A group of Western tourists and their Egyptian guides, who were kidnapped 10 days ago by gunmen, have been freed.
The 11 hostages - five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - and some eight guides are said to be in good health.
The group, abducted in a remote border region of Egypt, have now arrived at a military base in the capital, Cairo.
Egyptian officials said they were freed in a mission near Sudan's border with Chad, and that half of the kidnappers were killed. No ransom was paid.
The freed hostages were greeted by Egyptian military and government officials on arrival in Cairo as well as foreign diplomats, and were then taken for medical checks.
Sudanese authorities had been tracking the group since early last week through a remote mountainous plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan.

They were seized in an ambush at around dawn on Monday, Egyptian security sources said. Some 150 Egyptian special forces were then sent to Sudan, officials said.
German officials had been negotiating via satellite phone with the kidnappers, who were demanding a ransom of $8.8m (£4.9m). Egyptian officials said no money exchanged hands.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Sudanese and Egyptian forces had carried out "a highly professional operation".
He added that "Italian intelligence and experts from the special forces" in Italy and Germany had been involved.
Egypt's defence minister said that half of hostage-takers had been "eliminated", without giving precise figures.
The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Cairo, says Egypt's tourism minister will be relieved.
The abductees had been touring in an area well off the beaten track but a messy end to this crisis would not have been good for the health of the Egyptian economy, our correspondent says.

Suspects
The breakthrough comes a day after Sudanese troops clashed with alleged kidnappers in northern Sudan, killing six gunmen. Another two were taken into custody.
The two suspects claimed the tourists were in Chad but their exact whereabouts at the time of rescue remains unclear. Chad denied the group was within its borders.
In a statement, the military said the vehicle of the hostage-takers was full of weapons and documents detailing how the ransom should have been paid.
Other documents found inside led the army to believe a faction of the Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Army was involved in the kidnapping.
None of Darfur's numerous rebel groups have said they were linked to the kidnappings.
Other reports said the abduction, near the Gilf al-Kebir plateau, was carried out by tribesmen or bandits operating in the area.