Water wars loom as the US runs dry

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Zuckerberg owns nearly a third of Facebook: US regulators

SAN FRANCISCO: Mark Zuckerberg's stake in Facebook has climbed to nearly 30 percent since the leading social network made its dismal stock market debut, according to a filing Wednesday with US regulators.

Zuckerberg owns 632.65 million Facebook shares as compared with the slightly more than 500 million he held in September when the stock's sagging price prompted a promise he would not sell any for at least a year.

Zuckerberg sold about 30 million shares when the Menlo Park, California-based social network made its stock market debut in May at an opening price of $38.

Shares slid to a low of $17.55 in September but have regained ground, trading at $28.04 at the close of trading on the Nasdaq exchange on Wednesday.

Securities and Exchange Commission filings show Zuckerberg has been building his stake Facebook, the potential of which he contends is underestimated by the market.

One SEC filing showed that Zuckerberg acquired 18 million Facebook shares in mid-December at a price of zero, indicating they were tied to his compensation as chief of the social network.

-AFP/gn

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Body is thought to be Dorner, but guards remain in place

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Radio traffic describes use of gas canisters at cabins


• Slain officer's widow thanks mourners: "A lot of people loved Mike"


• Villaraigosa says police have a "reasonable belief" that Dorner died in a mountain standoff


• Authorities have not conclusively identified the body found near Big Bear Lake

Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL, KABC and KTLA. Anderson Cooper 360º devotes the entire hour to the frenzied manhunt, the final shootout, and the people allegedly killed by an ex-LA cop. Watch "9 Days of Terror: The Hunt for Christopher Dorner" Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

Riverside, California (CNN) -- A "sigh of relief." A widow's restrained sobs. The lingering fear of the targets, waiting to hear whether their pursuer had truly been run to ground.

A day after a man suspected to be renegade ex-cop Christopher Dorner died in a blazing mountain cabin, police from around the Los Angeles area and beyond gathered to bury one of their own Wednesday. A squad of bagpipers led Michael Crain's flag-draped casket through a cordon of blue uniforms into a church in Riverside, the Los Angeles suburb where he served 11 years on the force.

The mourners who packed the church included California Gov. Jerry Brown, his Highway Patrol chief and law enforcement from an alphabet soup of agencies around the region.

"I knew that communities would reach out, and I knew a lot of people loved Mike," Regina Crain, the slain officer's widow, told them as she choked back tears. "And I knew that I would have support no matter what. But I really did not realize the sheer scale of this, and how many people are touched by his life. It gives me really great comfort to see that, and I want to thank you all."

Investigators say Crain was shot and killed by Dorner, a fired Los Angeles cop who launched a vendetta against his old department last week. They blame the 33-year-old former Navy officer for the deaths of Crain and a still-unnamed San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy killed in Tuesday's fiery standoff. He is also accused of killing the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance and of shooting three other cops, including Crain's partner. The violence spree began February 3.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said authorities have a "reasonable belief" that the body found in a burned-out cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains late Tuesday is Dorner's. But while the SWAT teams that prowled the city in search of the former Navy officer have stood down, the officers detailed to guard his potential victims remain in place.

"I think we all are breathing a sigh of relief," Villaraigosa said Wednesday. "We do believe that it is the body of Christopher Dorner, but we don't know for a certainty. And until we do, those police officers who were targeted will continue to be protected. That's the least we could do."

'A very trying time' for the LAPD

Authorities say Dorner launched a guerrilla war against the Los Angeles Police Department over what he considered his unfair dismissal in 2009.

It wasn't clear when a formal identification could be made of the charred remains found in the cabin near Big Bear Lake, about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, after a Tuesday shootout with police. Until then, "a lot of apprehension" remains in the ranks of the LAPD, Lt. Andy Neiman said.

"It's been a very trying time over the last couple of weeks for all of those involved and all those families, friends and everybody that has been touched by this incident," he said.

Timeline in manhunt

Meanwhile, questions swirled Wednesday over how the shootout, standoff and fire that led to Dorner's presumed death unfolded.

Investigators began scouring the mountains on Thursday, when investigators found Dorner's scorched pickup. Police, sheriff's deputies and federal agents swarmed into the area, working through a weekend blizzard, but the trail was cold for days.

On Sunday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said it had scaled back the search. Villaraigosa announced a $1 million reward for information leading to Dorner's arrest and conviction, spurring hundreds of tips.

Then early Tuesday afternoon, California Fish and Wildlife wardens said they spotted Dorner driving a purple Nissan down icy roads near Big Bear Lake. He was driving very close to some school buses, as if using them as cover, said Lt. Patrick Foy. No children were on the buses, Foy said.

'Here comes this guy with a big gun'

The wardens, driving in two different vehicles, chased Dorner, and a gun battle ensued. One of the warden's cars was hit, and Dorner crashed his car and ran, according to authorities. He then carjacked a pickup truck.

Rick Heltebrake, a camp ranger, said he was driving when he saw the crashed purple vehicle -- and then something terrifying.

How authorities identify a burned body

"Here comes this guy with a big gun, and I knew who it was right away," Heltebrake told CNN affiliate KTLA. "He just came out of the snow at me with his gun at my head. He said, 'I don't want to hurt you. Just get out of the car and start walking.' "

Heltebrake said the man let him take his dog and walk away with his hands up.

"Not more than 10 seconds later, I heard a loud round of gunfire," Heltebrake said. "Ten to 20 rounds, maybe. I found out later what that was all about."

Dorner fled to a nearby cabin and got into another shootout, this time with San Bernardino County deputies. He killed one and wounded another, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Tuesday evening.

The wounded deputy was in surgery at that time but "should be fine," McMahon said.

Some of the firefight between police and the suspect was captured live on the telephone of a reporter for CNN affiliates KCBS and KCAL. Police in Los Angeles listened live over police scanners broadcast on the Internet, Neiman said.

"It was horrifying to listen to that firefight," he said. "To hear those words, 'officer down,' is the most gut-wrenching experience you can have as a police officer, because you know what that means."

'Maintain your discipline'

A law enforcement source told CNN the cabin caught fire when police tossed smoke devices inside. The cabin was fully ablaze within minutes and burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance.

Devices such as "flash-bang" grenades and tear gas canisters designed to disorient and disable suspects can cause fires, CNN contributor Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director, said Wednesday. But it wasn't clear exactly how the fire started.

Audio from a Los Angeles television station captured the sound of someone early in the standoff shouting, "Burn it down ... burn that goddamn house down. Burn it down." It's not clear who used those words.

But the order to use smoke canisters -- "burners" -- didn't come for another two hours, according to San Bernardino County sheriff's radio traffic.

"Seven burners deployed, and we have a fire," one officer reported at 4:16 p.m. (7:16 p.m. ET).

Five minutes later, a single gunshot was reported from inside the house. A senior officer ordered units around the cabin, "Stand by. Maintain your discipline." About a minute after that, officers reported ammunition exploding inside.

After initially saying that no body had been found, sheriff's investigators finally confirmed overnight that they had found charred human remains in the ashes.

Dorner cheered in some quarters

Dorner had vowed to kill police officers to avenge what he called an unfair termination. He was fired after accusing his training officer of kicking a suspect during a July 2007 arrest -- a complaint the LAPD determined was unfounded.

Talk Back: Does the Dorner case teach us anything about guns?

The department accused him of lying to superiors and to internal affairs investigators and forced him out in January 2009. Dorner challenged his dismissal in court but was unsuccessful.

Dorner was first named a suspect in two shooting deaths on February 3: Monica Quan, the daughter of his police union representative, and her fiance, Keith Lawrence.

Police say he killed Crain and wounded Crain's partner in an ambush on their patrol car Thursday. They say he also wounded an LAPD officer who chased him in the suburban city of Corona, California.

In a manifesto explaining the reasons behind his rampage, Dorner said nothing had changed in the LAPD since its scandals of the 1990s, the Rodney King beating and the Rampart police corruption case. Those allegations have struck a chord with some who say that despite being named as a suspect in four killings, Dorner was seeking justice.

Shadowed by that history, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced Saturday that the department would re-examine its proceedings against Dorner. The review is "not to appease a murderer," but "to reassure the public that their police department is transparent and fair in all things we do," he said.

During the manhunt, LAPD officers guarding one of the people named in Dorner's manifesto opened fire on a truck in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance last Thursday, wounding two women inside. In a television interview over the weekend, Beck called that a "tragic, horrific incident."

CNN's Miguel Marquez, Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Lateef Mungin, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez, Holly Yan and Michael Pearson contributed to this report.

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American, US Airways set to clinch merger

(MoneyWatch) American Airlines and US Airways (LCC) are set to announce 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

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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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17 gunmen dead in Thai military base attack

 

BANGKOK, Thailand: Scores of heavily-armed gunmen stormed a military base in unrest-plagued southern Thailand, an army spokesman said on Wednesday, in a major assault that left at least 17 militants dead.

"Some 100 fully armed militants stormed the base, where there were 60 marines," Colonel Pramote Promin, southern army spokesman, told AFP.

He said the attack, one of the most ambitious in several years of violence in Thailand's three southernmost provinces, had left at least 17 assailants dead. No military casualties were reported.

- AFP/de

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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.

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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

Police are in a tense standoff with fugitive former-cop Christopher Dorner, who barricaded himself inside a remote mountain cabin near Big Bear, Calif., after a shootout with police in which he shot two cops, killing one, authorities said.

Smoke was seen coming from near or at the cabin shortly before 4:30 p.m. PT, and a fire has been reported to authorities.

Dorner, a former Navy marksman wanted for murdering a police officer and suspected in the deaths of two other people earlier this month, engaged in a gunfight with two San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies who had pursued him.

The two were airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said.

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.

The search for Dorner, one of the largest manhunts in recent memory, culminated in a call to police this afternoon that a suspect resembling Dorner had broken into a nearby home, 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 after noon local time today, police said.

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.

Los Angeles Police Department/AP Photo

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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.

FULL COVERAGE: Christopher Dorner Manhunt

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.

The charges do not involve the slayings of Monica Quan and her fiance, who were found shot to death Feb. 3. Quan was the daughter of former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who was mentioned as a target of Dorner's fury in his so-called "manifesto," which he posted on his Facebook page.

PHOTOS: Former LAPD Officer Suspected in Shootings

In the 6,000 word "manifesto," Dorner outlined his anger at the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him, and made threats against individuals he believed were responsible for ending his career with the police force five years ago.

Dorner's grievance with police goes back five years, to when he was fired after filing what the LAPD determined to be a false report accusing other cops of brutality.

The LAPD has assigned 50 protection details to guard officers and their families who were deemed possible targets.

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