Cairo  - Egyptian police on the Gaza Strip border exchanged gunfire with three smugglers attempting to bring fuel and food to the strip, Cairo sources said Thursday.

Cairo  - Iraqi and US teams negotiating a controversial security pact have reached an initial agreement that states that US troops will withdraw from Iraq between 2010 and 2011, the pro- government Iraqi Al-Sabah newspaper reported Monday.

The newspaper reported that "the Iraqi and American technical teams have already reported the outcome of their negotiations to their political leaders during the past days."

Cairo - US Ambassador to Cairo Margaret Scobey told reporters Sunday the prison sentence issued against Egyptian human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim was "disgraceful."

Cairo  - Egyptian state security forces detained 10 leaders of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood Saturday in the Nile Delta city of Mansura, the movement said.

Most of the detainees are members of the Muslim Brotherhood's administrative office in Dakahlia governorate, of which Mansura is the capital, the movement said in a statement on its website.

The Egyptian government has banned the fundamentalist Islamic group, but paradoxically the Muslim Brotherhood is the most active political opposition movement in Egypt.

Cairo  - Egyptian authorities tightened security in parts of the Sinai peninsula close to its border with Israel ahead of a local tribal meeting to be held on Saturday, according to security sources.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said members of the Bedouin tribe of al-Tarabin were expected to meet on Saturday in the village of Naga Shaban close to Egypt's border with Israel.

Cairo - Egyptian police killed an unidentified African migrant attempting to enter Israel illegally, security sources said Friday.

Egyptian police also arrested another two men attempting to cross the border at Rafah.

The two men named Ali Combo, 29, from Somalia and Idris Youssef, 25, from Congo planned to work in Israel.

Most African migrants in Egypt seek asylum or work in Israel.

It was reported that the two detainees paid 5,000 dollars to an illegal people-trafficking organization.

Since of the beginning of 2008, Egyptian police have arrested some 480 illegal immigrants. The largest group, with 210 migrants arrested, were Eritrean.