Thousands of people took to the streets across Egypt on Friday to defend the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak, directing their anger at the new military rulers over the slow pace of reform.

Flag-waving protesters converged on Cairo's Tahrir square to push for democratic change and demand that former regime officials accused of abuse be brought to justice.

Scores of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach Israel were blocked at airports in Europe and two American activists who arrived in Israel were deported early Friday, Israeli officials said.

Israel increased security at the Ben-Gurion International Airport ahead of the activists' arrival and asked foreign airlines to prevent blacklisted travelers from boarding Israel-bound flights, as hundreds said they would travel to Israel to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Friday defended her government's silence on a reported secret deal to sell hundreds of tanks to Saudi Arabia, and said she was committed to democracy in the region.

"Deliberation and decisions by the federal security council are secret for good reason," she told the daily Mittelbayerische Zeitung, referring to the panel including the chancellor and top ministers that rules on arms exports.

The United States and Iraq are negotiating the possibility of keeping some U.S. forces in the country beyond a December 31 deadline for withdrawal, the U.S. military's top officer said Thursday.

"The negotiations are ongoing and it's hard," Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters at a Pentagon Press Association event.

The U.S. ambassador to Damascus is visiting the flashpoint Syrian city of Hama and plans to observe mass demonstrations Friday against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, the State Department said.

Last Friday, an anti-regime rally brought out half a million people in Hama, according to pro-democracy activists. The security services did not intervene and Assad fired the city's governor the next day.

Israel-Turkey talks meant to repair ties strained by a fatal attempt to breach Israel's Gaza blockade have collapsed, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

The talks were being held ahead of a U.N. report which Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said listed faults of both sides' handling of the issue, in which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals.

A U.N. rapporteur Thursday slammed a highly anticipated U.N. report said to back a 2010 Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla aiming to break the Gaza blockade which left nine people dead.

"The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter, has received a draft of this report and he firmly opposes its conclusions," De Schutter's office said in an email.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, his face burned and his hands covered with bandages, appeared on television Thursday for the first time since he was wounded in a bomb attack on his palace in Sanaa.

Saleh, who has been hospitalized in Saudi Arabia since the June 3 attack, was barely recognizable and sat stiffly as he spoke in the pre-recorded statement broadcast on Yemeni television.

Around 100 families have fled Syria's central city of Hama fearing a military crackdown on massive protests against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a rights group said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that about 1,000 people in total had left Hama, where it said Syrian troops had killed 23 civilians since Tuesday.

Bahrain's main Shiite opposition formation will shun parts of the national dialogue which the authorities say aims to bring forward reforms in the restive kingdom, a member said on Thursday.

"We will boycott the meetings of the economic and social committees but will continue to attend the meetings of the political and rights committees," Khalil al-Marzooq a leading member of the Islamic National Accord Association (al-Wefaq), told Agence France Presse.