Egypt Bedouin free 3 S. Korean hostages

Bedouin in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Saturday released three South Korean tourists and their Egyptian tour guide a day after abducting them, South Sinai's governor said.Khaled Fouda said the tourists, all women, "were unharmed" and he was waiting for them to arrive at a hotel near St Catherine's monastery, from where the tourists were returning on Friday when they were snatched by armed Bedouin.The kidnappers demanded the release of fellow tribesmen held by the authorities in exchange for the tourists.The kidnapping came after the brief abduction of two American women and their Egyptian guide by armed Bedouin in the peninsula last week.It also follows the brief seizure of 19 Egyptian policemen on Thursday after a tribesman was killed in a shoot-out with police near the border with Israel.Bedouins in North Sinai also briefly held 25 Chinese workers employed by a military-owned cement factory, to demand the release of Islamist relatives detained over bombings in the peninsula's Red Sea resorts between 2004 and 2006.