Absent Element

MOSCOW – Russian news agencies quote the defense minister as saying a freighter that went missing nearly three weeks ago has been found near Cape Verde, and its crew is alive.
The reports say Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday that the Arctic Sea was about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the island nation off West Africa.
Serdyukov reportedly says the ship's 15-man Russian crew was taken aboard a Russian naval vessel.
The reports do not give details on what might have happened to the ship, which was last heard from on July 28. The ship's crew earlier had reported the freighter was raided by masked men, but that the attackers departed before the ship left the Baltic Sea en route to Algeria.