BERLIN (AP) — Finnish police said Tuesday that “there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity” in connection with damage to two data cables running across the land border between Sweden and Finland, saying the damage was created by excavation work.
The two cables were repaired Tuesday, a day after they were damaged, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 businesses, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said.
Global Connect said the internet cables were damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday.
The first fiber breakage happened on Monday morning, the other one in the afternoon.
“During the night the first of the cables was repaired, so we could restore internet to approximately 95% of all the customers," said Global Connect’s spokesman in Sweden, Niklas Ekström, adding that by noon on Tuesday the second cable had also been fixed and that all customers should have internet again.
Similar cable damage happens about every couple of months, but it was unusual that two cables in the same region were damaged on the same day, Ekström told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Stockholm.
Finland's minister of transportation and communications, Lulu Ranne, wrote on X that “authorities are investigating the matter together with the company. We take the situation seriously.”
However, on Tuesday afternoon, police in Finland put out a statement saying they had investigated both incidents and that “there is no suspicion of any criminal offense in either case, as the damages were caused by excavation work.”
Police added they would not initiate a criminal investigation into either case.
The incident comes after the rupture of two data cables on the Baltic Sea bed last month. The two, one running from Finland to Germany and the other from Lithuania to Sweden, were both damaged in Swedish waters.
Finnish, Swedish and German authorities launched investigations into that incident.
Germany’s defense minister said at the time the damage appeared to have been caused by sabotage, though there is no proof at present.
Last week, Sweden formally asked China to cooperate in explaining the rupture of the Baltic Sea data cables where a China-flagged vessel had been sighted.
FILE - An optical fibre cable of the Swedish digital infrastructure provider GlobalConnect is being laid underground in Espoo, Finland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP, File)
FILE - An optical fibre cable of the Swedish digital infrastructure provider GlobalConnect is being laid underground in Espoo, Finland, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP, File)
The logo of the Swedish digital infrastructure provider GlobalConnect is pictured in Vantaa, Finland, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Markku Ulander/Lehtikuva via AP)
Miami's playoff hopes took an all-but-final nosedive while Alabama's got a boost Tuesday night in the last rankings before the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket is set next weekend.
The Hurricanes (10-2) moved down six spots to No. 12 — the first team out of the projected bracket after suffering their second loss of the season. They are one spot behind the Crimson Tide (9-3), who won last week and moved up two spots to No. 11, where they are projected as the last team in and the fourth from the Southeastern Conference.
To make things worse for the ’Canes, selection committee chair and Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said there was no way for them to leapfrog Alabama since neither team plays next weekend. The odds of them moving up based on lopsided results in the weekend's conference title games are virtually zero.
The Miami-Alabama sorting was the strongest indication yet that the selection committee is looking at more than mere wins and losses, but also at strength of schedule and other factors that appear to give the SEC an edge.
“We still think Miami is a very strong team,” Manuel said. “It came down to a difference in their body of work ... not just wins, not just losses but the totality of the season and how those teams performed.”
He mentioned three key data points: Alabama was 3-1 against current Top 25 teams and Miami is 0-1; Alabama is 6-1 against winning teams while Miami is 4-2; and Miami has lost two of its last three games.
Oregon stayed at No. 1 for the fifth straight week and will head into Saturday's Big Ten title game against Penn State as the only undefeated team in big-time college football.
The pairings for college football's first 12-team playoff will be set Sunday, the day after the conference title games. The playoffs start Dec. 20, with the title game set for Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
Ohio State moved down four spots to No. 6 after its loss to Michigan.
That bumped Texas up a spot to No. 2, Penn State to No. 3, Notre Dame to No. 4 and Georgia to No. 5.
The selection committee all but designated the Big 12 as a one-bid league, moving Arizona State and Iowa State up only one spot each to Nos. 15 and 16.
The top five ranked conference champions are guaranteed bids, which means the winner of the Big 12 title game is in even it doesn't reach the top 12 — another factor in Miami's likely ouster.
SMU, on a nine-game winning streak, moved up a notch to No. 8 and is the Atlantic Coast Conference’s highest-ranked team, but is still potentially vulnerable if it loses the title game to No. 17 Clemson.
The crux of this week’s drama comes from — where else? — the SEC.
Alabama is only two weeks removed from an ugly 24-3 loss at Oklahoma. The Tide still got better treatment than Miami, which fell 42-38 at Syracuse last week with a spot in the ACC title game at stake.
Also in the SEC, Mississippi was ranked 13th and South Carolina 14th — answering a question of just how deep into the SEC pool the committee was willing to go. Neither team has another chance to build its resume.
Other rankings: No. 7 Tennessee, No. 9 Indiana and No. 10 Boise State. The projected bracket includes four teams each from the Big Ten and SEC and one each from the ACC, Mountain West and Big 12, plus independent Notre Dame.
SEC: This will be awkward for the loser of Texas vs. Georgia. The Longhorns are perched too high to miss the playoff, though a loss would make them 0-2 vs. Georgia and 11-0 against everyone else, and they also have the conference’s easiest schedule. For Georgia, it would be a third loss, but the committee doesn’t seem likely to punish the Bulldogs for playing in the title game.
Big 12, Mountain West: The winner of ASU-Iowa State is still likely outside of the group of four conference champs that receive first-round byes unless UNLV upsets Boise State.
ACC: If Clemson beats SMU, it puts the 17th-ranked team in the bracket and makes the ACC a potential snub for the second straight year. (Remember Florida State last season?)
Based on this week’s rankings. Teams listed by seed.
No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Penn State: This game between two teams nobody wants to play right now highlights the obvious benefits of avoiding the first round — which is still possible for both.
No. 9 Tennessee at No. 8 Ohio State: What could be worse for Ohio State fans than hearing “Rocky Top” blaring through their home stadium after a loss?
No. 11 Alabama at No. 6 Notre Dame: Bear Bryant went 0-4 vs. the Fighting Irish. Alabama won both 21st-century matchups in the playoffs.
No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Georgia: The Hoosiers' welcome to the big time would come between the hedges.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25
Georgia wide receiver Dominic Lovett (6) during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Athens, Ga. Georgia won in eight overtime periods. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
