Exxon oil boss and his wife kidnapped by gunmen on way to Sharm El Sheikh

A British oil executive and his wife were kidnapped as they drove through a remote area of Egypt.
Andy Wells, chairman of ExxonMobil for the country, was driving with his wife Caroline, 48, from their Cairo home towards Sharm el Sheikh, through the increasingly lawless Sinai region.
As they stopped at a bureau de change in the town of Ras Sidr, the couple were held by two masked gunmen.
The kidnappers drove them to a remote mountainous area in southern Sinai and held them for a number of hours.
The couple were finally freed after police promised Bedouin tribesmen they would release a relative who had been detained and accused of smuggling weapons from Libya to Egypt.
It is the latest in a number of kidnappings by Bedouin in Sinai wanting to pressure police into freeing detained relatives.
Mr and Mrs Wells, who married in 1987, have a home in West Byfleet, Surrey and two daughters – 25-year-old Hannah and Emily, 22.
Mr Wells, 51, has been working in Egypt for almost two years.
Following the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 the Foreign Office has advised against all travel to northern Sinai and all but essential travel in southern Sinai except for the tourist areas around Sharm el Sheikh.
A spokesman for travel organisation Abta said: ‘The incident highlights the importance for British people to follow the FO’s advice.’
Security in the isolated desert region has deteriorated since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising two years ago.

Tourists kidnapped in similar circumstances last year were released unharmed.
South Sinai's Red Sea coast is a major tourism area for Egypt.

Missing: The Britons were heading in a private car from Cairo to Sharm El Sheikh, pictured, and had stopped to change money in Ras es-Sidr when they were kidnapped by the tribesmen

Several other tourists have been held briefly by tribesmen in recent months and released unharmed, often after less than a few hours of negotiations with authorities.
Bedouin have attacked police stations, blocked access to towns and taken hostages to show their discontent with what they see as their poor treatment by Cairo and to press for the release of jailed kinsmen.
Two American women were kidnapped in Sinai in February last year but Egyptian authorities negotiated their release a few hours later.
Two other U.S. tourists were kidnapped in late May that year, and then two more U.S. tourists in July.
The captives were released within days in both incidents.
Although many UK tour operators have Egypt programmes, trips including Cairo are rare.
Most UK tourists take Nile trips which do not include Cairo or visit the seaside resorts.

DAILYMAIL