Jukka Laaksonen, head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, said firefighters conducted radiation tests on the ship — last reported off Cape Verde — at a port in Finland before it began a voyage full of intrigue.

But he dismissed as "stupid rumours" reports in British and Finnish newspapers that the ship could be carrying a "secret" nuclear cargo that could explain why it was attacked on the Baltic Sea before vanishing.

"Some fireman for some reason thought that there might be some radioactivity involved in this shipment and that was a very stupid idea. There was no basis for that," Laaksonen told AFP.

Finnish police said Saturday that the ship’s Helsinki-based operator, Solchart Management, had received a ransom demand for the Arctic Sea, raising fresh hopes for its 15-strong Russian crew.

The Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, without citing a source, reported on its website that the demand was for 1.5 million dollars (1.05 million euros).

"This is the first positive sign that there are intentions to bring back the crew," Russian maritime expert Mikhail Voitenko told AFP.

Yulia Latynina, an anti-Kremlin political commentator and a radio host in Moscow, took a similar view.

"It appears they are looking for a way out of the situation and it appears to mean that the crew will return safe and sound, thank God — and that’s the most important."

Russian warships, backed by NATO, are scouring the Atlantic for the ship, which left Finland on July 23 on its way to Algeria with a cargo of sawn timber estimated to be worth 1.16 million euros.

The Maltese-flagged vessel was last seen off the coast of Cape Verde, officials in the west African archipelago and in France revealed Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Monteiro, Cape Verde coastguard captain, confirmed Sunday that on Wednesday or Thursday the vessel was reported off the islands.

He said the ship had reportedly been "following a direction of 188 degrees" in international waters.

But since that sighting about 400 nautical miles (740 kilometres) off the island chain, the ship had slipped off the radar, he went on.

The lieutenant stressed it was not the Cape Verde coastguard who spotted the vessel, however, and it was only reported to the force.

As such, he could not be 100 percent certain of the sighting.

"We have not had any direct contact with the ship," he said.

Russia has not confirmed the sighting.

In the Maltese capital Valletta, the Malta Maritime Authority told AFP on Sunday that the island nation was teaming up with Sweden and Finland to launch a criminal investigation into the disappearance.

Russia’s envoy to NATO said Saturday that the transatlantic alliance was working closely with Moscow in the hunt.

"All information that is full and most likely objective, is instantly sent to Russian navy headquarters" from NATO headquarters in Brussels, Dmitry Rogozin told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Experts are debating whether pirates, a mafia quarrel or a commercial dispute are behind the disappearance.

On the night the Arctic Sea left port in Finland last month, masked men boarded the ship between the Swedish islands of Oland and Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Swedish police reported several days after the incident.

Claiming to be anti-drugs police, they tied up the crew and conducted a thorough search of the vessel before reportedly leaving several hours later. The last definite trace of the ship was in the early hours of July 30, when its tracking system put if off the coast of northwestern France.

On Friday, European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr said the ship appeared to have been attacked a second time, this time off the coast of Portugal.

Finland denies missing ship carries nuclear material

In a keynote speech Friday night marking the third anniversary of that war’s end, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah outlined his strategy for Lebanon to deter Israel from launching another offensive. Responding to Israeli threats to flatten southern Lebanese villages and infrastructure, he vowed to attack Tel Aviv if Israel targeted Beirut or its southern suburbs, where Hezbollah’s headquarters are.

“We are now capable of attacking any city or village throughout Israel,” he said, dismissing recent Israeli threats against Hezbollah as psychological warfare. “When Israelis talk a lot, it means that they will do nothing. However, when they are silent like a snake we have to be cautious.” Nasrallah’s comments, delivered via a live video feed to a crowd of flag-waving supporters and invited politicians, were the latest in a month-long barrage of threats from both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border.

The saber-rattling, touched off in mid-July by explosions near an alleged Hezbollah weapons cache here in the hills of south Lebanon, seems driven more by a fear that the other side will take action, than a desire to launch a fresh round of fighting, say analysts and United Nations peacekeepers here.

“Contrary to the talk, the situation on the ground in our area of operations is generally quiet,” says Milos Strugar, senior advisor to the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, which patrols the southern Lebanon border district. “In our contacts with all the parties, they reiterate to us their interest in upholding the cessation of hostilities.”

Israel, Hezbollah threaten war – again

The powerful blast, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, killed seven Afghan civilians and wounded 91 more. The bomb went off outside NATO headquarters just after 8:30 Saturday morning, the beginning of the Afghan workweek. It sent a plume of smoke visible around Kabul and knocked out glass windows more than 500 feet away.

The attackers managed to get past at least one police checkpoint to enter a zone that includes the NATO compound and the US Embassy. Insurgents appear to be targeting the capital to create high-profile shocks seen around the country, the aim being to sow doubt about the safety of turning out to vote Thursday.

“No one can guarantee our lives if we take part in the elections,” says Sher Mohammad Faqiri, a driver who works near the scene. His colleague, Noor Sherzai, helped carry three wounded people off the street. “This is the safest area in Kabul. I don’t know if I will attend elections.”

The nation’s security forces have developed a three-tiered strategy for securing approximately 7,000 voting centers on Thursday. The plan is that police will check voters as they enter, while Afghan National Army forces stand as backup. The final backstop will be NATO forces, which will be based some distance away, but close enough to respond rapidly. But it is unclear if each polling station will actually have that level of protection.

While these three forces are supposed to be in close coordination, an incident at Saturday’s blast calls that into question. About an hour after the blast, the police chief charged with securing the elections in Kabul arrived on scene. Gen. Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada, whose regular job is as chief of the criminal investigation department with the Kabul police, stepped under a security cordon tape stretched across the scene. An investigator at heart, he first bent down to pick up a small scrap of paper he saw lying on the street and looked it over.

When he rose, he was intercepted by representatives of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He explained who he was, but got the response: “We don’t care who you are; now it’s under control of ISAF.”

“That’s just atrocious COIN [counterinsurgency],” says Tim Lynch, an Afghanistan-based security expert referring to counterinsurgency. “You’ve got a new general here talking COIN. And in the manual they have written themselves, it would absolute mandate close coordination with that guy.”

Mr. Lynch adds that the execution of this car bomb was superior to previous insurgent efforts in Afghanistan.

Across the country, there’s doubt that every voting center will be able to open, given the insecurity. The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan estimates that 14 of the country’s 368 districts will be too insecure to send independent election monitors. An additional 130 fall into a questionable category.

Most of these troubled districts lie in the Pashtun-dominated south and east of the country. While Kabul has enjoyed relative security, the city police understand that the Taliban will be targeting it in an effort to undermine the image of the election in the eyes of the world.

Bomb in Kabul targets NATO headquarters, near US Embassy

Suspected Islamist suicide bombers detonated powerful devices at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in an upmarket business district Friday, leaving nine dead and up to 50 injured including at least 18 foreigners.

A New Zealand businessman was confirmed dead and Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who is due in Jakarta later Saturday, said he feared the worst for three missing Australians, including diplomat Craig Senger.

National police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri called on hotels and shopping malls across the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people to raise their security protocols amid warnings of follow-up attacks.

A military spokesman said 500 troops were on standby to deploy in Jakarta in support of police.

Police across the Philippines were also on heightened alert over fears homegrown Islamists could try to emulate the Jakarta bombings, and citizens were urged to report any suspicious behaviour or unattended baggage.

Hotels in New York were also increasing security although Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was no information that a Jakarta-style attack was imminent.

US President Barack Obama condemned the bombings and offered Indonesia help in the recovery effort.

“I strongly condemn the attacks that occurred this morning (Friday) in Jakarta and extend my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones,” he said.

Manchester United were due to stay at the Ritz-Carlton next week as part of an Asian tour but they cancelled the trip, denying a sell-out crowd of 100,000 the chance to see the English football giants play an Indonesia XI on Monday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, the worst in Indonesia since 2005, but suspicion inevitably fell on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people.

Investigators said they found an unexploded bomb, as well as explosive chemicals and bomb-making materials in room 1808 of the Marriott, which they believe served as a control centre for the attackers.

The bombs were packed with nails, ballbearings, nuts and bolts to maximise the carnage, and appeared to be “identical” to ones previously used in JI attacks, police said.

They were also the same as bombs found in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, carried out as part of the hunt for master-bombmaker Noordin Mohammed Top, leader of a JI splinter group.

Noordin is wanted for his role in the Bali attacks as well as a 2003 bombing at the Jakarta Marriott, which killed 12 people, and the 2005 truck-bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in a landslide on July 8, said the attack was an act of terror that would have “wide effects on our economy, trade, tourism and image in the eyes of the world”.

Tourism operators on the Hindu-majority resort island of Bali said they feared for the lucrative tourism industry, which was just getting back to normal after the horrific attacks of 2002.

“I am afraid that the tourism sector which is now thriving in Indonesia would be affected significantly,” Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative for small businesses Sandiaga Uno told Anatara news agency.

“We hope that the bomb blasts would not deter foreign and domestic investors in making the investment in the country.”

Tourism is one of the biggest sources of foreign capital for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which has avoided recession in the global financial crisis, but needs more foreign investment to maintain its growth trajectory.

The country’s mainstream Muslim groups joined Yudhoyono and world leaders in condemning the attacks, saying they could never be justified in Islamic teachings.

Condemnation poured in from around the world including from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, and from Indonesia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia, where JI is accused of plotting to create a pan-Islamic state.

Indonesian police examine remains for clues

Rajiva Wijesinha, permanent secretary in Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, told a British newspaper, The Guardian, that earlier reports of many as 20,000 civilians being killed in the end stages of the years-long Tamil Tigers uprising were unverified and wrong.

“I would estimate it altogether at 3,000 to 5,000,” Wijesinha said, blaming the deaths on the rebels’ use of refugees as human shields. “The Tigers had prepared this hostage situation and the figures went up very badly.”

The United Nations and other countries had accused Sri Lanka of using heavy weaponry against the remaining rebels cornered in a “no-fire zone” along with civilians. Wijesinha said 81mm mortars were used against the Tigers, who he said were firing heavy weapons, including tanks, at the government forces.

Sri Lankan civilian toll said up to 5,000

“Palestinians are encouraged by the commitment President Obama and his administration have shown to Middle East peace,” Saeb Erakat, a Fatah member and the Palestinians’ top official said on Friday.

Erekat said the establishment of a viable Palestinian state and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem would make the region more secure and stable.

But, he warned “the peace process lives on borrowed time,” saying it would not survive another round of failed negotiations.

“Israel’s failure to implement its obligations under existing agreements has eroded its credibility, while its continued settlement activities are undermining the very viability of the two state solution,” Erakat said.

Hamas reaction

Hamas, however, called the meeting a continuation of Abbas’ “way of begging” to the US and the “Zionist entity.”

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said the meeting would “accomplish nothing but more pressure on Abbas.”

He said the US administration would fail to take “any action on the ground” to halt Israeli “aggressions” and realise Palestinian rights.

In the meeting on Thursday Obama called for a stop to Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and emphasised the two-state solution.

However, Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, refused to openly endorse the two-state solution during a meeting with Obama on May 18.

He also rejected the US and Palestinian demand for an absolute freeze in settlement activity.

Netanyahu promised not to build new settlements, but vowed to continue construction in existing ones to accommodate for “natural growth.”

Palestinians differ on US promises

“There is a genuine world concern, and hopefully a consensus will come from that,” Ann Taylor, British Minister for International Defense and Security, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday on the sidelines of a regional defense conference.

Britain joined the United States, Australia and East Asian defense ministers in condemning North Korea’s latest military moves at the Asia Security Conference in Singapore.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Saturday at the meeting that Washington would not accept a nuclear North Korea and said it would reach out to other regional powers to stop a growing threat that could trigger an arms race in Asia.

The U.S. and Japan have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the test and calling for enforcement of sanctions imposed after Pyongyang’s first 2006 nuclear test, which included a widely ignored limited trade and arms embargo.

Taylor said the Chinese concern voiced at the forum made her hopeful the U.N. resolution would bring “some concerted action.” “It is that unity of action that I think is important here. Because if we only can get the unity of action, the regime in North Korea will understand the strength of feeling and will begin to take notice,” she said.

On Saturday, a top Chinese army official called on North Korea to move to denuclearization and asked all regional parties to stay calm. But he did not mention sanctions. China exports food and energy supplies to neighboring North Korea.

Fellow U.N. Security Council member Russia said last week it was too early to talk about possible penalties. This could mean a split in the Security Council, given that Gates on Saturday had called for sanctions that would bring “real pain” to the North.

Taylor said tougher financial sanctions were a possibility.

“That remains one of the options,” she said. “We’ve got to work these things out with colleagues and partners on the U.N. Security Council and consider what is the next step forward.”

MORE FOR AFGHANISTAN

Taylor also echoed Gates’ call for more troops and other aid from the rest of the world to build infrastructure in conflict-ridden Afghanistan. “We are operating in a difficult area in the south. We are making progress but we could do more with more help from other NATO countries, in terms of military forces, training police, helping establishing the rule of law,” Taylor said.

Gates said on Saturday he was looking to Europeans in particular to do more since previous NATO summits have identified Afghanistan as the alliance’s highest priority, but there was a gap between the rhetoric in NATO and the capabilities members were prepared to put forward.

The United States leads a coalition from more than 40 countries in Afghanistan and is adding another 20,000 troops to the 38,000 there, to counter gains by a resurgent Taliban.

Britain hopeful on U.N. action over North Korea

The call by the rights group followed a report in the Times of London newspaper on Friday citing confidential UN reports that more than 20,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan army shelling.

The report followed weeks of allegations that large numbers of civilians had been killed as the army closed in on Tamil Tiger rebels to end the decades- long war.

Amnesty’s Asia Pacific director Sam Zarifi accused both sides of war crimes and called for an independent international probe.

“The Times report underscores the need for this investigation and the UN should do everything it can to determine the truth about the ?bloodbath? that occurred in northeast Sri Lanka,” Zarifi said in statement.

The statement said the UN “must immediately publicise its estimate of the number of civilians killed by the two sides in the final weeks of fighting”.

Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe dismissed Amnesty’s call and said the organisation was being “ridiculous to keep harping on things they cannot substantiate,” he told AFP by telephone from Geneva.

The Colombo-based government, which has rejected demands by the UN Human Rights Council for a fact-finding mission on the war crimes allegations, on Friday angrily dismissed the Times report.

“These figures are way out,” defence ministry spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle said. “We totally deny the allegation that 20,000 people were killed.”

Amnesty said, however, that it continues to receive reports of widespread human rights violations, with more than 280,000 people displaced by the recent fighting and now restricted to state-run welfare camps in the island’s north.

“The UN must address the war crimes and grave human rights violations that have occurred — and could still be occurring — in Sri Lanka,” Zarifi said.

He said that despite repeated calls, the Sri Lankan government continued to restrict access to the camps by international humanitarian organisations, including the UN and the Red Cross.

“I am appealing to all these rights groups to let us get on with the job of resettling these people in their homes in the quickest possible time,” Samarasinghe said.

The island’s military claimed complete victory over separatist Tamil Tigers after wiping out the guerrillas’ leadership nearly two weeks ago.

Amnesty calls for probe of Sri Lanka civilian deaths

Pakistani forces have undertaken their most concerted offensive against an expanding Taliban insurgency that has raised fears for the nuclear-armed U.S. ally’s stability and the safety of its nuclear arsenal.

The focus of the fighting has been the former tourist destination of Swat, 120 km (80 miles) northwest of Islamabad, which the Taliban virtually took as the government alternated between inconclusive military action and peace pacts.

But tension has also been rising in South Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold, with military officials saying an offensive was likely there after Swat is secured.

The United States and the Afghan government have long been pressing Pakistan to root militants out of South Waziristan and other enclaves on the Afghan border, from where the Taliban direct their Afghan war.

Militants attacked a paramilitary force camp in Jandola, 80 km (50 miles) east of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, late on Saturday, security officials said.

“Militants came in force and attacked a paramilitary camp and fighting lasted for eight hours. At least 40 militants were killed while four soldiers died,” said an intelligence official in the region who declined to be identified.

A military spokesman said the militants had been pushed back after a heavy exchange of fire. Up to 15 militants and three soldiers were killed, he said.

There was no independent confirmation of the casualty estimates.

Militant violence in Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.

There have been eight bomb attacks in various towns and cities since the offensive in Swat and neighboring districts began in late April and the Taliban have threatened more.

EXODUS

The offensive in Swat has sparked an exodus of about 2.4 million people, according to government figures, and the country faces a long-term humanitarian crisis.

Bomb attacks in cities and the plight of the displaced could undermine public support for the offensive but for now, analysts say, the authorities are determined to defeat the Taliban in Swat.

The army said on Saturday it had regained full control of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and a top Defense Ministry official said on Sunday the military operation could be over in a two or three days.

“Only five to 10 percent of the job is remaining and hopefully within two to three days, the pockets of resistance will be cleared,” Syed Athar Ali, secretary of defense for Pakistan, said at a regional defense meeting in Singapore.

Military spokesman have been cautious about predicting how long the offensive would last, saying there was still resistance in the valley.

“It’s very difficult to give a timeline,” said chief military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas. “It’s a very big area so nobody’s in a position to give any timeline for the operation.”

On Sunday, the military urged civilians to leave the town of Charbagh, about 15 km (10 miles) north of Mingora, and lifted a curfew there and in Mingora to allow people to get out.

Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban.

The United States, which is sending thousands of reinforcements into Afghanistan, has been heartened by the offensive in Swat.

Pakistan battles Taliban; Swat offensive near end

The government said the attack in a high-security area where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.

The army moved against the militants in the Swat region late last month after the Taliban had seized a district only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital and a peace pact collapsed.

A militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said the Lahore attack was to avenge the offensive in Swat.

“We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation,” the commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.

The violence and a perception the government was being distracted by political squabbling and failing to act to stop the Taliban had alarmed the United States and other Western allies.

Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban and the United States has been heartened by the Swat offensive and by public support for it.

“The response by the military so far has the support of the Pakistani people,” White House National Security Adviser General James Jones said in Washington on Wednesday.

“The government’s popularity has shot up a little bit in the polls and that is going to have an effect in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.

“MAJOR ATTACKS”

But militant attacks in cities could undermine support for the offensive and Hakimullah Mehsud warned of more violence.

“We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks,” he said.

The military released late on Wednesday what it said was a tape of an intercepted telephone call between the Taliban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, and an unidentified militant in which Khan urges revenge attacks.

“There’s a need for them to strike soldiers in Punjab so that they can understand and feel pain,” Khan says on the tape, broadcast on Pakistani television.

“Strikes should be carried out on their homes so their kids get killed and then they’ll realize,” he said.

The unidentified man said militants had been ordered to strike wherever they could.

The government has vowed to defeat the Taliban and on Thursday it published an offer of a reward of 5 million rupees ($60,000) for the capture, dead or alive, of the Taliban leader in Swat, Fazlullah, and smaller bounties for 20 of his comrades.

Authorities have warned that militants might launch attacks in retaliation for the offensive in Swat, where the military says about 1,100 militants and about 60 soldiers have been killed. There has been no independent confirmation of those estimates.

Soldiers had made progress in securing Swat’s main town of Mingora, with a commander saying 70 percent of it had been cleared and the remainder would be secured in two or three days.

The offensive has sparked an exodus of 2.3 million people, according to provincial government figures, and the country faces a long-term humanitarian crisis which could also undermine public support for the fight against the Taliban.

But the securing of Mingora would raise the possibility of many of the displaced beginning to go home.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said after the Lahore attack that the militants were on their last legs and getting desperate.

The car bomb brought down a government ambulance service building and damaged a nearby office of the military’s main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Two ISI officers and six other agency officials were among the dead and security officials said their office might have been the target.

Lahore is capital of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and prosperous province. The country’s second-biggest city is also traditionally home to top bureaucrats and senior military brass.

The city has seen several bomb attacks over the past couple of years, but it felt much safer than other parts of the country until March, when militants launched two brazen assaults.

Bombs in Pakistan’s Peshawar, several casualties