KIDNAPPED TOURISTS BACK IN SUDAN

The group, seized by gunmen in southern Egypt nine days ago, was moved across the border to Sudan to the remote mountain region of Jebel Uweinat, a 1,900-metre-high (6,200-foot-high) plateau roughly 30 kilometres (20 miles) in diameter that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan. On September 25 the kidnappers were reported to have moved some 13 to 15 kilometres (eight to nine miles) across the border into Libya, although officials there later denied this had happened. The group has now returned to the Sudanese side of Jebel Uweinat. The kidnappers have demanded that Germany take charge of payment of a six-million-euro (8.8-million-dollar) ransom, an Egyptian security official told AFP on Thursday. They also want the ransom to be handed over to the German wife of the tour organiser.