The United States may claim to be appalled by Egypt's human rights record, but its 35-year-old military alliance with the most populous Arab power remains sacred.

Having stuck through Cairo through long years of authoritarian rule, Washington has faced a dilemma since the Arab Spring of 2011.

Nearly 500 alleged Islamists will go on trial on July 16 over violence in which 44 people died, state media said Tuesday, the latest in a string of mass trials slammed internationally.

The trial is part of a relentless crackdown targeting supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, ousted by the army in July 2013.

Egypt's president said Tuesday the authorities will not interfere in the judiciary, as protests were staged worldwide in solidarity with Al-Jazeera journalists, including an Australian, whose jailing has sparked outrage.

The United States is leading calls for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to pardon the journalists convicted of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood movement and "spreading false news".

An Egyptian court sentenced Monday to life in prison 24 Islamists for killing a taxi driver who had put in his car a picture of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the ex-army chief turned president.

Judicial sources said the convicted men were supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi who was overthrown by Sisi last July, and were accused of killing the driver by slitting his throat.

An Egyptian court sentenced three Al-Jazeera journalists including Australia's Peter Greste to jail terms from seven to 10 years Monday in a verdict denounced internationally as "chilling" and "unjust".

Greste and Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fadel Fahmy each got seven years, while Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed received two sentences -- one for seven years and another for three.

An al-Qaida breakaway group's seizure of territory in Iraq and Syria has sent tremors across the Middle East, jolting neighboring countries into action over fears that the Islamic militants may set their sights on them next.

In Jordan, the army dispatched reinforcements to its border with Iraq last week to boost security, while in Lebanon heavily armed police busted a suspected sleeper cell allegedly linked to the group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in raids on two hotels in central Beirut.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Egypt's former military leaders Sunday to allow greater political freedoms, warning the nation faced a "critical moment," as he arrived on a surprise visit.

Kerry became the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi since he came to power earlier this month, as part of a rocky transition to democracy since the ousting of long-time leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011. 

Reda Ramadan didn't get a chance to celebrate the acquittal of his nephew after he learned his brother was among 183 defendants whose death sentences were confirmed in Egypt Saturday.

"Our family is devastated. The acquittal means nothing when there is a death sentence" at the same time, a grieving Ramadan told Agence France Presse as he left the courtroom.

Rights group Amnesty on Saturday strongly criticized a decision by an Egyptian court to confirm death sentences for more than 180 Islamists, accusing the judiciary of losing "any semblance of impartiality".

The court in the central city of Minya had initially sentenced 683 people to death, but on Saturday it commuted death sentences of four defendants to life in prison, including two women, and acquitted 496 others, prosecutor Abdel Rahim Abdel Malik told Agence France Presse.

Two people were shot dead on Friday in clashes in Cairo between security forces and supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, the interior ministry said.

Another eight people were wounded across the capital as 53 people suspected of rioting were arrested nationwide.