Masked for centuries by the soot of candles and lately by scaffolding, the mosaics of Bethlehem s Church of the Nativity have been restored to their Crusader-era splendour in time for Christmas. Over the past 15 months, experts have cleaned and repaired surviving fragments of the 12th century masterworks, preserving 1,345 square feet (125 square metres) of what was once 21,528 square feet (2,000 square metres) of glittering gold and glass. The rest has been eaten away by wear, humidity, wars and earthquakes.

Police have arrested police guard Rabea Mustafa Khalefa over charges of killing two Orthodox Copts in front of the Church of Nahdet al-Qadasa on Wednesday in al-Serafa Street in Minya. The Diocese of Minya and Abu Qurqas stated that the guard shot at “Emad Kamal Sadek, 49, and his son David Emad, 21” after a quarrel erupted between them when they were lifting house ruins in front of Church of Nahdet al-Qadasa.

Egyptian security forces have killed 27 "very dangerous" terrorists during recent security operations, the Armed Forces said in a statement on Wednesday. The army said that 24 terrorists were killed in a shootout during raids in Sinai and Suez Canal cities, and that the terrorists were in possession of weapons and ammunition. Air forces killed three others in the country s Western Desert bordering Libya, it added.

A gunman entered a Catholic cathedral in the Brazilian city of Campinas on Tuesday and fatally shot four people attending midday mass before killing himself at the altar, fire department officials said. Four elderly people were seriously wounded by the man, who began shooting at the congregation with two guns, according to a spokesman with the fire department in Campinas, an industrial city 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of Sao Paulo, where the shooting took place.

Iraq s premier on Monday marked a year since his country declared victory against the Islamic State (IS) militant group by pledging to fight corruption next, even as he faces a political crisis within his government. A year ago, his predecessor announced the conclusion of a three-year battle to oust IS, putting an end to the so-called jihadist "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq after they seized swathes of Iraq.

An Afghan official says the Taliban have attacked an army checkpoint in the western Farah province, killing at least eight Afghan soldiers. Abdul Samad Salehi, a provincial council member, says the insurgents abducted another 10 soldiers in the attack late Saturday.

The first visit by a pope to the Arabian peninsula will take place in February when Francis travels to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Vatican said on Thursday. The Feb. 3-5 trip, Francis latest to a predominantly Muslim nation, will be centred around the theme of inter-religious peace. The Vatican said the pope had accepted an invitation from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and the small Catholic community there.

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie and five others Brotherhood figures to life in prison on Wednesday on violence-related charges which date back to 2013. Brotherhood leaders Khairat El-Shater and Mostafa Abdel-Azim, and two others, were also among those convicted to life in prison by the verdict on Wednesday. Other leading figures including Essam El-Erian, Mohamed El-Beltagy and former parliament speaker Saad Al-Katatni were acquitted, as were three other Brotherhood members.

Ukrainian authorities on Monday raided three Orthodox churches aligned to Russia as political and religious tensions between the two countries grow. Police and security services also searched the homes of priests who have declared their allegiance to the Russian branch of the Orthodox church, regional police spokeswoman Alla Vashchenko told AFP.

The Vatican expressed concern over the status of Jerusalem on Monday as Pope Francis and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held their first meeting since the United States stirred international anxiety by moving its embassy there. The two embraced and kissed on the cheek as the pontiff welcomed Abbas to a library in the Vatican s Apostolic Palace for a private, 20-minute meeting.

Boko Haram jihadists killed two soldiers and seriously wounded five militia members in separate attacks in the troubled northeast of the country, military and militia sources told AFP Sunday. Gunmen from Boko Haram faction the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked a remote base in Buni Gari village, in Yobe state, 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the state capital Damaturu on Saturday, with six of the attackers killed.

An Egyptian misdemeanour court sentenced on Wednesday 99 people to one year in prison for participating in violent protests that erupted over the death of a man in police custody in January. The 22-year-old Mohamed Abdel-Hakim, known as Afroto, had died in hospital shortly after being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing.

Afghanistan s President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday announced a 12-person team for prospective peace talks with the Taliban, as the UN renewed calls for direct negotiations between Kabul and the insurgents. The Afghan government, Western diplomats and United Nations officials have in recent weeks raised hopes of finally reaching a deal to end the Taliban s 17-year fight.

One of the villas searched by Turkish police for the remains of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi belonged to a Saudi businessman, reports said Tuesday. Crime scene investigators using sniffer dogs and drones searched the Saudi businessman s residence and an adjacent villa during a 10-hour probe on Monday in the northwestern province of Yalova, Hurriyet daily reported.

An assault by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in eastern Syria has killed at least 92 US-backed fighters in three days, a war monitor said Monday. It was the highest death toll the jihadist group has inflicted against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in a single offensive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Court of Cassation on Sunday upheld the death sentence against nine defendants involved in the assassination of former top prosecutor Hisham Barakat. The Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Judge Hassan Farid, sentenced 28 defendants to death on July 22, 2017 for the assassination of Barakat and sentenced 15 others to life in prison.

Egypt s security forces killed 12 terrorists in an exchange of fire on Thursday in North Sinai, the ministry of interior said. The National Security Agency had received information that a group of terrorist suspects was using an abandoned yard in El-Arish city as a hideout, and a shootout broke out when security forces attempted to conduct a raid on the hideout.

Wearing a white cassock and hood, and surrounded by a number of monks in black, Yacoub El-Maqary faces the camera. Smiling, the defrocked monk delivers his message: he declares himself patriarch and head of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The video was recorded at an unlicensed monastery in northern Egypt in early September; in the recording, Yacoub is surrounded by ten monks he had ordained himself, some looking down at the floor to avoid the camera.

Egypt s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam met on Tuesday with a high-level British delegation led by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the minister of state for the Commonwealth and United Nations, to discuss enhancing religious cooperation between Egypt s Dar Al-Iftaa and Britain, particularly in regards to combating extremism, terrorism, and Islamophobia. During his meeting with the British delegation, Allam stressed that cooperation among world nations in fighting terrorism and extremism has become a necessity as the phenomenon threatens everyone, not just one state or region.

Egypt is following the Saudi investigations into the killing of a young Egyptian pharmacist in Jizan, Saudi Arabia, last week, stated the foreign ministry on Friday. The Egyptian embassy in Jeddah commissioned its legal advisor to follow the investigations of the Saudi prosecution, the ministry said in a statement. It added that legal procedures are taken to return the body of the victim to his homeland.

Pope Tawadros II re-consecrated a newly renovated St Mark s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo on Sunday, marking fifty years since the building was first inaugurated. In a sermon last week, the pope stated that the celebration of the cathedral s golden jubilee would be limited to liturgical prayers only, due to what he described as "painful events" of the incident of the monastery of St. Samuel.