Arctic Sea rescued off Africa Coast

Arctic Sea rescued off Africa Coast    The crew of the cargo ship Arctic Sea were rescued Monday by a Russian navy vessel near the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and eight hijackers arrested.
   Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that eight people of Estonian, Latvian and Russian nationality were arrested during the operation to liberate the ship.
   According to an account on the Web site of Russia President Dmitry Medvedev, the eight boarded the ship on July 24, and using the threat of arms, demanded that the crew change course. Then the Arctic Sea sailed on to an African route indicated by the aggressors and turned off its navigation equipment.
   Press reports say that both the pirates and 15 Russian crewmembers were taken aboard a Russian naval vessel for questioning without the need for gunfire.
   The 4,700-deadweight-ton cargo ship was carrying a load of lumber to be delivered to Algeria. The U.K. Coast Guard made contact with her on July 28 and then the ship was spied off Brest, France, on July 30, but then was not seen until late last week off the Cape Verde Islands.
   There were still many confusing and unclear details about what happened on the ship during the past four weeks and why it had taken so long to locate it.
   YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Co., reports on its Web site: “investigators in Finland were also aware of the ship's location for some time. However the information was not made public in order to protect the crew.” It said that on Monday, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation “confirmed that Swedish police possessed photos of assaulted crewmembers from the hijacked ship.