Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II attempted on Monday to reassure Egyptians after the recent attacks on Copts in North Sinai, stressing that the Coptic families that have fled the governorate out of fear of terrorist violence will return to the city "when the time is right." At the start of this month, the Coptic Orthodox Church announced that 143 Christian families had fled North Sinai to Ismailiya after a spate of killings of Christians by Islamist militants in the governorate.

Islamic State's branch in the Sinai Peninsula posted a video on Tuesday depicting the beheading of two men the militant Islamist group said it had found guilty of practicing witchcraft and sorcery. The video, posted on a Telegram channel often used by IS, showed the group forming a religious police unit known as the Hasbah in northern Sinai, where it has waged an insurgency for years. The rugged, thinly populated peninsula borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal.

Islamic State-affiliate Province of Sinai released a promotional video on Tuesday showing members of the organization carrying out what it alleges to be Hisba, or religious policing. The group claimed the footage is from locations in North Sinai, which it did not identify. Hisba is defined by religious scholars as the practice of commanding virtue and forbidding vice, professor of Islamic law professor at Al-Azhar University Ahmed Kareema told the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. He added that Hisba should be conducted by a select few who must be efficient, fair, knowledgeable and capable, describing it as a type of guardianship falling to those who have been entrusted with religious matters.

Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, said on Sunday that some Islamic rulings, including the laws of inheritance, are definitive and not up for reinterpretation – an apparent response to Tunisian efforts to eliminate gender inequality in inheritance law in their country. Al-Tayeb, as head of the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, made the comments in a statement late on Sunday, thus joining the debate sparked by the Tunisian president s call for equal inheritance rights for men and women.

Virgin’s Fast Monday, which began August 7, said Mohsen George, member of the Melli Council of the Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria. He explained that the churches are holding a mass for the feast day of the Assumption of Mary Monday evening, to be presided over by the pastor of the Church. The Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate will hold the feast prayers in the presence of hundreds of Coptic churchgoers.

The archbishop of Barcelona is calling for Spain to unite to work for a more peaceful world following the deadly dual vehicle attacks claimed by Islamic extremists. Cardinal Joan Josep Omella welcomed families of the victims, representatives of Catalonia s Muslim community, as well as Spain s royals and top government officials, to the Mass Sunday at the city s iconic Sagrada Familia basilica.

Coptic Christians in Ezbat al-Forn, of the Abyouha village in Abu Qurqas city of Minya governorate, said Sunday that security forces prevented them from holding mass and daily prayers, as the church is not licensed. One of the worshipers told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the church is a staple of the Christian community, which consists of over 300 people, as they regularly hold prayers on the site.

A group of Muslim scholars in Tunisia released a joint statement on Thursday demanding President Beji Caid Essebsi relinquish his call for legal equality between women and men in inheritance rights, and for amending a decree to allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men. The president on Sunday called for the 1973 decree to be changed to allow Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men; at present such marriages are only permitted if the man converts to Islam. He also announced the formation of a committee to study the issue of equality, with regards to inheritance.

Calls by the Tunisian president to impose policies that equate inheritance shares between men and women have been rejected by Al-Azhar and other Islamist group, describing is as an attack on the principles of the religion. On 12 August, Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi abolished laws that previously put restrictions of marriage between Muslim women and non-Muslims, and which did not equate between men and women in inheritance.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the world’s most prominent authority on Sunni Islam, condemned an announcement on Tuesday by Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, that his country is working to permit equal inheritance between men and women. “The concept of equal inheritance is against Islamic teachings. Equality in inheritance is unjust for women and is not in line with Islamic Sharia,” deputy of Al-Azhar, Abbas Shuman, said in a statement.

Egyptian fugitive and Muslim Brotherhood member, Abdel Rahman Ezz, was detained by German authorities while attempting to leave for Turkey, following official calls from Egypt to Interpol to arrest the young man. German authorities detained Ezz but released him due to a lack of evidence. The young MB member is wanted as a terrorist, convicted of destabilizing Egypt’s national security and inciting violence against state institutions such as armed forces and police. Ezz was tried in absentia and received a life sentence.

Egypt s Al-Azhar criticised on Tuesday an announcement by the president of Tunisia that his country is looking to allow for equal inheritance between men and women. Although it did not mention Tunisia by name, a statement by Al-Azhar -- considered the world s most prominent authority on Sunni Islam -- said the concept of equal inheritance is "against Islamic teachings."

Egypt has condemned on Monday a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso s capital Ouagadougou that killed at least 18 people and injured dozens. In an official statement, Egypt s foreign ministry expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the victims, affirming that the Egyptian government and people stand with the government and people of Burkina Faso against terrorism.

The media arm of Lebanon s militant Hezbollah group says hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians have started leaving the Lebanon-Syria border area after a deal was reached for their departure. The Central Military Media says buses carrying members of the Levant People s Brigades rebel group started moving on Monday from the badlands of the Lebanese border town of Arsal in the direction of the Syrian village of Fleeta.

Police forces declared on Sunday the detention of 41 individuals in different security campaigns. Most of them are suspects, while 41 of them are fugitives involved in different misdemeanours, according to the Ministry of Interior. According to state-owned agency MENA, a police campaign led by the North Sinai Security Directorate managed to arrested 41 fugitives who are wanted and convicted in different cases, including forgery and several administrative violations. The arrested individuals will be interrogated and sent to the prosecution, while others will be sent to prison as they had previously been sentenced already.

The Archbishopric of Egypt’s upper governorate of Minya released a statement on Sunday calling on the government to reopen the closed Coptic Church in ‘Kedwan’ village in Minya. The statement made it clear Copts in Minya are angry that the authorities closed the church for nearly a month period, after extremists in the village expressed refusal to the presence of a church.

A renegade leader of Somalia’s Islamic extremist insurgents, al-Shabab, has surrendered to the government. Mukhtar Robow arrived Sunday in the government-controlled town of Hudur in southwestern Somalia, said Ahmed Mohamed, a senior government security official. He said Robow was airlifted from the Bakool jungle area where he and hundreds of his militia have been fighting al-Shabab since early last week.

Four policemen were killed in an ambush on a private car near the city of Beer Al-Abd in North Sinai, after the military announced the killing of five militants in central Sinai, according to tribal sources. The four policemen, an officer, a lower-ranking officer, and 2 conscripts, were part of the North Sinai Directorate. The car they were in reportedly belonged to the police officer.

Pope Francis on Wednesday denounced "shameful" attacks on Christians in Nigeria and the Central African Republic (CAR), calling for an end to "all hate and violence". "I have been profoundly saddened by the massacre last Sunday in Nigeria, inside a church, where innocent people were killed," the pontiff said at the end of his weekly public audience at the Vatican. "And sadly this morning we have news of violence in the Central African Republic against Christian communities.

Adel El-Shorbagy, the head of the Party Affairs Committee, which regulates political parties in Egypt, told reporters this week that the committee is currently investigating 10 Islamist parties. "The investigation encompasses participation in terrorist attacks, forming underground armed militias, inciting violence, and funding terrorism," said El-Shorbagy. El-Shorbagy s comments came after Egypt s Higher Administrative Court postponed on Sunday its ruling on the legal status of the Reconstruction and Development Party – which acts as the political arm of the Islamist group Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya – to 19 August.

French police shot and arrested a suspect in a dramatic motorway chase Wednesday after a car smashed into soldiers outside a barracks in a Paris suburb, injuring six. The suspected terror attack is the latest in a string of assaults that have hit France since January 2015, claiming more than 230 lives. The servicemen were hit by a BMW which drove down a quiet street in the upmarket western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT).