Dont worry, senator rubio, nobody noticed. That you gave a speech. Welcome to cbs this morning. Charlie rose is on assignment, so james brown is with us. As we come on the air in the west, olympic track store and double amputee Oscar Pistorius is under arrest this morning, accused of murder. His girlfriend was found shot in his home in south africa overnight. Mark phillips has more on the stunning news about the paraolympic runner. This isnt so much as a whodunit but what happened. Only two people involved Oscar Pistorius the blade runner and the woman who was killed. We can confirm there was a shooting incident this morning at the home of the wellknown paraolympic athlete Oscar Pistorius. Oscar pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp had been an alist celebrity couple since autumn. She was a frequent covergirl with supermodel looks. By the sound of the tweets she sent out the romance seemed to be going well. It should be a day of love for everyone, she said just a day before she died. The shooting took place at pistorius house inside the secure gated community, the way many South Africans with means to live in a country with extremely high burglary and crime rates. At first it was thought the shooting was a tragic case of mistaken identity that reeva had tried to surprise oscar with an unannounced valentines day visit but later the suggestion of something more sinister was raised by police. But i can confirm there has previously been incidents at the home of mr. Oscar pistorius. Reporter Oscar Pistorius has become a renowned personality, not just for the way he has overcome his handicap and become a paralympic path heat but forcing authorities to allow him to run against ablebodied competition. Now hes fighting a more serious battle, he was arrested and police say subjected to forensic tests for blood alcohol levels and whatever might be under his fingernails. The details of the murder the police say, will come out in court. Like many in south Africa Pistorius kept a gun at home. Whether this is another tragic combination of an argument and a firearm being in the same place, well have to wait and see. In the meantime police say they will oppose bail for pistorius. Mark phillips, thank you for that. We have more breaking news the deal is done American Airlines and u. S. Airways are announcing an 11 billion merger this morning. It will create the Worlds Largest airline. Sharyl attkisson is at Reagan National airport just outside of washington. Sharyl, good morning. Reporter good morning, this is the seventh merger since 2005 in an industry that faces stiff competition and rising fuel prices. Few may be paying more for your tickets. The new airline will take the American Airlines name helping to boost a company thats been in bankruptcy for more than a year. American has struggled to compete in recent years as its rivals have grown. The marriage between number three american and number four u. S. Airways will create the Worlds Largest carrier, bigger than united which merged with continental in 2010 and delta, which merged with northwest in 2008. Americans ceo tom horton told cbs this morning travel editor Peter Greenberg last month that merging was the only way to prevent collapse. Youve got to move fast in this business and time for our companies to start looking forward. Reporter four airlines will control 70 of the u. S. Market that has some analysts concerned about the impact that will have on travelers. Even though people say that this particular merger of u. S. Airways and American Airlines isnt going to raise ticket prices, i dont believe that one bit. Reporter after delta bought northwest, the decreased competition sent ticket prices up more than 20 between minneapolisst. Paul and atlanta. The United Continental deal resulted in 30 price increases between chicago and houston and newark and San Francisco. The consultant Daryl Jenkins says the battle between the new big three may actually lead to a price war, benefiting consumers. Consumers are going to have a lot of choice. Were going to see fares being moderate the because of the amount of competition. Reporter air travelers have other choices, Discount Airlines like jetblue and southwest. Its too early to know how ticket prices will be affected on the west coast but federal regulators are likely to approve the merger as long as they feel competition will be preserved in cities where the two airlines are dominant. James and norah . Sharyl attkisson thank you. Lets look at what the merger means for you. Rebecca jarvis is with us. What is the new Company Going to look like . It will be the Largest Airline in the world. You have the number three american joining up with the number five u. S. Airways, theyll have about 900 planes on hand so thats more planes than any other airline, 3,000 plus daily flights, nearly 100,000 employees and they will be headquartered in dallasft. Worth, which is the current headquarters for american so theyre moving all of their operations there. But who is going to be ceo . Thats the interesting part of this story. Doug parker the current ceo of u. S. Airways has wanted this for ages. He has wanted to have a connection, a merger with a larger airline, and he risks u. S. Airways being marginalized without getting the deal done. Tried to do it with delta and united, failed twice. This is where he takes ceo of american. He worked with the labor unions as well as the creditors to get the deal done. Rebecca as mentioned in the piece before flyers have been down this route before, what is in store for passengers with this new partnership . We have been down this route before and generally speaking when two Major Airlines merge, prices like you just heard in the piece, prices can sometimes have a price war. Sometimes the consumer initially gets a better deal but over time, less competition in general means more prices. Higher prices. Rebecca jarvis, thats the hangup, all right. Later well talk to the ceos of American Airlines and u. S. Airways, they will be here with us to give us the inside story about todays big announcement and if it does mean higher prices for you, thats ahead on cbs this morning. Meantime the nightmare aboard the Carnival Cruiseliner triumph could finally end today. Passengers are stranded in grotesque conditions after the fire knocked out the ships power on sunday. Right now the triumph is about 35 miles off the coast of mobile alabama. Anna we arerner is in mobile where the passengers will arrive. Good morning anna. Reporter good morning. The ship is 30 miles south of here and there are several steps to go before people will actually get off the ship today. Theyre expected to be down at the mouth of the channel where a private boat will meet them to guide the ship up to the cruise ship terminal here but once they get here passengers still have to go through a slow process of unloading. Meanwhile, relatives are getting more and more frustrated. As the crippled triumph limps closer to shore, relatives of some of the 3,000 passengers are eagerly awaiting its arrival. What are the two of you doing here in. We came to get our girls. Reporter mary poret and kim mckerreghans young daughters are both on the ship. The two women drove nearly eight hours from lufkin texas, to mobile, alabama, to pick up their girls. Her biggest fear she didnt know if she was going to see me again as a parent thats hard because you dont know. Youve got to reassure your child and you dont know the answer. Reporter dusty hoffmeyer called to talk to his mother while we were speaking to her. What is the smell like there . Its the lower decks and kitchen are starting to smell pretty bad. Smells like sewage . Some places yes. Reporter at least three other carnival ships have dropped off supplies and some food to the triumph, but passengers who have been able to text or email describe using plastic toilets and a stench so bad its made some sick. I dont think ive ever been passionately disgusted about anything like this in my life. Reporter Jamie Kennedy is scared about the conditions her husband has been living in. She says shes livid over carnivals response. If ships were delivering cargo and food and supplies to them, why couldnt they go drop their passengers off in cozumel . Theres got to be a way to get them off than five days five days of conditions of no ac no running water, no toilets. Reporter carnivals ceo micky arison prompted comments after this showed him at a basketball game saturday night. The company has been more responsive in the past couple of days but theyre tired of waiting on tugboats to slowly drag the ship back to safe harbor. I just think we have more resources and people are smarter than that and i think carnival just missed the boat on that one, no pun intended. Reporter their journey doesnt end here because many of those passengers, once they get here tonight, will be getting on buses to go to new orleans, where theyll be staying overnight and then taking charter flights out to houston, tomorrow. Some of them will be getting on buses right here at the terminal to go back to galveston where many people parked their cars thats where the ship left from. Carnival is trying to make up for all of this offering an additional 500 to each passenger on top of the refunds and the free trip offers but many of those people are going to be likely exhausted. Back to you. Anna werner thank you. There are new developments with Congress Facing more than 1 trillion in spending cuts in just 15 days. Nancy cordes is on capitol hill with new reporting. Nancy, good morning. Reporter good morning to you, norah. Cbs news has learned that the new democratic plan would replace those damaging across the board cuts for the rest of 2013, with a 50 50 mix of spending cuts and new tax revenue. They would do this by asking millionaires to pay more and by trimming the Defense Budget two moves that republicans are sure to oppose. The democratic plan being unveiled today would replace the tenyear sequester for the next ten months with 120 billion in spending cuts and new tax revenue. Most of the revenue would come from implementing whats known as the buffett rule named after investor warren buffett. It would cap deductions and loan loanholes for millionaires so they pay at least 30 of their salary in taxes. The cuts would come from eliminating agricultural subsidies and from trimming the Defense Budget though not as drastically as the sequester would. This is not a game. This is reality. Reporter in his last press conference before retiring defense secretary leon panetta warned the looming sequester could cripple the military. Members of Congress Need to understand that they were elected to protect the public not to hurt the public. Reporter the sequester is shorthand for 1. 2 trillion worth of acrosstheboard cuts that are set to kick in because congress and the white house couldnt strike a debt dealing last year. Nearly half the cuts will come from the pentagon, which announced plans last week to reduce its presence in the persian gulf to close the expected budget shortfall. Were weeks away from the president s sequester. Reporter House Republicans have coined the somewhat clunky term obamaquester to describe the looming cuts in an attempt to pin the blame on the president. I call on the democrats to show us their plan to stop the sequester from going into effect. Reporter House Republicans passed their own plan last year but the president panned it. They made bigger cuts to things like education and job training medicare and Social Security benefits, that idea is even worse. Reporter millionaires just saw their taxes go up two months ago, when they lost their bush era tax cuts and House Speaker john boehner has been telling us all week the president got his revenue then. Hes not getting any more. Ra and j. B. These two sides have to start dealing if they want to avert the deadline which is just two weeks away and congress isnt even in session next week. Wow, nancy cordes thank you. Also cbs news political director john dickerson, im glad youre here this morning. Nancy has all this great reporting. Now the democrats have a plan. The plan includes the buffett rule which has already failed more taxes on millionaires. Is that going to go over like a lead balloon with the republicans . Yes right, a read balloon with an anvil tied to it. You can see the political play john boehner and the house said okay the senate has to do something, Senate Democrats have to do something. What Senate Democrats are saying is here weve got a rule that affects millionaires and the republicans just want to protect those millionaires instead of working on an agreement here. So now they try to pin the blame on republicans, just as john boehner in the house has been trying to pin the blame for the sequester on the president , and so now well see the reaction but the preliminary reaction this morning has been opposition from republicans and as you say, it went down last year this buffett rule. And so is your sense that this democratic plan wont lead anywhere . Are there real negotiations going on . Well well see now. We know what the republican response has been in the past and what the response is this morning. The response in the past is we dont need more tax increases on anybody. This is a philosophical argument they make, whether its on the wealthy or on the middle class, the white house of course says the middle class shouldnt take the hit here and you heard the president say that in his state of the union address. He brought this up in the state of the union in 2012 and it was defeated by a filibuster in the senate in 2012. The other argument is on the philosophical grounds from republicans is washington has a spending problem so that anything that focuses on revenue sort of ignores that and of course what we have to look at is even though the debate will be in the senate for a moment its about the House Republicans, and the white house is trying to put pressure on them saying theyre trying to protect the wealthy but the House Republicans have districts in which their voters say wait a minute, until washington recognizes it has a spending problem, dont you dare vote for anything that raises taxes on anybody. John dickerson, thank you. And Pope Benedict is suggesting we will never see him again after he resigns two weeks from today. The pope told a group of priests this morning he with will be in his words hidden to the world. He says he will have no authority once he steps down. The pope will move to a vatican monastery to live a life of prayer. Time to show you some of this mornings headlines. The New York Times says iran is upgrading its main nuclear facility. Top Iranian Nuclear scientist says new centrifuges were installed last month. Iran has started new round of talks with the International Atomic energy agency. The wall street journal says a broad trade deal is on the table, the deal could take two years to complete. Usa today says theres news on the Senate Showdown over chuck hagel, thagel, the senate is expected to vote on hagels nomination to be secretary of defense tomorrow. Republicans are threatening to stonewall the nomination and moderate republican Susan Collins of maine says she will oppose hagel, but not a filibuster. The Washington Post says the postmaster general tried to convince lawmakers to back a controversial plan to cut mail delivery down to five days a week. At a hearing yesterday, patrick donaho told senators the Postal Service needed their help last year. Keep in mind the post office lost nearly 16 billion. The Los Angeles Times says researchers believe they may have spotted the youngest black hole in the Milky Way Galaxy its not far, about 26,000 light years away. Astronomers plan to study it. Some say a black hole could provide a passage to another all right. And we are live at the flower mart in San Francisco where folks are, yeah, getting their valentines ready to ship out ready to go out there. Hope you have a wonderful valentines day today. The weather will be nice although we are seeing a lot of fog out there right now especially thick in the north bay valleys, visibilities down to a half mile. Throughout the day High Pressure should bringing plenty of sunshine temperatures up in the 60s and 70s. Over the next seven days, lots of sunshine, warm weather, maybe some rain next week. Announcer this National Weather report s announcer this National Weather report sponsored by kay jewelers. Every kiss begins with kay. This morning Los Angeles Police are defending the fiery end to the shootout with this morning, os lang less intentionally burn down that cabin to get mr. Dorner out. Our carter evans with new details on how things ended. And another dangerous man is on the loose outside dallas. The search for the man who made a dramatic escape and now has an entire state on alert. Plus we visit a town where people say its taking too long to dig out because officials took the day off. Thats ahead on cbs t