LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Any such action would be completely unacceptable and a clear breach of international law.”

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen,

as ministers expressed “grave concern” about reports that the Syrian government might be getting ready to use its chemical weapons Article, 1A

U.N. chief: Warming doubts must go

DOHA, Qatar - Pointing to the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy and other weather disasters this year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told an international climate conference Tuesday that it was time to “prove wrong” those who still have doubts about global warming.

Ban, addressing delegates at the annual U.N. climate talks, said time is running out for governments to act, citing recent reports showing rising emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists say are causing the warming trend.

“The abnormal is the new normal,” Ban told environment ministers and climate officials from nearly 200 countries. “This year we have seen Manhattan and Beijing underwater, hundreds of thousands of people washed from their homes in Colombia, Peru, the Philippines, Australia.”

“The danger signs are all around,” he said, noting that ice caps are melting, permafrost thawing and sea levels rising.

Delegates at the two-week talks that are set to end Friday are discussing future emissions cuts and climate aid to poor countries, issues that rich nations and the developing world have struggled to agree on for years.

Vats of prized Italian wine put to ruin

ROME - Suspected vandals have dumped almost the entire 2007-2012 production of one of Italy’s most soughtafter wines - the limited edition Soldera Brunello di Montalcino.

Giuseppe Soldera, owner of the Tuscan vineyard, said Tuesday that the vandals broke into his Case Basse cantina between Sunday night and Monday morning, opened the spigots on the vats and fled. They didn’t take a single bottle.

He estimated the loss of the 16,500 gallons of prized Sangiovese at several million dollars. A bottle of Soldera’s 2006 Brunello reserve starts at $235 on the market. That’s a markup from the $130 he sells them for.

Soldera said only “a little bit” remained of the production, and he wasn’t sure what he would do with it.

Cargo ship sinks, as does rescue boat

ANKARA, Turkey - A cargo ship sank in a severe storm Tuesday in the Black Sea, and a rescue boat searching for its missing crew hit nearby rocks and also went down. At least three people were killed and 10 others were missing in the two sinkings, officials said.

The St. Kitts and Nevis-flagged ship, Volgo Balt 199, with 11 Ukrainian and one Russian crew members aboard, was sailing to the Turkish port of Antalya from Russia when it sank off the coast of Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The vessel was carrying coal.

Search and rescue teams saved four members of the cargo ship, recovered one body and were searching for seven other crewmen when one of the rescue boats hit rocks and also sank, killing two of the rescuers, Turkey’s Transport Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters. Three other rescue team members were also missing.

Tugboats, meanwhile, were dispatched to try and help a second cargo ship that was in danger of being overturned by high waves farther west off the coast of Istanbul.

French arrest 2, cite links to gunman

PARIS - A man and a woman were arrested Tuesday in southern France on suspicion of links to an Islamic militant who killed Jewish schoolchildren and French paratroopers earlier this year, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Tuesday.

The arrests, the first in the case since March, may throw new light on suspicions that Mohamed Merah did not act alone in the attacks, which left seven dead and terrified France. Merah was later killed in a shootout with police.

One of Merah’s brothers, Abdelkader, is already in custody on preliminary charges of complicity in the killings.

Their oldest brother is among those who have suggested a third man may have played a role.

The man arrested Tuesday was picked up in the city of Albi in southern France, and the woman - his ex-girlfriend - was arrested in Toulouse, the prosecutor’s office said. It released no other details.

An official with the prosecutor’s office said the man is the key suspect. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/05/2012