John Kerry Heading to Egypt

First visit since Morsi was ousted

Secretary of State John Kerry, who is about to begin a nine-day trip that includes a fence-mending visit to Saudi Arabia, will first come to Egypt for a few hours on Sunday, an unpublicized addition to the State Department itinerary, state media reported Friday. It will be Mr. Kerry's first trip here since the military deposed President Mohamed Morsi four months ago.

Mr. Kerry's Egypt stopover comes as relations between the once-close allies have grown increasingly strained, and at a particularly tense moment in Egypt: He is scheduled to arrive the day before Mr. Morsi, detained incommunicado since his July 3 ouster, is to make his first court appearance on murder charges.

The website of Al Ahram, the flagship state newspaper, said Mr. Kerry would meet with the interim president and foreign minister to discuss aid and bilateral relations.