Finland says ransom demanded for missing ship
Published - Aug 15 2009 12:35PM EDT

By JIM HEINTZ - Associated Press Writer

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(AP Photo/Pekka Laakso, Lehitukuva, File)

FILE- In this Dec. 29, 2008 file photo the cargo ship the Arctic Sea is seen in Kotka, Finland. The Russian-manned cargo ship that vanished last month in the Atlantic was found Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, near Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa, according to French and Russian officials. There was no immediate information about the condition of the crew or whether there was anyone else on board.
A ransom demand has been received for the return of a Russian-manned freighter that went missing last month in the Atlantic, Finnish investigators said Saturday.

It was not immediately clear if the ransom demand was legitimate, and the whereabouts of the Arctic Sea, its 15 crew members and its euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) cargo of timber remain a mystery.

The crew had said they were attacked in Swedish waters four days before the ship disappeared on July 28, but there has been no confirmation that the ship was actually seized.

"A ransom demand has been made ... let's say it's a largish amount of money," Markku Ranta-Aho, of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation, told national YLE radio. He said the demand was addressed to the Finland-based company that owns the Arctic Sea, but he would not give details or say where the ship might be located for fear of endangering the crew.

The French Marines said Saturday the ship was likely near Cape Verde. Widespread reports on Friday also had placed the ship near the island nation off West Africa.

Cape Verde authorities said they had no new information Saturday, though Russia's ambassador to the country, Alexander Karpushin, said there was no confirmation the ship had been found.

Russian maritime Web site Sovfrakht said the ship's tracking system had sent signals on Saturday from the Bay of Biscay, some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) north of Cape Verde. It cautioned, however, that the Arctic Sea's Automatic Identification System equipment may not be on the ship itself anymore. The signals disappeared after about an hour, it said.

The French Marines rejected the Web site's claim. Spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe said the signals had come from Russian warships moving from the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea.

Those ships are apparently different from the Russian navy vessels dispatched this week to search for the missing ship.

The Arctic Sea had set out from Finland on July 23 and was due in an Algerian port on Aug. 4. It vanished on July 28 after passing through the English Channel.
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Apparently, we aint the only Pirates still trying to make a living. Arrrgh!!!

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Testing SV 360P/Hope to be testing Viewsat soon?