Hamburg - Former Ireland manager Brian Kerr on Monday signed a two-and-a-half-year contract as Faroe Islands national team coach, the Faroe football federation said in a statement.

Kerr, 56, will be in charge until the end of the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012.

He will take charge of the North Atlantic islands team immediately, his first match coming in June against Serbia in World Cup 2010 qualifying. The Faroes lie bottom of Group 7 with just one points while Serbia top the standings.

Geneva - A watch commissioned most likely by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the late 1800s will go on sale in Geneva next month, Sotheby's auction house said Monday.

Ludwig II, an eccentric who was removed from power on grounds of insanity, most likely ordered the watch, which is decorated on the back with a depiction of the Virgin Mary standing on a crescent moon, to pay tribute to the Royal Military Order of Saint George.

The watch is estimated to be worth between 27,000 and 44,000 dollars, the auction house said.

The Bavarian ruler was known for building fantasy estate houses and fortresses, including the Neuschwanstein Castle. He was also a patron of composer Richard Wagner.

Luebeck, Germany  - Two more German students died from drinking tainted alcohol during a holiday in Turkey, bringing the death toll to three, doctors confirmed Monday.

The 17- and 19-year-old students were pronounced clinically dead late on Saturday, doctors at the University Clinic in the north German city of Luebeck said.

The two vocational college students were flown home on Thursday evening and taken to the hospital's intensive care unit near their homes, where doctors battled to save their lives.

A hospital official said the case had been taken over by the Luebeck prosecutor's department because the two young men died an unnatural death.

Berlin  - Germany was attempting Monday to obtain the release of a German container ship which was hijacked the previous day in the Indian Ocean, apparently by Somali pirates.

A newspaper in Hamburg identified the vessel as the Hansa Stavanger, owned by a city shipping company, Leonhardt & Blumberg.

The Hamburger Abendblatt said the vessel, built in 1997 at the Wenchong shipyard in Guangzhou, China, had had several other names and owners.

Kunduz, Germany  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived Monday on a surprise visit to Afghanistan, her second to the country, to visit German soldiers.

Merkel, accompanied by Defence Minister Franz-Josef Jung, landed at a military base in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, where 700 German troops are stationed.

A number of attacks occurred near the base shortly before Merkel's visit. Shots were fired at German soldiers overnight as they were guarding a bridge construction project 7 kilometres from the camp. None was hurt.