CAIRO: An Israeli man and a Norwegian woman kidnapped by armed Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula four days ago were set free yesterday, Egyptian and Norwegian officials said. The pair, who had been abducted on Friday, were released thanks to the “efforts” of Bedouin tribesmen, said an Egyptian security official cited by Mena state news agency.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.
Gunman wounds foreign Red Cross worker in Yemen
SANA’A: An aid worker for the International Committee of the Red Cross from Kazakhstan was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen in the Yemeni capital yesterday, a security official said. The victim was in an ICRC car when she was shot in a street in Sanaa, the official said. He said she was in critical condition but an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva said the aid worker was not seriously hurt. Her nationality was initially given as Russian but Yemeni officials and the Russian Foreign Ministry said later she was a citizen of Kazakhstan.
Palestinians need $1.4bn foreign aid
to meet budget
RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority was debating a draft budget amounting to $3.9bn, of which it said $1.4bn would have to come from foreign financing. Prime minister Salam Fayyad lamented a lack of payment of foreign aid as he presented the 2013 draft budget to politicians and economists in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.
Agencies
