Aljazeera

At least 71 people have been killed in a series of attacks by the Taliban in Paktia and Ghazni provinces, officials in Afghanistan say.

Of them, up to 41 people have died in a suicide bombing and gun battle, which injured 150 others, at a police training centre in Gardez city in Paktia.

At least 30 others have been killed in car bombings in neighbouring Ghazni province.

The initial double attack in Paktia occurred when fighters attacked the regional police headquarters at around 9am local time (04:30 GMT) on Tuesday in Gardez, less than 161km from the capital, Kabul.

The attackers used a truck and an armoured vehicle stolen from security forces to carry out the bomb attack, which left 41 people, including police chief Brigadier-General Toryali Abdiani, dead and more than 100 wounded, Hidayatullah Hamidi, Paktia's deputy governor, told Anadolu Agency.

Paktia casualties

At least ten Egyptian soldiers including a colonel were killed in a suicide bomb attack on an army checkpoint in northern Sinai, security sources said.

The attack started when a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint at a military compound in the southern Rafah village of el-Barth, followed by heavy gunfire from dozens of masked fighters on foot, offcials said.

The dead included a high ranking special forces officer, Colonel Ahmed el-Mansi, and at least 20 others were wounded in the attack.

Sirens of ambulances were heard from a distance as they rushed to the site of the attack.

The officials spoke to AP news agency on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorised to speak to the media.

Washington, DC - Police have found what are believed to be the remains of a 17-year-old Muslim female who was abducted overnight after leaving her local mosque in Sterling, Virginia, near Washington, DC.

The All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Sterling on Monday identified the missing girl as Nabra. Her last name is currently being withheld.

Local media reports that Nabra was a student who just finished her second year of high school.

"We are devastated and heartbroken as our community undergoes and processes this traumatic event." ADAMS said in a statement.

It is a time for us to come together to pray and care for our youth."

Nabra was last seen with a group of Muslim teens in the early hours of Sunday after having a meal at a local 24-hour restaurant near the mosque, where she attended prayers for Ramadan, a 30-day long holiday during which Muslims fast from dawn until sunset, according to reports from ADAMS and local police.

Saudi Arabia has banned hotels and tourist facilities from airing Al Jazeera news channels and threatened to punish violators with the closure of their facility and a fine of up to $26,000.

In a statement released on Friday, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage ordered that "all channels from the Al Jazeera Media Network must be removed" and replaced with channels compatible with "official Saudi television ones".

"The Commission hereby reiterates that all of the Al Jazeera Network's channels must be removed from all hotel rooms and touristic facilities and furnished residential units, totally and entirely, including the TV lists kept within," the circular said.

"Any facility acting in violation of the aforesaid Circular will be held liable and be penalized with a fine amounting up to SR100,000 or the cancellation of its license; or both the penalties."