Egypt's interior minister on Saturday announced the arrest of dozens of "extremists" and accused the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed president Mohammed Morsi of financing radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida.

Mohamed Ibrahim told reporters security forces had arrested more than 50 members of "extremist groups" with ties to the network founded by Osama bin Laden and now led by his Egyptian successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz held talks on Saturday with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Jaber al-Sabah and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

Sources told Naharnet that a Kuwaiti mediation succeed in rectifying the ties between Saudi Arabia and Qatar after disputes on regional developments.

Egypt has detained 39 people, including a U.S. citizen, accused of torching a tram during a protest against the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, judicial sources said Saturday.

The accused, who were placed in 15-day preventive detention, were members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, the sources said, adding that they were also accused of rioting and attacking policemen on Friday during protests in Cairo.

Egypt announced Saturday it was expelling Turkey's ambassador, the latest souring of diplomatic ties that began when the Egyptian army ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power in July.

Ankara said it would reciprocate and hours later, it declared Egypt's ambassador "persona non grata" and downgraded diplomatic relations to the level of charge d'affaires.

A young boy and a man were killed on Friday as supporters and opponents of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi clashed in Egypt, officials said.

The confrontations came as pro-Morsi groups called for a week of anti-military protests under the slogan "Massacre of the Century".

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Friday dismissed comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accusing them of stealing the revolution, saying Washington backed the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Unrest has spiked in Egypt since the military overthrew Morsi in July following popular protests against his one-year rule and accusations that he concentrated too much power in the hands of the Brotherhood.

Egypt's interim rulers on Thursday gave police the power to enter university campuses to quell protests without seeking prior permission, state media reported, after a student was killed in clashes.

The military-installed cabinet said police could now enter campuses in case of "threats and to confront protests that could harm students", state news agency MENA quoted a cabinet statement as saying.

An Egyptian police officer was shot dead north of Cairo on Thursday while on a mission to arrest militants suspected of assassinating a senior security official, the interior ministry said.

Captain Ahmed Samer Mahmoud was killed at dawn in an operation in the Nile Delta town of Qulubiya when a team of special forces exchanged gunfire with militants, the ministry said.

Pope Francis on Thursday said the Catholic Church will not accept a Middle East without Christians, who often find themselves forced to flee areas of conflict and unrest in the region.

"We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians," he said after meeting with patriarchs from Syria, Iran and Iraq, before calling for "the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one's own faith to be respected."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday accused the Muslim Brotherhood of stealing Egypt's revolution, in some of his toughest comments yet about the party that took power in the nation's first democratic election.

In a speech to a forum on enhancing links between private sector businesses and diplomatic security agencies, Kerry said "the best antidote to extremism is opportunity."