There are only two graphics used in the entire template and they are specified with relative paths "/graphics/fsd/fsd_title.gif" and "/graphics/misc/logo.gif"
After reading your post I was doing some testing on Mozilla and it does show the secure icon, so it seems that IE is the only having the problem. However it does get solved by removing the <master> tag from the file. One thing I noticed is that while the IE is waiting for the request to come back it shows the secure icon, but as soon as the page is loaded the icon goes away.
any more ideas? and btw thanks for your reply ...
