Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/614502
SALVATOREDINOLFI—KEYSTONE UN security officers guards the area of the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday. ByJameyKeaten The Associated Press GENEVA Workingonatip from the CIA, Geneva po- lice were hunting for at least four suspects allegedly linked to the radical Islamic State group and believed to be plotting a "specific" at- tack in the city, Swiss offi- cials said Thursday. As city police raised their security alert level, Swiss state prosecutors opened investigations into a sus- pected criminal plot and suspected violations of a ban into groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida. The CIA alerted Swiss authorities to the four men on Wednesday, prompting the manhunt, a Swiss offi- cial with knowledge of the investigation told The As- sociated Press on Thurs- day. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The official confirmed the suspects were four men shown in a photograph linked to a news report in Swiss daily Le Matin. They were pictured each in a crouched pose and holding up an index finger — said to be an Islamic State gesture. It was too early to de- termine whether other suspects might still be at large, the official said. He also declined to identify the names, ages or nationalities of the people being sought. The Geneva security de- partment said Swiss na- tional authorities flagged "suspicious individuals" who could be in Geneva or the vicinity to city authori- ties on Wednesday. It didn't specify how many people were being sought or name them. The official said, how- ever, the suspects were not believed to have had links to the Paris terror attacks, appearing to revise an ear- lier statement from the Ge- neva security department. Heavily-armed police carrying submachine guns stood guard outside diplo- matic missions in Geneva on Thursday. Normally, offi- cers carry lighter weapons. Geneva police were also de- ploying more officers at the city's train station and air- port. The U.N. office in Ge- neva was also increasing its security precautions, even though it said there was no indication of any specific in- creased threat against U.N. staff. Police were working with international and national authorities to locate sus- pects they believed to be in the Geneva region, offi- cials said. "We have gone from a vague threat to a specific one," Emmanuelle Lo Verso, a spokeswoman for the se- curity department said. The Geneva prosecutor's office said an official inves- tigation has been opened into "criminal preparatory acts" — a charge against anyone who takes "concrete measures of a technical or organizational type in the aim of committing a grave infraction." The Nov. 13 attacks on Paris, claimed by the rad- ical group, left 130 people dead and hundreds of oth- ers wounded. Two fugitives including Salah Abdeslam — who slipped through the fingers of French police hours after the attacks — remain at large. Several ar- rests were made in Belgium following the attacks. Geneva police hunting 4 suspects said to have IS ties TIP FROM CIA By Jovana Gec and Dusan Stojanovic The Associated Press BELGRADE, SERBIA One of the guns linked to Islamic militants in the Paris at- tacks that killed 130 people was exported to the United States in 2013, the head of a Serbian arms factory said Thursday. Milojko Brzakovic of the Zastava arms factory told The Associated Press that the M92 semi-automatic pis- tol's serial number matched one his company delivered to an American online arms dealer in May 2013. It was not clear how the gun got back to Europe. At least seven of the weapons used or discov- ered after the Nov. 13 at- tacks in Paris have been identified as being pro- duced by the Serbian fac- tory located in Kragujevac, in central Serbia. Most were manufactured before Yu- goslavia broke up in a civil war in the 1990s and most of those are modified ver- sions of the Soviet AK-47, or Kalashnikov. Brzakovic said all the guns were delivered legally but could have later found their way into illegal chan- nels. "One was delivered to Bosnia in 1983, one to Skopje, Macedonia in De- cember 1987, one to Golu- bici, near Knin (Croatia) in 1988, one to Zagreb (Croa- tia) 1987," he said. He said the M92 pistol "is a semi-automatic weapon, a hunting and sporting weapon ... it cannot fire bar- rage fire, only single shots ... which are legal in America." He said it was exported to an online arms seller in the United States, the Flor- ida-based Century Arms, to which his factory ex- ports up to 25,000 hunt- ing and sports guns every year. He said the gun was delivered as a semi-auto- matic, but he did not know whether someone turned it into an automatic after de- livery. The so-called "short- ened Kalashnikov" is listed by U.S. arms dealers as sell- ing for about $460 apiece. The AP left messages seeking comment on the gun with Century Arms, the FBI and another U.S. gov- ernment agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire- arms and Explosives. Brzakovic insisted that all arms exports from Ser- bia are under strict govern- ment control. "We submit a request to our government to give con- sent and authorize the ex- port. Until we receive that, we make no contract. Once we get a permission to ex- port, we make a contract and arrange the dynam- ics," he said. SERBIAN ARMS FACTORY Dealer: Gun linked to Paris attack came through US By Karl Ritter The Associated Press LEBOURGET,FRANCE They barely break the surface of the ocean but in the U.N. talks on how to stop rising seas and other hazards of a warming planet, small island nations have the moral high ground. They are "literally ne- gotiating over their own survival," U.N. Environ- ment Program chief Achim Steiner said. While most countries think of climate change in terms of economic costs, Pacific atolls and remote is- land groups in the Indian Ocean and Caribbean pic- ture a world map without them on it. Rising seas are already eroding their coast lines and contaminating their freshwater wells. Many are in the path of typhoons and hurricanes that scientists say could become more powerful as the climate warms. "We are already limp- ing from climate disaster to climate disaster. And we know there is worse to come," Christopher Loeak, the president of the Mar- shall Islands, told the cli- mate conference in Paris. Their vulnerability gives the small islands a power- ful voice on climate change relativetotheirtinysizeand impact on world affairs. At the start of the Paris talks last week, U.S. President Barack Obama met with five leaders of island na- tions. Secretary of State John Kerry has been dis- cussingtheenvisionedParis deal with others, including Prime Minister Enele Sopo- aga of Tuvalu, an island na- tion of just 10,000 people. The Europeans, too, have been reaching out to small island leaders whom they see as useful allies in their attempts to get a strong binding climate pact at the conference, which is in its final days. "These countries are not even as big as most American cities," said Jake Schmidt of the New York- based Natural Resource Defense Council. Yet West- ern countries want them as allies, he said, "because they speak with such a moral clarity about this challenge. And they sig- nal to the larger develop- ing country bloc that this is an issue that has to be dealt with." One of the most impor- tant demands of the small islands is to get the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), a threshold many see as critical for their survival. This puts them at odds with Saudi Arabia, a ma- jor oil producer, and India, which is worried about be- ing pressed to make emis- sions cuts that would stifle its economic growth. "We are not against the target of 1.5 degrees. But the issue is, how can such a target be implemented?" said Indian negotiator Ashok Lavasa. "And why do they talk about only 1.5 degrees; why not any other target?" The small islands are also asking for a "loss and damage" mechanism to ensure support when they are hit by climate impacts such as extreme weather events made worse by cli- mate change. This makes wealthy nations nervous. The U.S. at first didn't want the issue to be part of the agreement at all, wor- ried that it would pave the way for claims of liability and compensation. In the latest draft they suggested mentioning it in a section on adaptation to climate change. But the small islands want a separate section for "loss and damage" to show it's not about adapting to climate change, but coping with unavoidable impacts, said Thoriq Ibrahim, the environment minister of the Maldives and chair of an alliance of small island nations. The Maldives, an is- land group in the Indian Ocean, is on average just 5 feet above sea level. Sci- entists say seas could rise about 3 feet by the end of the century. Already, some of the smallest of the 196 inhab- ited islands are running out of freshwater dur- ing the dry season, which keeps getting longer, Ibra- him said. In one of the first proj- ects approved by the re- cently created Green Cli- mate Fund, a U.N. program for poor nations impacted by climate change, the Mal- dives will receive $23.6 mil- lion to secure the freshwa- ter supply on its outer is- lands. Climate change also poses an existential threat to the Marshall Islands, which protrude only 6 feet above sea level in most places. King tides, when the alignment of the Earth, moon and sun combine to produce the most extreme tidal effects, and storm surges are getting worse, causing floods that con- taminate fresh water, kill crops, and erode land. In Kiribati, a Pacific nation made up of 33 coral atolls, President An- ote Tong is already mak- ing contingency plans for when and if the country becomes unlivable. Kiri- bati has bought 8 square miles of land in Fiji in case the population has to be moved. GLOBAL WARMING Tiny islands have powerful voice in UN climate talks PHOTOS BY ROB GRIFFITH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A small section of the atoll that has slipped beneath the water line only showing a small pile of rocks at low tide on Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Global warming activist Milan Loeak, le , and poet Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner walk along the shore at low tide in Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands. GaylaEckels: (530) 737-5044 geckels@redbluffdailynews.com Suzy Noble: (530) 737-5056 snoble@redbluffdailynews.com GoMultimediathisChristmasSeason! Flights of Fancy AvailableNovember2throughJanuary10 6 column inch size ads or larger Pub lish 4 times wi thin 7 da ys , get the 5th ru n FREE! Only $5.95 per column inch Even lower rates when you add online display! Add an Online Display Ad All sizes - click through to your own website! 10,000 online imp ressions with in tw o w eek Hosted Run of Site on www .redb luffda il yne ws.com $75.00 That's 75 cents per hundred guaranteed online views! We'll lower your print Flight rate to$5.50 per column inch! 15,000 online impressions within two week Hosted Run of Site on www.redbluffdailynews.com $100.00 That's 67 cents per hundred guaranteed online views! We'll lower your print Flight rate to $5.25 per column inch! For more information, contact your Advertising Representative Today! Modest additional surcharges applied for inclusion in our E-Edition and exclusive SEO Boost service! FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B