Egypt's interior ministry said on Wednesday it had arrested an Egyptian militant who had returned from fighting in Syria with a group linked to the al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front in order to train Egyptians in bombmaking.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government defended its human rights record against Western and regional critics at a United Nations hearing on Wednesday, declaring that personal freedoms were among its prime concerns.
Tunisia's Ennahda party, the first Islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 "Arab Spring" revolts, conceded defeat on Monday in elections that are set to make its main secular rival the strongest force in parliament.
An Egyptian court sentenced 68 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to jail terms on Tuesday, judicial sources said, in a case related to deadly violence a year ago after the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi.
