One man was wounded in a firefight between the security detail of Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and alleged thugs Sunday but the security service said the incident was not political in nature. Bodyguards opened fire at a car carrying five people that had cut into the official convoy as it crossed the capital's October 6 bridge across the Nile. The fire was returned from the car before the driver and the passengers were arrested.

An Israeli man kidnapped by armed Bedouin in Egypt's Sinai peninsula last week has arrived home, telling reporters that he and his Norwegian companion had been threatened with death. "They set a trap for us with two jeeps that stopped us," Israeli Arab Amir Omar Hassan told reporters on his arrival late Tuesday at Ben Gurion airport. "About 10 armed men got out and threw us in the back of the jeeps," he said in remarks broadcast Wednesday by Israeli radio stations. "They said shut up, you're going to die now."

An Israeli man and a Norwegian woman kidnapped by armed Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt's Sinai peninsula four days ago were set free on Tuesday, state news agency MENA said. The pair had been travelling between the resort of Taba and coastal town of Dahab when they were abducted Friday. They were freed thanks to the "efforts" of Bedouin tribesmen, MENA said, citing the security services. They were in good health, and were freed in the early hours of the morning by tribal leaders, said the agency, without giving further details about the conditions for their release.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Masked gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula kidnapped two tourists, an Israeli man and a Norwegian woman, travelling between two coastal resorts, Egyptian and Israeli officials said on Friday. The pair was travelling in a car between Taba, near the Israeli border, and Dahab, a sea resort further south when Bedouin gunmen in a pickup truck captured them, Egyptian security sources said. Egyptian security agencies were contacting the kidnappers to try to secure the pair's release, the sources said.