MADRID: Workers at Spanish airline Iberia on Friday wrapped up a week-long strike that has seen hundreds of flights cancelled, with no sign of agreement in a dispute over the company's plan to cut 3,800 jobs.
Staff marked the last day of this week's strike -- the first of three planned five-day actions -- with a noisy demonstration in terminal four of Madrid's Barajas airport.
They waved banners reading "British Go Home" -- a reference to British Airways, which merged with Iberia in 2011 to form the International Airlines Group (IAG) in a tie-up aimed at slashing costs.
Some protesters wore pirate hats and eye-patches and waved skull-and-crossbones flags symbolising what they saw as an aggressive takeover of their beloved national carrier.
Unions called similar demonstrations in other airports across the country.
A demonstration at Barajas on Monday led to clashes with riot police when protesters tried to force their way into the building, but no incidents were reported at Friday's action.
IAG announced last week that it would axe 3,800 jobs at Iberia out of a total 20,000.
Cabin crew, ground staff and maintenance workers responded by announcing the three five-day strikes this month and next.
Spain is in a recession that has thrown millions out of work and driven the unemployment rate over 26 per cent.
With major airlines fighting to respond to competition from low-cost carriers, the Spanish flag-carrier has become one of the latest and most prominent companies to announce job cuts.
Iberia executives say the airline accumulated 850 million euros (US$1.1 billion) in losses between 2008 and September 2012 and the airline aims to cut its capacity by 15 per cent this year.
Workers accuse the management of betraying them and selling off the pride of Spanish aviation to foreign interests.
"The management does not want to negotiate. We want the government to intervene and undo the merger of Iberia and British Airways," said one protester, Silvia Navarro, 40, an air hostess who works on routes to Latin America.
"We haven't given up the jobs for lost yet, if the government intervenes."
The government on Thursday appointed a mediator to try and resolve the dispute. Management did not appear to have budged on the job cuts.
Deafening horns and whistles resounded around the terminal building, where the crowds of demonstrators blocked passengers arriving with their luggage to check in.
An Iberia spokeswoman said on Friday that the four airlines in the IAG group had cancelled 1,288 flights this week, mostly across Spain and Europe.
These included flights operated by Iberia and its low-cost arm Iberia Express, plus partners Air Nostrum and Vueling.
The workers planned to strike again from March 4-8 and again from March 18-22 -- just before the Easter holiday week. A minimum service is operating under Spanish law.
Chris Hadfield shows how to make a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the International Space Station.
(Credit: Video screenshot by CBSNews.com)
Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station.
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour of the cosmos in this simple and entertaining video.
Hadfield has made headlines several times during his current stint as commander of the ISS.
He was the mind behind "Mixed nuts in space." He demonstrated how to clip fingernails in space without inhaling them. And, of course, there was his Earth-to-space duet with fellow Canadians the Barenaked Ladies.
Commander Hadfield obviously knows his way around a camera, about as well as he knows his way around an interstellar PB and honey sandwich.
WASHINGTON The Justice Department has joined a lawsuit against disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong that alleges the former, seven-time Tour de France champion concealed his use of performance-enhancing drugs and defrauded his long-time sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service, Armstrong's lawyers said Friday.
The suit the Justice Department is joining was filed in 2010 by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping.
Settlement discussions had been underway between the Justice Department and Armstrong's lawyers. A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press the two sides are tens of millions of dollars apart on how much Armstrong should pay to settle the case. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the private talks.
"Lance and his representatives worked constructively over these last weeks with federal lawyers to resolve this case fairly, but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged," Armstrong attorney Robert Luskin said in a statement to news outlets, including CBS News.
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The Landis lawsuit was filed under seal, but it will be unsealed with the Justice Department decision to join, or in essence, take over the case.
Armstrong was the subject of a two-year federal grand jury investigation that the Justice Department dropped a year ago without an indictment.
Throughout his career, Armstrong always denied drug use, but he confessed to having done so in an interview last month.
In October, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report that included affidavits from 11 of Armstrong's former teammates. These affidavits detailed how the teammates were supplied with EPO by Armstrong and saw him inject, and how they were pressured to dope and bullied by Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, the team manager. The cycling world's governing body then stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005.
Last month, the head of USADA lobbied Attorney General Eric Holder for the Justice Department to join the lawsuit against Armstrong. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart has called the doping by Armstrong and the Postal Service teams a "massive economic fraud."
Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial. They befriended Arias after she first arrived in jail and believe in her innocence.
Arias admits killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander and lying for nearly two years about it, but insists she killed Alexander in self defense. She could face the death penalty if convicted of murder.
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Nevertheless, she is aware of the seriousness of her lies and deceitful behavior.
The women told ABC News that they understand that Arias needs to be punished and Arias understands that too.
"She does know that, you know, she does need to pay for the crime," Campbell said. "But I don't want her to die, and I know that she has so much to give back."
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The lies that Arias admits she told to police and her family have been devastating to her, Bering said.
""She said to me, 'I wish I didn't have to have lied. That destroyed me,'" Donovan said earlier this week. "Because now when it's so important for her to be believed, she has that doubt. But as she told me on the phone yesterday, she goes, 'I have nothing to lose.' So all she can do is go out there and tell the truth."
During Arias' nine days on the stand she has described in detail the oral, anal and phone sex that she and Alexander allegedly engaged in, despite being Mormons and trying to practice chastity. She also spelled out in excruciating detail what she claimed was Alexander's growing demands for sex, loyalty and subservience along with an increasingly violent temper.
Besides her two friends, Arias' mother and sometimes her father have been sitting in the front row of the courtroom during the testimony. It's been humiliating, Bering said.
"She's horrified. There's not one ounce of her life that's not out there, that's not open to the public. She's ashamed," she said.
PARIS/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Seven French hostages abducted by suspected Nigerian Islamist militants have probably been separated into two groups and efforts are continuing to locate them, French President Francois Hollande said on Thursday.
French, Nigerian and Cameroonian officials earlier denied French media reports that the seven family members, who were seized in Cameroon on Tuesday and taken over the border, had been freed.
"It's best to work discreetly for now to identify the exact place where our citizens are being held - most likely in two groups - and work out how we can free them under the best conditions," Hollande told reporters.
Paris was "fully cooperating" with Nigeria and Cameroon, he added, noting that French troops were nearby as their base was in the Chadian capital N'Djamena, 150 km (93 miles) away.
The Nigerian military located the hostages and kidnappers between Dikwa and Ngala in the far northeast, a Nigerian military source in Borno said earlier on Thursday, asking not to be identified.
Dikwa is less than 80 km (50 miles) from the border with Cameroon where the three adults and four children were taken hostage on Tuesday.
A senior Cameroonian military official declined to comment, saying the matter was too sensitive.
French gendarmes backed by special forces arrived in northern Cameroon on Wednesday to help locate the family, a local governor and French defense ministry official said.
Citing a Cameroon army officer, French media reported earlier on Thursday that the hostages had been found alive in a house in northern Nigeria. That was denied by the France, Nigeria and Cameroon.
DIFFICULT SITUATION
The abduction was the first case of foreigners being seized in the mostly Muslim north of Cameroon, a former French colony, and highlighted the threat to French interests in West Africa since Paris deployed thousands of troops to Mali to oust al Qaeda-linked Islamists who controlled the country's north.
But the region - like others in West and North Africa with porous borders - is considered within the operational sphere of Boko Haram and fellow Nigerian Islamist militants Ansaru.
On Sunday, seven foreigners were snatched from the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state, and Ansaru took responsibility.
Northern Nigeria increasingly is afflicted by attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants. Ansaru, which rose to prominence only in recent months, has claimed the abduction in December of a French national who is still missing.
Three foreigners were killed in two failed rescue attempts last year after being kidnapped in northern Nigeria and Ansaru, blamed for those kidnaps, warned this could happen again.
"Staging a successful rescue is always difficult, but even more so if the kidnappers are waiting for it," said Peter Sharwood-Smith, Nigeria country manager of security firm Drum Cussac.
"After the death of three European hostages in rescue-intervention attempts last year, Nigeria and France will be hoping for a peaceful resolution. The problem could be the kidnappers lack of enthusiasm for negotiation or deals. The fact that four of the hostages are children adds further difficulty to the decision for France and Nigeria."
The kidnapping in Cameroon brought to 15 the number of French citizens being held in West Africa.
(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Tansa Musa in Yaounde, Joe Brock in Abuja and Bate Felix and John Irish in Dakar; Writing by Bate Felix and John Irish; Editing by Michael Roddy)
WASHINGTON: Big Bird is back as a player in big time US politics.
Mitt Romney wanted to get rid of him, but after a reprieve following the Republican's election defeat, the towering Sesame Street puppet has signed up to endorse First Lady Michelle Obama's nutrition and fitness campaign.
The fluffy yellow character known to generations of US kids is seen jogging in the East Room of the White House and checking out a bowl of fruit and vegetables in the presidential kitchen in two new public service ads.
"Gee, I bet you could get just anything you want in this kitchen," Big Bird said in one of the ads, before remarking "those look good" when the First Lady points out some crunchy vegetables.
The ads will be distributed to 320 public broadcasting stations as part of the First Lady's "Let's Move!" campaign which is designed to fight obesity and improve the diets and health of American kids.
The First Lady will kick off a national tour next week to mark the three year anniversary of the program.
"Eating healthy is easy and it's fun and delicious too," Michelle Obama says in one of the ads.
The use of Big Bird may be seen as one last jab at Romney by the Obamas after the famous Muppet emerged as a punch line during last year's presidential election.
Romney said in a debate in Denver that he liked Big Bird but pledged to cut a government subsidy for public television where he appears, as part of efforts to trim the deficit.
President Barack Obama's team seized on the remark to ridicule Romney after the president badly wobbled in the debate.
"Mitt Romney knows it's not Wall Street you have to worry about, it's Sesame Street," one Obama ad said, jokingly describing Big Bird as an "evil genius" towering over financial felons like Ken Lay and Bernie Madoff.
"Mitt Romney. Taking on our enemies, no matter where they nest," the announcer of the television ad said.
Facebook will preserve your aged photos using the tried-and-true freezer method, as billions of photos are headed for colder climates: a "cold storage" unit at Facebook's Prineville, Oregon data center.
Yesterday, the social network opened up the in-construction building to members of the media to demonstrate how it plans to make room in the fridge for the more than 350 million new photo uploads it sees each day, but still keep distant memories alive for revisiting.
Facebook currently houses 240 billion photos, a massive collection that consumes 7 billion petabytes per month. The cold storage process takes into account a photo's lifecycle to transfer a "cold" photo, or one that's transitioned from active moment to old memory, to a more efficient cold storage server.
The company plans to have the first of three 16,000-square-foot cold storage data hubs functioning by fall, according to The Oreganian. The paper paid a visit to the new data center yesterday and said the building is currently just a frame and a concrete pad.
Last month, Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice president of infrastructure, explained that the company's process for storing photos was too inefficient to support the active storage of billions of photos. The new cold storage rack, which will keep cold photos on ice, has eight times the storage capacity of a normal server, but consumes a quarter of the power.
In essence, the specialized units have been designed to let Facebook freeze photo memories and thaw them out when need be.
ST. LOUIS Blinding snow, at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, making major roadways all but impassable and shutting down schools and state legislatures.
Kansas was the epicenter of the winter storm, with parts of the state buried under 14 inches of powdery snow, but winter storm warnings stretched from eastern Colorado through Illinois. Freezing rain and sleet were forecast for southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Arkansas. St. Louis was expected to get all of the above — a treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
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CBS News weather consultant David Bernard reported on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that very heavy snow squalls were moving from Wichita, Kan., into Kansas City, Mo., where it looks like it's going to snow hard for about the entire day.
Forecast models show the snowstorm pivoting from southwest to northeast throughout the afternoon hours, so Wichita would see improvement late Thursday, but northeastern Kansas and most of Missouri would be looking at heavy snowfall until at least Thursday night, Bernard reports.
Several accidents were blamed on icy and slushy roadways, including two fatal accidents. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighboring states, were closed. Legislatures shut down early in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
By midmorning Thursday, the snowfall was so heavy that Kansas City International Airport shut down. About 90 flights were also cancelled at Lambert Airport in St. Louis, where sleet and ice began falling late-morning.
"Thundersnow" accompanied the winter storm in parts of Kansas and Missouri, which National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett said is the result of an unstable air mass, much like a thunderstorm.
"Instead of pouring rain, it's pouring snow," Truett said. And pouring was a sound description, with snow falling at a rate of 1 1/2 to 2 inches per hour in some spots. Kansas City got 5 inches in two hours.
Snow totals passed the foot mark in many places: Monarch Pass, Colo., had 17 1/2 inches, Hutchinson, Kan., 14 inches and Wichita 13 inches. The National Weather Service said up to 18 inches of snow were possible in Kansas towns such as Salina, Russell and Great Bend.
With that in mind, Kansas transportation officials — and even the governor — urged people to simply stay home. Drivers were particularly warned away from the Kansas Turnpike, as whiteout conditions meant low visibility for the length of the turnpike, from Oklahoma to Kansas City.
Interstate 70, which runs the length of Kansas, was also snow-packed and icy. State transportation officials closed a 90-mile stretch of I-70 between Salina and Hays.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback closed executive offices, except for essential personnel.
"If you don't have to get out, just really, please, don't do it," Brownback said.
Some travelers gave up, filling hotels rather than skating across dangerous roadways.
At the Econo Lodge in WaKeeney, Kan., assistant manager Michael Tidball said the 48-room hotel was full by 10 p.m. Wednesday and that most guests were opting to stay an extra day. He said travelers reported that snow was freezing on their windshields faster than wipers could keep them clean.
The blowing snow didn't stop everyone. Christy Walker, a waitress at the Polly Anna Cafe in Woodward, Okla., got stuck in the 8 inches of snow during her drive into work. But business in the western Oklahoma town was brisk, she said.
"It's affecting everybody who is hungry and wants to come out to eat," she said. "I'm extremely busy right now."
Areas in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle also had up to 8 inches of snow by Thursday morning. Arkansas saw a mix of precipitation — some got a combination of hail, sleet and freezing rain, while others got up to 6 inches of snow. Forecasters warned that northern Arkansas could get a half-inch of ice accumulation.
Near the Nebraska-Kansas border, as much as 8 inches fell overnight, while western Nebraska saw about half of that amount, National Weather Service forecaster Shawn Jacobs said.
Two fatal accidents were attributed to winter weather on Wednesday. In Oklahoma, 18-year-old Cody Alexander of Alex, Okla., died when his pickup truck skidded on a slushy state highway into oncoming traffic and struck a truck. And in Nebraska, 19-year-old Kristina Leigh Anne Allen of Callaway died when a sport utility vehicle lost control in snowy, icy conditions, crossed the median and struck her car.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Thursday morning and activated the State Emergency Operations Center. The declaration allows state agencies to coordinate directly with cities and counties to provide emergency services.
Kansas City-area roads were a mess. Portions of I-70 and I-35 were closed along with many other roads because of snow drifts and slippery conditions. The Missouri Department of Transportation said Interstate 44 near Springfield was completely covered with ice Thursday morning, and traffic was moving very slow.
In Jefferson City, Mo., off-duty police sergeant Randy Werner had been perched atop a hotel for more than 24 hours as a publicity stunt for a charitable fundraiser.
As large snowflakes pelted him in the face Thursday morning, Werner defiantly declared: "The weather's not bothering me, I can assure you."
He then acknowledged that was a lie.
"It's blustery," he said. Werner planned to cut his effort short, having raised less than a third of his goal.
The St. Louis region prepared with some uncertainty. Depending on the temperature and the trajectory of the storm, St. Louis could get snow, freezing rain, ice, sleet or all or some of the above. Crews were hoping to spread enough salt to keep at least the major roadways moving.
Alex Sosnowski, a meteorologist for Accuweather, said the storm will push off into the Great Lakes and central Appalachians, and freezing rain could make it as far east and south as North Carolina. He also said a "spin-off" storm was expected to create heavy snow in New England, and could push Boston to a February record.
Accuweather said that by the time the storm dies out, at least 24 states will be affected.
A drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip early this morning by the occupants of a Range Rover SUV, who shot at the occupants of a Maserati, caused a multi-car accident and car explosion that left three dead.
Police said that they believe a group of men riding in a black Range Rover Sport SUV pulled up alongside a Maserati around 4:20 a.m. today and fired shots into the car, striking the driver and passenger, according to Officer Jose Hernandez of the Las Vegas Metropolitan police department.
The Maserati then swerved through an intersection, hitting at least four other cars. One car that was struck, a taxi with a driver and passenger in it, caught on fire and burst into flames, trapping both occupants, Hernandez said.
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The SUV then fled the scene, according to cops.
The driver of the Maserati died from his gunshot wounds at University Medical Center shortly after the shooting, according to Sgt. John Sheahan.
The driver and passenger of the taxi both died in the car fire.
At least three individuals, including the passenger of the Maserati, were injured during the shooting and car crashes and are being treated at UMC hospital.
Police are scouring surveillance video from the area, including from the strip's major casinos, to try and identify the Range Rover and its occupants, according to police.
They do not yet know why the Range Rovers' occupants fired shots at the Maserati or whether the cars had local plates or were from out of state.
No bystanders were hit by gunfire, Hernandez said.
"We're currently looking for a black Range Rover Sport, with large black rims and some sort of dealership advertising or advertisement plates," Hernandez said. "This is an armed and dangerous vehicle."
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had no immediate comment about the safety of tourists in the wake of the shooting today.
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's government resigned on Wednesday after mass protests against high power prices and falling living standards, joining a long list of European administrations felled by austerity during four years of debt crisis.
Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, an ex-bodyguard who took power in 2009 on pledges to root out graft and raise incomes in the European Union's poorest member, faces a tough task of propping up eroding support ahead of an expected early election.
Wage and pension freezes and tax hikes have bitten deep in a country where earnings are less than half the EU average and tens of thousands of Bulgarians have rallied in protests that have turned violent, chanting "Mafia" and "Resign".
Moves by Borisov on Tuesday to blame foreign utility companies for the rise in the cost of heating homes was to no avail and an eleventh day of marches saw 15 people hospitalized and 25 arrested in clashes with police.
"My decision to resign will not be changed under any circumstances. I do not build roads so that blood is shed on them," said Borisov, who began his career guarding the Black Sea state's communist dictator Todor Zhivkov.
A karate black belt, Borisov has cultivated a Putin-like "can-do" image since he entered politics as Sofia mayor in 2005 and would connect with voters by showing up on the capital's rutted streets to oversee the repair of pot-holes.
But critics say he has often skirted due process, sometimes to the benefit of those close to him, and his swift policy U-turns have wounded the public's trust.
The spark for the protests was high electricity bills, after the government raised prices by 13 percent last July. But it quickly spilled over into wider frustration with Borisov and political elites with perceived links to shadowy businesses.
"He made my day," said student Borislav Hadzhiev in central Sofia, commenting on Borisov's resignation. "The truth is that we're living in an extremely poor country."
POLLS, PRICES
The prime minister's final desperate moves on Tuesday included cutting power prices and risking a diplomatic row with the Czech Republic by punishing companies including CEZ, moves which conflicted with EU norms on protection of investors and due process.
CEZ officials were hopeful on Wednesday that it would be able to avoid losing its distribution license after all and officials from the Bulgarian regulator said the company would not be punished if it dealt with breaches of procedure.
But shares in what is central Europe's largest publicly-listed company fell another 1 percent on Wednesday.
If pushed through, the fines for CEZ and two other foreign-owned firms will not encourage other investors in Bulgaria, who already have to navigate complicated bureaucracy and widespread corruption and organized crime to take advantage of Bulgaria's 10-percent flat tax rate.
Financial markets reacted negatively to the turbulence on Wednesday. The cost of insuring Bulgaria's debt rose to a three-month high and debt yields rose some 15 basis points, though the country's low deficit of 0.5 percent of gross domestic product means there is little risk to the lev currency's peg against the euro.
Borisov's interior minister indicated that elections originally planned for July would probably be pulled forward by saying that his rightist GERB party would not take part in talks to form a new government.
MILLIONS GONE
GERB's woes have echoes in another ex-communist EU member, Slovenia, where demonstrators have taken to the streets and added pressure to a crumbling conservative government.
A small crowd gathered in support of Borisov outside Sofia's parliament, which is expected to approve his resignation on Thursday, while bigger demonstrations against the premier were expected in the evening.
Unemployment in the country of 7.3 million is far from the highs hit in the decade after the end of communism but remains at 11.9 percent. Average salaries are stuck at around 800 levs ($550) a month and millions have emigrated, leaving swathes of the country depopulated and little hope for those who remain.
GERB's popularity has held up well and it still led in the latest polls before protests grew in size last weekend, but analysts say the opposition Socialists should draw strength from the demonstrations.
The leftists, successors to Bulgaria's communist party, have proposed tax cuts and wage hikes and are likely to raise questions about public finances if elected.
(Additional reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Patrick Graham)
