Rome  - Two Italian nuns kidnapped in Kenya near the country's border with Somalia more than three months ago have been freed, Italian officials said Thursday.

Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Olivero, 61, are in a "good condition" at the residence of Italy's ambassador in Nairobi, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

The two nuns were abducted by armed men on November 9, 2008 near Elwak in the northern Kenya district of Mandera. The hostages, who had lived in Kenya for years, were believed to have been taken across the border into Somalia.

The neighbouring region of southern Somalia has been controlled by Islamist fighters allied to local militia.

Washington  - Geographers at a California university believe they may have succeeded at a task that has eluded the highest levels of US intelligence and espionage agencies: They think they know where Osama bin Laden is hiding.

Using satellite imagery and geographic principles, scientists at the Univeristy of California, Los Angeles, have concluded that bin Laden is most likely hiding in one of three buildings in a small Pakistani town called Parachinar, not far from the Afghan border.

Amman - The judiciary would ensure a "fair trail" for Omar Mahmoud Othman, better known as Abu Qatada, if British authorities went ahead with measures to deport him to his Jordanian homeland, Jordan's Justice Minister Ayman Odeh said Wednesday.

"Jordanian legislation currently in force ensures a fair trial for Abu Qatada if the British government decided to deport him," Odeh said in an interview with the official Petra news agency.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A Russian Navy ship on Wednesday handed over to Yemeni authorities 10 Somali suspected pirates it had captured off a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean, security sources said.

Yemeni coast guard officers received the suspects at the south-eastern port of Mukalla, the sources said.

A Russian nuclear-powered warship captured the 10 pirates in two speed boats and a mother ship as they tried to hijack an Iranian fishing trawler south east of the Socotra Island in the Indian Ocean on February 12, according to the Russian Navy.

Dusseldorf - Germany is to try three men from April 22 on charges of belonging to a terrorist gang, conspiring to murder and preparing a crime with explosives, more than 18 months after police nabbed the trio, a court spokesman said Wednesday in Dusseldorf.

The homegrown "terrorists" included two Germans who converted to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider. The other accused, Adem Yilmaz, has Turkish citizenship. A police armed offenders squad arrested them in September 2007 after months of observation.

Buenos Aires - The cruise ship Ocean Nova, with 106 people on board, was to attempt again Wednesday to free itself after running aground a day earlier near an Argentine military base in Antarctica.

Amid strong winds, the ship awaited the arrival of another cruise ship to which its passengers might be evacuated.

Passengers were in good condition and out of danger, Patrick Shaw, chairman of the company Quark Expeditions which operates the Ocean Nova, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.