Egypt has imposed restrictions on male citizens traveling to Turkey and war-torn Libya to stop them joining jihadist organizations like the Islamic State group, a security official said Wednesday.

Men aged between 18 and 40 years who plan to travel to the two countries need prior clearance from Egyptian immigration under the new rules which came into effect on December 3.

An Egyptian court jailed a prominent activist Tuesday for three years for contempt after the man claimed his ongoing trial for participating in violent clashes was political.

Ahmed Douma rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak, and was also a key protest leader against Mubarak's successor, Mohammed Morsi.

Israel's parliament on Monday passed into law a bill aimed at curbing illegal immigration after judges quashed two earlier laws as repressive.

The new act determines that anyone entering Israel illegally can be held in Saharonim detention center for up to three months, after which he or she will be moved to another detention facility called Holot for a period of up to 20 months. Both facilities are deep in southern Israel's Negev desert.

Police have arrested 33 men in a night-time raid on a Cairo bathhouse for alleged "debauchery", a security official said Monday, in what appeared to be Egypt's latest crackdown on homosexuality.

Egyptian law does not expressly ban homosexuality but gay men have previously been arrested and charged with debauchery instead.

Egypt's prosecutor general Monday referred to trial 71 students of the prestigious Al-Azhar University on charges of joining the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and holding illegal protests, a judicial official said.

Hundreds of students have been tried in civilian courts after violence on campuses, bastions of pro-Islamist activists since the army's overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday criticized Egypt's military rulers for having Interpol issue an arrest warrant for a Muslim scholar.

Islamist scholar Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, whose fiery sermons have caused tensions with Cairo's military rulers, is a strong supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Canada on Monday joined Britain in closing its embassy in Cairo to the public for security reasons, with neither country providing details about any specific threat.

The move comes amid increasing attacks by Islamist militants in Egypt and calls from the extremist Islamic State group for attacks on Western targets.

The British embassy in Cairo suspended public services on Sunday for security reasons, a spokesman for the mission said.

Embassy spokesman David Kinna declined to give details but said the decision was taken in the best interest of the embassy and its staff.

An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced to death four members of the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood over the killing of protesters who stormed the group's Cairo headquarters in June last year.

A crowd of angry protesters stormed and torched the headquarters on June 30, 2013, as millions took to the streets in Cairo and other cities demanding Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's resignation.

An Egyptian court on Saturday upheld death sentences for seven men over the killing of 25 policemen in the Sinai Peninsula last year and for collaborating with Al-Qaeda.

The policemen were killed in an ambush in August 2013 in the North Sinai town of Rafah in what was one of the deadliest militant attacks targeting security forces.