The year-long prison sentence handed down to Salafi preacher Abdallah Badr, who was found guilty of defaming actress Elham Shahin, was upheld by the Al-Zawya al-Hamra Misdemeanor Court on Thursday.

Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for five more suspects in the deadly 5 April clashes between Muslims and Christians in Khosous, Qalyubiya Governorate, which claimed seven lives.

Pope Francis on Thursday called on his followers on Twitter to pray for the families of victims of a deadly blast in a Texas fertilizer plant, which left between five and 15 people dead and over 160 injured.

The Muslim Brotherhood will take part in Friday’s “purge the judiciary” protests, according to Mahmoud Hussein, the group’s secretary general.

In a meeting with 20 members of the Shura Council on Tuesday, Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II urged for legislation that would protect Egypt from sectarian strife.

“Months of achievements...President Morsy builds Egypt anew,” published by the Muslim Brotherhood, intends to lay out the achievements of Morsy and those around him.

The Egyptian judiciary is “pulling the country into an abyss,” the Islamic Jihad movement warned on Monday following news that the South Cairo Criminal Court had ruled to release former President Hosni Mubarak from his pre-trial detention.

Egyptian activists have begun an online campaign against sectarianism in the wake of a deadly attack on mourners at Egypt’s main Coptic Christian cathedral this month.

An Egyptian Coptic activist demanded on Monday the government's recognition of the Christians’ right to obtain official religious holidays as stipulated by the law.

The relatives of two Christians detained in Al-Khosous following an outbreak of sectarian violence have handed themselves over to police in fear of reprisal attacks, state news agency MENA has reported.

Two Muslim Brotherhood members in northern Egypt have been ordered to stand trial on charges of detaining and torturing students during a protest against the president the group propelled to power.

North Giza prosecutors on Sunday ordered the detention of Salafist activist Abdel-Rahman Ezz for four days pending investigation for his alleged involvement in last December's arson attack on the liberal Wafd Party's headquarters in Cairo's Dokki district.

Muslims and Christians in Al-Khosous have signed a petition to press for the release of local residents arrested after a recent bout of sectarian violence.

Fifteen suspects were arrested in Khosous Saturday in connection with the deadline sectarian clashes that rocked the town last week, according to the Interior Ministry.

While reflecting a deep societal malaise, sectarian violence in Egypt has always been associated with political power play, particularly between the ruling regimes and active Islamist groups.