Cairo - Egy

Cairo - A deal on the exchange of Israeli and Hamas prisoners may come within the next 24 hours, a Hamas representative has told a leading Arabic-language daily.

The next 24 hours could prove "decisive" in Egyptian-mediated indirect talks between Israeli and Hamas in Cairo, an anonymous Hamas politician told the regional Arabic daily al-Hayat in remarks published Friday. The paper said a deal may be "imminent."

Cairo  - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is the subject of an international arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday.

The trip was al-Bashir's latest in a tour of countries that, like Egypt, have not signed the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court (ICC), and so are not obligated to act on the warrant the court issued for al-Bashir earlier this month.

Cairo  - Cairo's Gazira Club sprawls lazily across a verdant island in the Nile.

In the days of the monarchy, it was reserved for English officers. And while it was nationalized after the revolution in 1952, the club remains a bastion of Cairo's elites and upper-middle classes.

If anyone in the Arab world's most populous country has felt the effects of the world financial crisis, they are likely to be found here.

Cairo  - Sudan President Omar al-Bashir will visit Egypt on Wednesday despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), an Egyptian official said on Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told German Press Agency dpa that al-Bashir will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss developments after the ICC decision.

Wednesday's visit will be al-Bashir's second trip abroad since the arrest warrant was issued, after his brief visit to Eritrea on Monday.

Al-Arish, Egypt  - A man smuggling African migrants across Egypt's border with Israel opened fire at an Egyptian border guard on Tuesday, seriously wounding him, police said.

Mustafa al-Hamshari, 22, was seriously wounded when a man caught smuggling African migrants across Egypt's border with Israel south of Rafah returned fire, a source in Egypt's security forces told German Press Agency dpa on condition of anonymity.

Al-Hamshari was taken to al-Arish hospital. The smuggler and the migrants he was transporting escaped across the border into Israel, police said.