English
Cairo: Kidnapped 19-member European tour released
Translate this Page to following Languages: (Works every 5 minutes)
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.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Hollywood should apologize to Iran for “insults and accusations against the Iranian nation,” a top aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a visiting Hollywood delegation Sunday.
Oscar-nominated “American Beauty” star Annette Bening was among the members of the Academy of
Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he hoped to work closely together with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton on Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear issue and climate change.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday pledged to work together
Zimbabwe’s opposition says a power-sharing deal is in jeopardy after President Robert Mugabe allocated key ministries to his ZANU-PF party.
A Zimbabwean government notice said Saturday that Mr. Mugabe gave control of the defense, home affairs and finance ministries to ZANU-PF.
The
In his first interview with an Arab television station, United States President Barack Obama Monday told Al Arabiya that Americans are not the enemy of the Muslim world and said Israel and the Palestinians should resume peace negotiations.
“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,” Obama told
Feeds