Two Algerian detainees at Guantanamo Bay are fighting efforts by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to transfer them to their homeland, fearing abuse, a lawyer said Friday.

Attorney Robert Kirsch said he had pressed the Pentagon and State Department, along with the Algerian Embassy in Washington, to avoid the men's "imminent" repatriation set to take place as early as this weekend.

The United States voiced concern over fresh unrest in Egypt after nearly 200 people were arrested Friday in a clampdown on Islamists protesting against a new law banning unauthorized demonstrations.

In Cairo, police used tear gas against hundreds of Morsi supporters who had gathered in front of one of the capital's presidential palaces. Gunshots could be heard as well.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon warned Friday of "increasingly dangerous" tensions between Israel and the Palestinians which could threaten peace talks.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are holding U.S.-brokered peace contacts, but Ban said, "I am alarmed by the increasingly dangerous situation on the ground. There has been an escalation of violence and incitement."

One man was killed when armed groups of Muslims and Christians clashed in central Egypt over a relationship between a Coptic Christian and a Muslim woman, state news agency MENA reported Friday.

It said the Muslim man was killed when violence erupted late Thursday in an area called Deir Muwass in Minya province.

Syria's prime minister arrived in Tehran Friday for talks with the leaders of close ally Iran ahead of a peace conference aimed at ending his country's civil war , the state broadcaster reported.

During his three-day stay, Wael al-Halqi will meet President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and National Supreme Security Council chief Ali Shamkhani, the report said.

Clashes erupted in Cairo and other Egyptian cities Friday as police dispersed protests staged by Islamists defying a new law banning unauthorized demonstrations, security officials said.

Police used tear gas against supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in the capital's Mohandessin district and on a key road leading to the pyramids.

A year after the United Nations granted Palestine non-member observer status, pressure is mounting on its leaders to exploit that standing rather than pursue peace talks few see bearing fruit.

No official ceremony was scheduled Friday in the Palestinian territories to mark the historic November 29, 2012 vote of the U.N. General Assembly.

At least four people were killed Friday in mortar fire near the famed Ummayad mosque in Damascus, as Syrian forces pressed an operation against rebels in the strategic Qalamoun region.

Government forces bombarded one of two remaining rebel holdouts Qalamoun, northwest of the capital, as Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi flew to Iran for talks with the key regime ally.

The Iranian ambassador to Ankara acknowledged Friday that Tehran enjoys close ties with Turkey's intelligence services, a sign of warming relations between the two regional powers.

The comments by Alireza Bikdeli come just weeks after U.S. newspaper claims -- hotly denied by Ankara -- that Turkey blew an Israeli-Iranian spy ring to the authorities in Tehran.

A soldier and a policemen were shot dead on Friday in another day of violence targeting security forces in Libya's second city Benghazi, a hospital official said.

The killings come a day after three soldiers were killed in clashes there with jihadist group Ansar al-Sharia, and three more wounded in a subsequent attack.