An Egyptian court Monday sentenced to death five men convicted of killing 13 policemen in a town near Cairo during a deadly security crackdown on ousted president Mohamed Morsi's supporters in 2013.

The officers were killed in an attack on a police station in Kerdasa, on the outskirts of Cairo, on August 14, 2013 -- the same day that police killed hundreds of demonstrators in clashes as they dismantled two massive pro-Morsi protest camps in the capital.

Egypt's top court on Sunday sentenced 14 policemen and a doctor to jail terms for torturing two prisoners to death in 2006, a judicial official said.

A colonel was jailed for three years, while 13 policemen were given one-year prison terms each in a case that also saw a doctor sentenced for a year.

Jordan's authorization of a breakaway wing of the Muslim Brotherhood has sent tensions soaring between the decades-old organization and the government, accused of exploiting the rift to weaken the kingdom's main opposition force.

In early March, the government gave its consent to the formation of the splinter Brotherhood group, led by a former head of the movement.

Rights groups slammed an official visit to Spain on Thursday by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, saying he should be shunned for his authoritarian rule rather than courted for business deals.

Spain's King Felipe VI hosted the Egyptian leader to lunch at the royal palace after interior ministers from both nations signed an agreement to boost cooperation against illegal immigration, terrorism and organized crime.

Cyprus and Greece on Wednesday agreed with Egypt on the need to step up cooperation in the fight against "terrorism" in the troubled eastern Mediterranean region.

President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made the pledge after talks in Nicosia.

A Syrian shipmaster has been arrested in Beirut on charges of smuggling narcotics to Europe, Egypt and Libya.

The 44-year-old sea captain was apprehended in the Corniche al-Mazraa district by agents from the central anti-narcotics bureau of the Internal Security Forces, according to an ISF statement issued on Wednesday.

Egypt jailed 69 Islamists for life Wednesday for torching a church near Cairo in August 2013 during a crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, a judicial official said.

The Coptic church was set on fire and a police station was attacked when violence erupted in the town of Kerdasa on August 14 that year, after hundreds of Morsi supporters died in a crackdown on two protest camps in the capital the same day.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi vowed that parliamentary polls, originally set for last month, will be held before the end of the year, in an interview published Wednesday.

"I give my word: they will be held before the end of the year," he told El Mundo newspaper in an interview published on the eve of his official visit to Spain.

Sitting in his sparsely furnished flat in Tel Aviv, Fikre Mariam lowers his eyes and recounts watching footage of his cousin -- a fellow Eritrean asylum seeker -- beheaded by jihadists in Libya.

"It was horrible. I've never seen anything like it in my life," says Mariam, one of tens of thousands of African migrants who has sought asylum in Israel.

Authorities in Egypt have hanged five people convicted of murder and theft, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

They were executed in a prison in the southern province of Assyut after the appeals process had been exhausted, a ministry statement said.