good morning everyone. welcome to early start. nice to have you with us. i m ashleigh banfield. i m zoraida sambolin. we re bringing you the news from a to z. it is 5:00 a.m. in the east. let s get started. this is cnn breaking news. we begin with breaking news this morning. two american tourists kidnapped by gunmen in egypt. it happened in the town of dahab in the region of egypt. the report says that two americans were forced out of a car and taken away. the alleged kidnappers demanding the release of a man who was arrested a day before for drug possession. cnn s ben wedeman is live in cairo. i know these are late-breaking details. what can you tell us? reporter: the embassy is in close contact with the egyptian authorities. they say to resolve this situation. now, it s not unusual, the not the first time that tourists, including americans, have been kidnapped here. since the revolution at the beginning of last year, state authority in that part of egypt has really