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'Fifteen people seized' in Egypt

Around 15 people, many of them tourists, are reported to have been kidnapped in southern Egypt.

Five Italians, Germans and Egyptians were reported to be among the tourists seized near Aswan, though the details of the abduction were unclear.

The Italian foreign ministry said it had set up a crisis unit to deal with the incident.

There were unconfirmed reports that the group may have been taken across the border into Sudan.

But Egyptian officials said the circumstances of the abduction remained unclear.

"We don't know yet who did this and we don't know the whereabouts of the tourists," an official told the Associated Press.

There were initially reports that the group included Israeli tourists - but Israelis were not mentioned in later reports.

Kidnaps of foreigners in Egypt have been very uncommon in recent years.

Egypt hostages have food shortage

CAIRO (Reuters) - Kidnappers who seized 19 hostages in Egypt more than a week ago are running short of food and fuel, an Egyptian government source said on Saturday.

The official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the kidnappers moved the hostages into Libya for a few hours on Friday to try to stock up on supplies before returning to Sudanese territory.

"They are suffering from a severe shortage in food and fuel," the official said.

Masked kidnappers snatched 11 Western tourists and eight Egyptians from a remote border area last week and whisked them into Sudan. The Egyptian government identified the tourists as five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian.

Analysts say the kidnappers do not appear to have political or ideological motives, unlike the militant Islamists who attacked tourist targets in the Nile Valley and the Sinai peninsula in the 1990s and the middle of the current decade.

Egyptian officials said the kidnappers were asking the German government for a large ransom. One security official put the figure at 6 million euros.

Egypt has said the kidnappers were relaying their demands through satellite telephone calls to the German wife of an Egyptian tour operator who is among the hostages.

The man informed his wife about the shortage and told her they were back in Sudan, the government source said. Libya denied the hostages had been moved into its territory.

Egyptian and German officials have also spoken to the kidnappers.

The incident is an embarrassment to the Egyptian government. Tourism accounts for more than 6 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product.

The remote region, which contains cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old, is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad.

Tour operators say they have seen an increase in banditry in the area over the past year.

Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said he had no information about the latest developments and Tourism Minister Zoheir Garrana did not return phone calls seeking comment.


Source: Reuters

Kidnapped 19-member European tour released

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A kidnapped 19-member European tour group was freed Monday and the 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides and drivers are in good health and on their way to Cairo, Egypt's state news agency and television reported.

The group, which includes five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian, disappeared Sept. 19 while on a desert safari trip in a remote corner of southwestern Egypt. Their abductors took them to Sudan, then to Libya, but their final whereabouts were unclear.

Italian news reports quoted Foreign Minister Franco Frattini as saying the 19 have been freed.

He told Italian reporters in Belgrade, Serbia, they were in the hands of Egyptian authorities and their condition was being checked.

The Egyptian report referred to an "operation this morning" to free the 19 but did not say where it took place. It said all 19 were in good health, but again gave no details.

"Our compatriots and the other hostages in Egypt have been freed," Frattini was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. "It is the result of international cooperation for which we have to be really grateful to the authorities of other countries that have been working with us."

ANSA said Frattini declined to give details on the release because the group was still in an unsafe area. German officials had been negotiating with the kidnappers, who were demanding millions of dollars in ransom.

On Sunday, Sudan's military said eight kidnappers led soldiers on a high-speed desert chase, ending in a firefight that left all but two of the gunmen dead. Five soldiers were also injured in the chase, which started when a vehicle carrying the gunmen refused to halt.


Source: The Associated Press

Thats good news

Saw them on the TV News, all well & carrying bouquets (probably to disguise the smell after all those days ) No ransom paid apparently so a good result

Well that's the first desert safari that includes a multi city stop with no extra charge! Is this what we have to do to get flowers around here!

Joking aside this is great new's and am glad they are all safe and well.