Free Republic

The mystery of a missing ship embroiled in contradictory reports deepened Saturday, as investigators in Finland said a ransom demand was made for the freighter that vanished more than two weeks ago. It wasn't immediately clear whether the request for money from the purported hijackers of the vessel, named the Arctic Sea, was legitimate. Markku Ranta-Aho of Finland's National Bureau of Investigation told national YLE radio Saturday that "a ransom demand has been made and it was addressed to the shipping company which is based in Finland, and let's say it's a largish amount of money." He did not give...

France: missing cargo ship found near Cape Verde (AP) – 12 hours ago PARIS — The French Defense Ministry says a Russian-manned cargo that vanished in the Atlantic last month has been found near Cape Verde. Ministry spokesman Capt. Jerome Baroe says Cape Verde coast guards have confirmed the Arctic Sea was discovered Friday afternoon about 520 miles (840 kilometers) off the former Portuguese colony off the West African coast. The Arctic Sea has been missing since it passed through the English Channel on July 28. The Maltese-flagged freighter sent radio messages as it sailed south along the coasts of...

The whereabouts of a Russian-manned cargo ship that vanished last month in the Atlantic remained in question Friday -- after a Russian envoy said that a reported sighting off the West African coast proved to be untrue. French and Russian officials had said that the ship, the Arctic Sea, had been discovered off the coast of Cape Verde, and Russian ships were on their way to investigate, the Associated Press reported. But a Russian news agency later quoted Alexander Karpushin, Russia's ambassador to Cape Verde, disputing that information about this ship, which had been carrying a load of timber and...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The mystery surrounding a missing merchant ship deepened Thursday with the vessel's operator suggesting piracy and maritime experts suspecting foul play or even a secret cargo. The Kremlin ordered Russian warships to join the hunt for the 4,000-tonne, 98-meter bulk carrier Arctic Sea, whose fate has baffled maritime authorities across Europe and North Africa. The Maltese-registered vessel, carrying a $1.3-million cargo of timber, was supposed to have docked on August 4 in the Algerian port of Bejaia. It never arrived and is thought to have last made contact from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France....

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Russian navy to join the hunt for a cargo ship which disappeared after passing through the English Channel. Warships and nuclear submarines have have been told to “take all necessary measures to find and free” the ship and its 15-man Russian crew amid fears that it has been seized by pirates. The mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea has deepened after further details emerged of the “missing” four days after the ship was reportedly raided by armed men off the Swedish coast. There was speculation that the ship had been seized by the Russian Mafia...

A young Somali man from the Twin Cities pleaded guilty this afternoon in U.S. District Court to lying to federal agents investigating the recruitment of up to 20 Somali Americans over the past two years to fight with a known terrorist group in their war-torn homeland. Kamal Said Hassan, 24, left Minneapolis for Somalia to train and fight with al-Shabaab, a Somali Islamist group that has been identified by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaida. Hassan returned to the U.S. last winter, apparently after having a change of heart about the mission, several Somali...

A prominent Minneapolis Somali community leader said Tuesday that he believes the recruitment of young Somali-Americans from the Twin Cities to fight jihad in their homeland has slowed or stopped. Speaking at a workshop to address the issue, Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Communities of Minnesota, said the radicalization of Somali youth here is "over." The combination of worldwide media and law enforcement scrutiny, coupled with greater vigilance by parents, has caused the recruiting pipeline here to dry up, he said. "It's come to a halt. People felt this has gone too far," Fahia said. "And...

Police say a body pulled from an Ada County canal matches the size and age of an 8-year-old boy who disappeared more than a week ago. Boise Deputy Chief Jim Kerns said Monday the Ada County coroner had not identified the body and was performing an autopsy. Kerns said the family of Robert Manwill had been notified. The child reportedly disappeared July 24 after leaving his mother's apartment in Boise, where he was visiting. The boy's father, Charles Manwill, lives in New Plymouth and has had custody since 2008. Police said Friday new evidence in the case indicated suspicious circumstances...

BOISE - A body has been pulled from an area canal. Ada County Dispatchers tell NewsChannel 7, they received a report it's a male juvenile's body. The body was pulled from a canal near Deer Flat and Cloverdale in the Kuna area. A temporary command post is being set up in the area. Boise Police spokeswoman Lynn Hightower tells NewsChannel 7 and KTVB.COM that the previously scheduled 2pm news conference on the search for Robert Manwill has been cancelled, in order to further investigate the body found in the canal.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department says it's aware of Iranian media reports that three American citizens have been detained in Iran. Spokesman Robert Wood says the U.S. has asked the Swiss, who represent American interests in Iran, to confirm the reports with Iranian authorities and arrange for diplomatic access to the three, if the reports are true. The Americans reportedly were detained Friday after crossing into Iran's Kurdistan province—when they failed to heed warnings from Iranian border guards.

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Iran state TV confirmed Saturday that it has detained three Americans who crossed the border from northern Iraq, saying they failed to heed warnings from Iranian guards. Kurdish officials from the self-ruled region in northern Iraq said the three—two men and a woman—were tourists who had mistakenly crossed into Iranian territory Friday while hiking in a mountainous area near the resort town of Ahmed Awaa. "The Iranians said they have arrested them because they entered their land without legal permission," said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdish regional government's envoy to Washington. Iran's state owned Arabic-language al-Alam TV...

I heard one news report on the radio when all of this happened a couple days back that talked about the 3 Americans captured in Iran, but haven't heard anything about it since, nor do any of the reports on the internet say anything about it. One was described as a teacher and a "campus activist", and another one was a "community activist". Anyone else here this?

Police investigating the disappearance of an Idaho boy missing for a week said Friday they are afraid the child may have been the victim of a tragedy.

Washington has said it is checking reports that three US tourists were detained by Iranians while hiking along the northern Iraqi border. The three are reported to have gone missing in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region which borders Iran.

Nearly 10,000 Uighurs involved in deadly riots in China went missing in one night, exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer has said. Members of the Muslim ethnic group attacked Han Chinese in the Xinjiang region's capital of Urumqi on July 5. The rioting erupted after police tried to break up a protest against fatal assaults on Uighur workers at a factory in south China. Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later that week. "The nearly 10,000 (Uighur) people who were at the protest, they disappeared from Urumqi in one night," Ms Kadeer told a news conference in Tokyo, Japan. If...

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. State Department says it's investigating reports that three Americans have been detained by Iranians after wandering near the border in the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Two Kurdish officials say the three Americans apparently were arrested after entering Iranian territory without permission. One security official says the missing Americans were tourists on an outing. The official says the three contacted a colleague Friday and said "they had mistakenly entered Iranian territory and troops surrounded them." The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information. State Department spokesman...

Boise police are working Tuesday to recreate a detailed timeline of what Robert Manwill did on Friday — the day the 8-year-old disappeared and sparked a more than three-day intensive search in his neighborhood around south Vista Boulevard in Southwest Boise. Police now say the boy was last seen wearing a faded blue T-shirt with a Superman logo, blue jeans and dark tennis shoes. He went missing from a playground at his mother's apartment complex near the intersection of Vista and Targee Street — about half a mile from Interstate 84 and even closer to the New York Canal. Police,...

7/28/2009 - KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AFNS) -- As a 21-gun salute rang throughout Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery July 27, the sound meant a Vietnam War veteran who had been missing in action for more than 40 years was finally home to rest . Active-duty members, retirees and their families gathered at Chief Master Sgt. Quincy Adam's final resting place to pay their respects. Among them was Staff Sgt. Adam Blankenship, cousin of Chief Adam. "It's been a long road for our family waiting for this type of closure," said Sergeant Blankenship, 436th Security Forces Squadron at Dover Air Force Base,...

Three Ethiopian exchange students 'vanish' during trip to Houses of Parliament By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 24th July 2009 Three African exchange students have vanished during a trip to the Houses of Parliament. The three Ethiopian men were among a group of nine visitors who were staying with families in Hartlepool as part of a three-month visit to the UK. But at the end of a day's tour in the Houses of Commons and Lords, the trio failed to turn up and organisers Global Xchange were forced to report them missing. Missing: Muluneh Tilahun Abera (left) and Habtamu Debela have not...

Do you know or have personal knowledge of the whereabouts of Michael Jackson's fake nose? A Daily Poll