A bomb exploded outside the gates of Cairo University on Wednesday, an Egyptian police official said, wounding at least nine people including policemen.

Police cordoned off the area and scoured it with sniffer dogs. An official said five of the nine wounded were policemen stationed outside the campus to quell protests.

An Egyptian court jailed 25 men Wednesday for from seven years to life for planning "terrorist attacks" on state institutions during the presidency of Islamist Mohammed Morsi.

The accused, members of the so-called "Nasr City Cell," were arrested in 2012 after an exchange of fire in Cairo's upscale district of Nasr City.

Two Israeli soldiers were wounded Wednesday when alleged drug smugglers fired shots and an anti-tank missile from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula at their vehicle patrolling the border, the army said.

Troops responded to the attack, near the border community of Ezuz about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of the Gaza Strip, killing three of the assailants.

Egypt's authorities banned a prominent activist of the 2011 uprising, Asma Mahfouz, from leaving the country late Tuesday while on her way to Bangkok, a Cairo airport official said.

Mahfouz, a well known youth leader, was a leading figure of the uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

An Egyptian court will hear on January 1 an appeal by three Al-Jazeera journalists and four co-defendants against their conviction of ties with Islamists, a judicial official said Tuesday.

Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were convicted in June of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood and spreading false news that portrayed Egypt as being in a state of "civil war".

An Egyptian military court sentenced to death seven members of an Al-Qaida inspired jihadist group Tuesday for carrying out deadly attacks on the army, army officials said.

Two other members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) were sentenced to life in prison, which amounts to 25 years in Egypt.

As the new academic term began in Egypt, riot police were standing guard at Cairo's universities to quash any repeat of Islamist-led protests that turned campuses nationwide into battlefields.

The authorities have tightened security at leading universities across the country -- the last bastions of protests backing ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi after a nationwide government crackdown crushed his supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

As the new academic term began in Egypt, riot police were standing guard at Cairo's universities to quash any repeat of Islamist-led protests that turned campuses nationwide into battlefields.

The authorities have tightened security at 12 leading universities across the country -- the last bastions of protests backing ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi after a nationwide government crackdown crushed his supporters, leaving hundreds dead and thousands jailed.

Two bombs exploded near a mosque Thursday in Egypt's Nile delta city of Tanta, wounding at least eight people, security and medical officials said.

"Eight people were wounded... when shrapnel hit them in the arms, legs and faces," said Magdy Awad, chief of ambulance services for Al-Gharbiya province, of which Tanta is the capital.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi will lead a ministerial delegation to war-ravaged Gaza on October 23, an official said Thursday.

The delegation will include Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah and Mauritanian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ould Teguedi, the League official told reporters in Cairo.