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day earlier in Cairo. He was there in part to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to and discuss a regional solution to end the bloodshed by the insurgent Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
• "No country is safe from that kind of spread of terror, and none of us can afford to leave that entity with a safe haven which would become a base for terror against anyone and all, not only in the region but outside of the region as well," Kerry said in Cairo.
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• CAIRO (AP) -- An Egyptian court on Monday convicted three journalists from Al-Jazeera English and sentenced them to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges, bringing widespread criticism that the verdict was a blow to freedom of expression.
• The three, Australian Peter Greste, Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohammed, have been detained since a December raid on their Cairo hotel room, which they were using as an office as they covered protests by supporters of the ousted Islamist president. The raid was part of a broad crackdown against Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
• They had pleaded innocent, saying they were simply doing their jobs as journalists. But they were charged with supporting the Brotherhood, which has been declared a terrorist organization, and of fabricating footage to undermine Egypt's national security and make it appear the country was facing civil war.
• The prosecution provided little evidence in the case, showing video footage found in their possession -- most of which had nothing to do with the case, including a report on a veterinary hospital in Cairo, Christian life and old footage of Greste from previous assignments elsewhere in Africa.
• "I swear they will pay for this," Fahmy, who was Al-Jazeera English's acting Cairo bureau chief, shouted angrily from the defendants' cage after the sentences were announced in the Cairo court Monday. Greste, a correspondent, raised his fists in the air.
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• JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli warplanes bombed a series of targets inside Syria

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