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Egypt Kidnapper Gives Up, German Hostages Unharmed
An Egyptian man holding four German tourists hostage in a child custody battle with his estranged German wife surrendered to police early on Thursday.
Security sources said the four hostages were unharmed following their three-day ordeal and the kidnapper had been taken into custody after giving up without a struggle.
The kidnapper, identified as Ibrahim Ali, had abducted the Germans on Monday near the southern resort of Luxor to try to force the return of his two children from Germany.
The sources said Ali, who surrendered soon after 3 a.m. (0100 GMT), and the Germans -- Christoph Paning, Marco Wedekind, Ralf Laue and Peter Nowotnick -- would be flown to Cairo.
They said Ali, 45, gave himself up after negotiations for the release of the hostages who were held in Ali's apartment in Karnak, near Luxor, not in a school as earlier reported.
The hostage drama ended only hours after German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss efforts to free the four Germans.
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