Nairobi/Khartoum - Three western hostages who work for international aid organization Doctors Without Borders are free after being kidnapped earlier this week in western Sudan, according to reports in a local newspaper.

Quoting a government official, the Sudan Tribune reported the release Saturday without citing any further details.

On Friday, the Italian government had announced the release of the Canadian nurse, Italian physician and a French coordinator, but then had to withdraw its announcement.

Rome/Paris  - Three western hostages who work for the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders have been set free, the Italian foreign minister said late Friday in Rome.

The government in Khartoum located the kidnappers despite their constant flight from one place to another, and negotiated with them to release the hostages.

Italian media reports said no ransom was paid.

A spokeswoman in Paris for the French-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF,) as the organization is formally known, did not confirm the release.

The Hague  - Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno Ocampo has appealed against the decision by the ICC not to charge acting Sudanese President Mohammed al-Bashir with genocide, it emerged Friday.

On March 4, The Hague-based court decided to charge al-Bashir with crimes against humanity and war crimes, but excluding genocide, and issued a warrant for his arrest.

New York  - The Sudanese government should allowed relief organizations to return to Darfur before a humanitarian crisis breaks out, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.

Khartoum has expelled at least 13 international relief organizations responsible for half of the humanitarian assistance in the war-torn Darfur region. More than 2 million Darfurians depended on those relief groups.

Khartoum - The US embassy in Sudan authorized the departure of its non-essential employees on Tuesday, fearing potential violence against Americans and Europeans, a message on the embassy's website said.

"Recent protests have adopted a sharp anti-western rhetoric," read the statement. Sudan's government had expelled numerous aid groups and government officials have publicly called humanitarian aid workers "spies."

Cairo- A Sudanese man was rescued on Tuesday as Egyptian authorities continue to search for survivors a day after a Cypriot-registered cargo ship capsized in the Red Sea, police have told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Sudanese survivor raises the number of people rescued to 10 of the 26 men on board the Ibn Battuta. On Monday, the bodies of two crew members were pulled from the water.

Police say those rescued from the vessel include four Somalis, two Iraqis, a Bangladeshi, a Yemeni and an Ethiopian.