Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Egyptian authorities to reveal the whereabouts of at least five Egyptians deported home from Malaysia and Turkey fearing they may face "torture and ill-treatment".

Cairo's downtown, with its old European-designed buildings, is wrestling to preserve its cultural heritage as Egypt readies a new capital in the desert.

A stroll through the district takes pedestrians past buildings that meld Islamic and European motifs, neo-classical columns and ornate decorations.

An Egyptian court Saturday sentenced 18 people to life in prison for joining the Islamic State (IS) group and plotting to bomb a church, a judicial source said.

Egypt's most prominent pro-democracy activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, was released on probation Friday after five years in prison on charges of organising an illegal protest.

The outspoken dissident and blogger, who was an iconic figure of the Arab Spring revolution that unseated longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, was reunited with his family after being released from Tora Prison, in Cairo's southern outksirts.

Residents of a Cairo island with lush fields and unpaved roads, a world apart from Egypt's traffic-choked metropolis, are determined to stay put as judges rule on their possible expulsion.

Egypt says four Egyptians were among those killed in the New Zealand mosque shootings.

An Egyptian police officer was wounded and seven suspected militants were killed Thursday in a firefight and raid in the capital Cairo, the interior ministry said.

Award-winning Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid was released on Monday after spending nearly six years in prison following his arrest while covering a bloody crackdown on protests, his lawyer said.

The photographer, widely known as Shawkan, last year received UNESCO's World Freedom Prize, dismaying the Egyptian authorities who accused him of "terrorist and criminal acts".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticized his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after the recent execution of nine people in Egypt, saying he refused to talk to "someone like him."

Egypt's army said Saturday seven suspected jihadists were "eliminated" and 15 soldiers killed or wounded in an attack in the Sinai Peninsula, where the military is fighting the Islamic State group.