Source: American, US Airways merger approved

Updated 8:13 PM ET

(MoneyWatch) A source told CBS News that the boards of American Airlines and US Airways (LCC) have approved a merger that would create the world's biggest carrier.

Under the deal, which is expected to be unveiled Thursday if the timeline isn't moved up sooner and there are no last-minute snags, the combined airline would keep the "American" name. It would still require federal approval, although that is virtually ensured. US Air CEO Doug Parker is expected to lead the combined company.

A merger of US Air and American would surpass a 2010 tie-up between United Airlines (UAL) and Continental and a 2008 deal joining Delta (DAL) and Northwest. The merged American would be the largest carrier and sport a market valuation of roughly $10 billion.

Although airlines tout such consolidation as a way to cut costs and expand service amid intense competition, whether industry mergers raise fares is an open question. Many analysts say yes because reduced competition in any business often results in higher prices. One study found that ticket prices went up more than 20 percent between Detroit and Atlanta after Delta bought Northwest. Fares went up more than 30 percent on routes between Chicago and Houston, as well as Newark to San Francisco, after the United-Continental deal.

In seeking to run more efficiently, merging airlines also often cut capacity and eliminate routes. 



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American close to merger with U.S. Airways



Other analysts are more optimistic about the potential benefits to travelers. They say the three largest U.S. airlines still must compete with discount carriers such as Southwest (LUV), which has flourished for years by offering low-cost flights and no-frills service.

The consolidation trend is largely blamed on the price of fuel. Oil now costs so much more per barrel than it did 10 years ago that one analyst says the margin of profit on many flights has shrunk to the value of a single seat. That means an airline can lose money if it flies with one single empty middle seat. The days of elbow room are over.

American Airlines has been operating under court supervision since declaring bankruptcy in November 2011.

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Ship Stranded: Love Boat to Horror Honeymoon













A Texas couple's fantasy wedding quickly turned into a nightmare honeymoon when the fire-damaged Carnival Cruise ship carrying them became stranded in the Gulf of Mexico.


Rob Mowlam, 37, and Stephanie Stevenson, 27, of Nederland, Texas, got married on the Carnival Triumph on Saturday. The four-day cruise was meant to be back to shore on Monday, but was left disabled by an engine fire on Sunday.


The ship is being slowly towed to shore and is expected to dock in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday if weather permits. The vessel is without air conditioning, many working toilets and some restaurant service. Passengers, many who are sleeping in tents on deck, have told ABC News the smell on the ship is foul.


That is the honeymoon setting for Mowlam and Stevenson.


"[Rob Mowlam] had been with his girlfriend, or fiance, for a long period of time and they just took the next step," Mowlam's brother James Mowlam III told ABCNews.com. "The captain is the king of the world when they're on the boat and he hitched them up."


James Mowlam said he was shocked when he heard about the stranded boat and the increasingly dire conditions on the ship.


"It is an atrocious scene to be subjected to," he said.


Mowlam said he has not been able to communicate with his brother, but that his father has had sporadic communication with him.


"It would be my guess that this would probably not be on anyone's great list of memorable wedding experiences," Mowlam said with a laugh. "Although, my mom told him that she was hoping they had a memorable wedding and I think this would classify as a memorable wedding experience."






Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell/U.S. Coast Guard/AP Photo











Carnival Cruise Ship Making Its Way to Port Watch Video









Carnival Cruise Ship Stranded for Third Day Watch Video









Carnival Cruise Ship Stranded off Yucatan Peninsula Watch Video





The bride's brother, Justin Davis, told ABCNews.com that his sister works for a doctor's office and the cruise was a gift from the doctor to the staff.


Davis has not been able to speak to Stevenson but said that her two young sons are being cared for by her mother. He said his sister is tough and he guesses she's probably not scared.


"She might be a little aggravated at the situation, but I'd say she's [probably] handling it really well," he said.


Others on the ship do not seem to be handling the situation so well.


Elderly and disabled passengers aboard the ship are struggling to cope with the worsening conditions, according to at least one passenger.


"Elderly and handicap are struggling, the smell is gross," passenger Ann Barlow text-messaged ABC News overnight. "Our room is leaking sewage."


The head of Carnival Cruise Lines said the British-U.S.-owned company was working hard to ensure the thousands of passengers stranded on the disabled ship were as comfortable as possible while the vessel was being towed to a port in Alabama.


"I need to apologize to our guests and to our families that have been affected by a very difficult situation," Carnival Cruise Lines president and CEO Gerry Cahill said at a news conference Tuesday evening.


It was the first time since a fire erupted in Triumph's engine room Sunday, knocking out its four engines, that a company representative had spoken publicly. The Triumph, with roughly 4,200 people on board, was left bobbing like a 100,000-ton cork for more than 24 hours. Giant sea-faring tugboats then hooked up to the ship and began towing the nearly 900-foot-long ship to land.


Carnival spokeswoman Joyce Oliva told The Associated Press Tuesday that a passenger with a pre-existing medical condition was taken off the ship as a precaution. Everyone else will likely have to weather conditions such as scarce running water, no air conditioning and long lines for food.


Back on land, passenger Barlow's 11-year-old twins told ABC News Tuesday they are worried as more passengers continue to talk about living with limited power and sanitation.






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Plants listen more closely to kin than strangers









































It is not just humans that like a natter with their nearest and dearest – plants pay most attention to their closest relatives.











When an insect bites a leaf, many plants release volatile chemicals to prime their neighbours for attack. The defences this triggers vary – some plants respond by attracting predatory insects that eat the herbivores, others make themselves less tasty.













Now Richard Karban of the University of California, Davis, has shown that for the sagebrush, responses to these warning signals can vary with relatedness.












At the start of three growing seasons, Karban's team exposed different branches of the same plants to volatile chemicals. The substances came from relatives of the same species whose leaves had been clipped to trigger chemical release.












By the end of the seasons, herbivores had done less damage to the branches exposed to chemicals from close relatives than to those receiving signals from more distant relatives – the warning probably prompting the plants to release herbivore-deterring chemicals, says Karban.












He has previously shown that the blend of volatiles varies enormously between individuals – "so much so that big peaks in some individuals are undetectable in others", he says.












However, there is some similarity between family members. Karban thinks this variability is being exploited by the plants as a kind of family-specific signature, to prevent eavesdroppers from listening in and to give those that share the same genes a greater chance of survival.












Some plants are genetically more resistant to being eaten than others, so it makes sense that plants should care more about their kin's fate than that of the general population.












"It is very elegant work," says Susan Dudley from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who has shown that plants competing for space in a small pot are less aggressive if they are related to their neighbours.












She thinks this kind of kin-recognition is probably common among many plants.












Journal Reference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.3062


















































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Peru archeologists find ancient temple






LIMA: Peruvian archaeologists have discovered a temple believed to be about 5,000 years old at the ancient archaeological site of El Paraiso in a valley just north of Lima, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday.

If the date is confirmed, it would be among the oldest sites in the world, comparable to the ancient city of Caral, a coastal city some 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the north.

The discovery, dubbed the Temple of Fire, was found in one of the wings of El Paraiso's main pyramid. It includes a hearth that experts believe was used to burn ceremonial offerings.

"The smoke allowed the priests to connect with the gods," said Marco Guillen, who led the team of researchers who made the find.

Archaeologists found the hearth in mid-January as they were carrying out conservation work at a set of 4,000-year-old ruins known as El Paraiso, located some 40 kilometers northeast of Lima in the Chillon River Valley.

The discovery shows "that the Lima region was a focus of civilizations in the Andean territory," Deputy Culture Minister Rafael Varon told reporters.

Archaeologists believe the ancient coastal civilisations raised crops including cotton, which they traded with coastal fishermen for food.

El Paraiso, spread across 50 hectares (125 acres), has 10 buildings and is one of the largest ancient sites in central Peru.

-AFP/gn



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Hear suspect's gunfight with cops





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State of the Union: "Act two" of Obama's 2nd term

When the curtain rises on President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight, the White House wants it viewed as "Act Two" - a follow-up to the national goals and policy objectives of which he spoke 22 days earlier on the West Front of the Capitol.

"The president has always viewed the two speeches, the inaugural address and the State of The Union, as two acts in the same play," said press secretary Jay Carney yesterday.

Though Mr. Obama has given more speeches this year on his proposals to stem gun violence and overhaul immigration policy, the "core emphasis" of his speech tonight is the economy.

"You'll hear from the president a very clear call for the need to take action to help our economy grow and help it create jobs," said Carney.

That includes the showdown with Congress over the mandatory spending cuts due to take effect starting March 1.




Play Video


Valerie Jarrett on SOTU: "An optimistic vision"



The president will urge Congress "not to shoot the economy in the foot," said Carney, by agreeing to his plan to avert the across-the-board spending cuts which the White House portrays as mindless and severe.

The president will again make it clear he wants a "balanced" plan that calls for additional tax revenue from America's top earners.

"My message to Congress is this: let's keep working together to solve this problem," the president said Saturday in his weekly address.

But Republican leaders say Mr. Obama already got his tax hikes as part of the "fiscal cliff" package, and now needs to focus exclusively on reductions in spending.


It'll be Mr. Obama's seventh appearance before a Joint Session of Congress and he'll be taking the rostrum aware that the national unemployment rate still hovers just under 8 percent and economic growth fell into negative territory at the end of 2012.

"The economy is not in a worse place than it was before," said Carney, pointing to the progress made since Mr. Obama's first State of the Union Address. "We were in economic freefall."

He said the president will make the case that "we are at a moment when the economy is poised to continue to grow...to build on the job creation that we've achieved -- over 6.1 million jobs created by our businesses over the past 35 or 36 months."

Carney added the president will propose further steps to grow the economy in a way that makes the middle class more secure and helps those trying to climb the ladder into the middle class.

"That is absolutely going to be his focus in the second term as it was in the first term," said Carney.


1/2


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Officer Dies After Dorner Shootout; Cabin on Fire













The remote California mountain cabin in which fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner has barricaded himself in tense standoff with police is on fire, following a shootout with police in which one officer was killed and another wounded.


Once the fire started, a single shot was heard from inside the cabin and then flames and a large column of black smoke were seen rising above the snow-covered trees near Big Bear, Calif., ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles reported.


Dorner is a former Navy marksman and Los Angeles Police Department officer charged with murdering a police officer and suspected in the deaths of two other people, including the daughter of a former LAPD captain, earlier this month.


Dozens of local, state and federal authorities are at the scene in the San Bernardino Mountains, and have the the cabin surrounded. Dorner has sworn to kill police and their family members in a manifesto discovered online last week.


FULL COVERAGE: Christopher Dorner Manhunt


The search for Dorner, one of the largest manhunts in recent memory, took a turn this afternoon when police received a call that a suspect resembling Dorner had broken into a home in the Big Bear area, taken hostages and stolen a car.


Police said the former cop, believed to be heavily armed and extremely dangerous, took two women hostage before stealing a car just around 12:20 p.m. PT, police said.








Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Police Exchange Fire With Possible Suspect Watch Video











Fugitive Ex-Cop Believed Barricaded in Cabin, California Cops Say Watch Video





The two hostages, who were tied up by Dorner but later escaped, were evaluated by paramedics and were determined to be uninjured.


Officials say Dorner crashed the stolen vehicle and fled on foot to the cabin where he barricaded himself and exchanged fire with deputies from the San Bernardino Sheriff's Office and state Fish and Game officers.


Two deputies were wounded in the firefight and airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said. The second deputy was in surgery and was expected to survive, police said.



PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings


Police have sealed all roads going into the area and imposed a no-fly zone above the cabin, nestled in a wooded area that has received several inches of snow in recent days.


Four Big Bear area schools were briefly placed on lockdown.


The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department stopped all traffic leaving the area and thoroughly searched vehicles, as SWAT team and tactical units could be seen driving toward the cabin, their sirens blaring.


Authorities say they believe Dorner may be watching reports of the standoff and have asked media not to broadcast images of police surrounding the cabin.


"If he's watching this, the message ... is: Enough is enough. It's time to turn yourself in. It's time to stop the bloodshed. It's time to let this event and let this incident be over," said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Andy Smith, told reporters at a press conference.


Dorner faces capital murder charges that involve the killing of Riverside police officer Michael Crain, who was gunned down in an ambush last Thursday.


Since then a massive manhunt has been under way, focused primarily in the San Bernardino Mountains, but extending to neighboring states and as far away as Mexico.


A capital murder charge could result in the death penalty if Dorner is captured alive and convicted. Crain was married with two children, aged 10 and 4.





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Arctic sunshine cranks up threat from greenhouse gases









































IT'S a solar double whammy. Not only does sunlight melt Arctic ice, but it also speeds up the conversion of frozen organic matter into carbon dioxide.











The amount of carbon in dead vegetation preserved in the far northern permafrost is estimated to be twice what the atmosphere holds as CO2. Global warming could allow this plant matter to decompose, releasing either CO2 or methane – both greenhouse gases. The extent of the risk remains uncertain because the release mechanisms are not clear.













Rose Cory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her colleagues analysed water from ponds forming on melting permafrost at 27 sites across the Arctic. They found that the amount of CO2 released was 40 per cent higher when the water was exposed to ultraviolet light than when kept dark. This is because UV light, a component of sunlight, raises the respiration rate of soil bacteria and fungi, amplifying the amount of organic matter they break down and the amount of CO2 released.












The thawing Arctic is emerging as a potentially major source of positive feedback that could accelerate global warming beyond existing projections. "Our task now is to quantify how fast this previously frozen carbon may be converted to CO2, so that models can include the process," Cory says.












Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214104110.




















































If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.




































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American Express card users can shop at Twitter






SAN FRANCISCO: American Express began letting users of its payment cards make purchases with messages fired off at Twitter as the popular social network dabbles with making money from e-commerce.

American Express announced that members who synchronize their cards with Twitter can take advantage of offers "tweeted" by the financial services company.

American Express will promote products in messages fired off at Twitter. Card holders buy items by tweeting indicated hashtags, with their accounts being charged accordingly.

Depending on the offers, products will be shipped to buyers or picked up in shops.

"We're leveraging our unique technology and closed-loop network to introduce a seamless solution that redefines what's possible in the world of social commerce," said American Express senior vice president Leslie Berland.

"We know there is significant power in combining our assets with Twitter's platform."

American Express said cardholders will be able to buy Sony, Amazon.com, Xbox 360 or Urban Zen products in tweets by using special hashtags, or words preceded by the "#" symbol.

Twitter and American Express have worked together in the past with alliances that let cardholders take advantage of discounts offered in coupons tweeted by merchants.

- AFP/ck



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Murder charge filed against renegade former officer






STORY HIGHLIGHTS


  • NEW: LAPD says 700 tips have been received in the case

  • Murder charge filed against Christopher Dorner in cop's death

  • A "no bail" warrant "allows him to be apprehended anywhere," prosecutor says

  • Authorities are offering a $1 million reward for information leading to an arrest




Los Angeles (CNN) -- As the manhunt for the renegade ex-cop accused of killing three people in a revenge plot targeting the Los Angeles Police Department enters its second week, the big question facing authorities is: Where is Christopher Jordan Dorner?


The search, considered one of the largest in the history of Southern California, has taken authorities from Orange County to the border of Mexico, from Los Angeles to the Big Bear Lake resort area of the San Bernardino Mountains.


Even so, a week after Dorner allegedly began targeting police officers and their families, putting the region on edge, there was no sign of the man on Monday.


A "no bail" arrest warrant was issued for Dorner after the Riverside County district attorney filed a murder charge Monday against him in the killing of Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain.


"That allows him to be apprehended anywhere within California, out of state or out of the country," District Attorney Paul Zellerbach told reporters at a news conference Monday.









Ex-cop at center of California manhunt











HIDE CAPTION















The murder charge is accompanied by two "special circumstances," including killing a police officer on duty and firing a weapon from a vehicle, Zellerbach said.


Dorner was also charged with the attempted murder of three other police officers, including a Riverside officer who was wounded when Crain was killed. That officer, whose name has not been made public, is in a lot of pain and faces "many surgeries," Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.


The other two charges accuse Dorner of opening fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburb of Corona.


Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Andy Neiman said the department had received more than 700 tips on Dorner's whereabouts. Some of the calls have come from Dorner's past acquaintances or people who think they have spotted the fugitive.


The city of Los Angeles put up $1 million in reward money Sunday for help catching Dorner, an announcement that followed news that the LAPD was reopening the case that resulted in his termination.


Dorner accused his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007. The LAPD ruled the complaint unfounded and booted Dorner off the force for filing a false complaint. He challenged his firing in court and lost.


In a manifesto released last week, Dorner blamed racism and corruption in the LAPD for his termination and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him.


LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had a different term for it Sunday.


"This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism," he told reporters Sunday during a televised news conference. "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."


Time line in manhunt


Targeting police


Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 4 when he allegedly killed Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.


Quan was the daughter of a now-retired Los Angeles police officer, who represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.


The retired officer told investigators that he received a call from someone identifying himself as Dorner who told him he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to a federal arrest warrant affidavit. Investigators traced the call to Vancouver, Washington, but based on the timing of other sightings, they don't believe Dorner was in Vancouver at the time, the affidavit states.


Days later, early Thursday morning, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.


Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing one and wounding another. On Sunday, authorities identified the slain officer as Michael Crain, an 11-year veteran of the Riverside Police Department.


Since then, the LAPD has provided more than 50 police officers and their families -- many of whom were named in the manifesto -- with security and surveillance details.


Additionally, the LAPD is no longer releasing the police chief's schedule to the public or the media.


Beck refused to discuss whether Dorner had been observed in the neighborhoods of any of those named in the manifesto, but added: "You fish where the fish are, and Mr. Dorner has made his intentions very clear."


In recent days, the search for the 270-pound, 6-foot Dorner has been focused on the Big Bear Lake area, where authorities say his burning truck was discovered last week after he allegedly began carrying out his threats to kill police and their family members.


Search continues


The search was scaled back in the mountain resort community on Sunday. None of the tips the department has received so far has panned out, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Lehua Pahia said.


Beck said the search would continue to focus on Dorner's last known locations in the Big Bear area.


"But our search continues in and around the area where we have known targets," Beck said.


But there has been speculation, based in part on an arrest warrant affidavit filed last week, that Dorner could have crossed state lines into Nevada or made his way to Mexico.


Federal authorities, meanwhile, were asking anyone across the country with information about Dorner or his whereabouts to contact their local FBI or U.S. Marshals Service.


"Should any citizen have information, I encourage you to make that phone call," said Bill L. Lewis, the assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles division.


Police were also chasing down unconfirmed sightings of Dorner, including one Sunday in the San Fernando Valley after two people reported seeing someone who resembled the former police officer inside a Lowes home improvement store.


The store in Northridge was evacuated, but there was no sign of Dorner.


The LAPD, meanwhile, also beefed up security at the Grammy Awards on Sunday "out of an abundance of caution," police Cmdr. Andy Smith said.


'Ghosts' of the LAPD's past


It's Dorner's allegations of racism at the LAPD that led Beck over the weekend to reopen the investigation into his claims.


Beck said he was not doing it to "appease a murderer" but out of concern that Dorner's allegations will resurrect a painful part of the department's history.


For years, the LAPD was dogged by complaints of racism and corruption. In 1965 and 1992, the city was rocked by racial riots that were sparked, in part, by claims of police racism and brutality.


"I hear the same things you hear: The ghosts of the past of the Los Angeles Police Department," Beck said Sunday. "I hear that people think maybe there is something to what he says, and I want to put that to rest."


Despite numerous reviews of Dorner's case, he said it has "never been reviewed by me."


"If there is anything new, we will deal with it, and we will deal with it in a public way," Beck said.


LAPD haunted by past


CNN's Matt Smith contributed to this report. Paul Vercammen and Stan Wilson reported from Big Bear Lake, and Chelsea J. Carter wrote from Atlanta.






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