of a state and the “monster” of the Muslim Brotherhood, politician and media presenter Gameela Ismail told an audience in Washington DC at the Middle East Initiative Wednesday.

Egypt’s foreign ministry announced that an official complaint was made on Tuesday against offenses made by Muslim Brotherhood members' in New York to the media team accompanying Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Renowned Islamist figure Adel Habara was sentenced to death by the Zagazig Criminal Court on Tuesday on charges of forming a ‘takfiri’ group, communicating with the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group and targeting policemen and army personnel with violence.

Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood students from Alexandria University’s Faculty of Engineering staged protests on Wednesday to demand the release of their colleagues, who are imprisoned for violence and rioting.

Since plans for its production were announced years ago, talk has not ceased about the Iranian epic film Muhammad: The Messenger of God.

Russian air strikes in Syria do not appear to be targeting areas held by Islamic State-held forces and may extend beyond the vicinity of Homs to other areas, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

A conscript was killed and a police officer injured Tuesday morning after militants on motorcycles opened fire on a security checkpoint south of Giza, Youm7 reported.

Endowments Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, the head of the Egyptian Hajj Mission, said the death toll from the stampede in Mina rose to 74 among Egyptian pilgrims, although 98 pilgrims are still missing.

The government has largely failed to stop more than 250 Americans who have traveled overseas to join or tried to join terrorist groups, including the Islamic State group, a new congressional study concluded on Tuesday. It did not cite significant numbers who have sneaked back into the United States without being arrested or monitored.

Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced on Monday three Muslim Brotherhood members to death for involvement in the murder of an officer and a conscript near the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in the aftermath of the violent dispersals of Rabaa and Al-Nahda sit-ins in August 2013, state news agency MENA reported.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused Russia Tuesday of displaying bravado on the Syria crisis that had yet to be backed up with action against the Islamic State group.