Kidnapped nuns released in Kenya

ROME, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Two Italian nuns kidnapped in Kenya last year have been released, the Italian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Sisters Caterina Giraudo, 67, and Maria Teresa Olivero, 61, were released in Somalia and later flown to Kenya, ANSA reported.

''We'd been praying for them for months,'' Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said the nuns are well and were in the Italian embassy in Nairobi. Italy's ambassador to Kenya, Pierandrea Magistrati, told ANSA the nuns were ''safe and are sitting right in front of me. This is a great day.''

The nuns belong to the Padre de Foucauld Missionary Movement. They had been living in Kenya for more than 20 years. They work with those suffering from epilepsy and tuberculosis.

The news service reported that the missionaries were seized Nov. 9 along with their Kenyan driver when an armed gang stormed the village of El Wak, near the border with Somalia.