LONDON – British Airways PLC cabin crew announced plans Friday to strike for seven days this month, potentially disrupting thousands of travelers ahead of the Easter holidays.

The walkouts — scheduled for three days from March 20 and another four days from March 27 — are the latest move in a long running and increasingly acrimonious dispute between BA and the union representing its 13,000 cabin crew over a pay freeze and changes to working conditions.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is facing a tough reelection campaign soon, called on both sides to return to the negotiating table, warning that the strikes would "bad news" for the still ailing British economy.

But there was little immediate sign of that, with leaders of the Unite union accusing BA of intimidation as the airline pulled an offer it made before the latest round of talks broke down.

Unite had planned to put that offer to cabin crew for a vote before the planned strike action, pledging to call off the walkouts if it was approved. However, the union had added that the offer fell short of its demands, without divulging details, and that it would not recommend it to its members.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said he would be "available for talks 24 hours a day," but stressed that he planned to focus on looking after the airline's customers whose travel plans are again in limbo after a planned Christmas and New Year strike was narrowly averted.

BA has been training around 1,000 workers who volunteered from other departments at the airline to stand in for cabin crew in the event of a walkout. It said Friday that it was also working to obtain seats on flights operated by rival airlines to pass on to its own customers.

It plans to operate all flights from London City airport, including long-haul services to New York. From Gatwick, it plans to operate all long-haul services and about 50 percent of short-haul. From Heathrow, it plans to operate a "substantial part" of both long-haul and short-haul schedules.

Unite stuck by a pledge not to hold a strike over the busy Easter period, after the planned Christmas walkout resulted in a public backlash against workers. But Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey said further action would take place after April 14 if the dispute is not resolved. BA won a court order stopping the planned Christmas strike on a technicality over irregularities in the union's balloting of workers on the walkout.

Bob Atkinson of travel Web site travelsupermarket.com warned that customers were increasingly angry with both sides in the dispute over a number of cost-cutting measures imposed by the airline to cope with the global economic downturn.

"This strike is getting no sympathy from customers and is eroding loyalty for the BA brand and driving passengers to rivals at a time when the airline is facing record annual losses," said Atkinson. "It's sure to affect the long term stability of all BA jobs should it become a protracted dispute and is distracting from the real challenge of returning the airline to normal service and a profitable operation that customers can choose with confidence."

BA has been particularly hard hit because of its heavy running costs and reliance on first- and business-class fares that have seen less demand during the recession. It argues the changes — including a pay freeze in 2010, a switch to part-time work for 3,000 staff and a reduction in cabin crew sizes from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from Heathrow airport — are critical.

The airline said Friday it is facing two years of record financial losses after posting an operating loss of 86 million pounds ($130 million) for the first nine months of the current financial year, compared to a profit of 89 million pounds a year earlier.

"The changes we have introduced are fair and reasonable," said Walsh. This is about securing the future of this great business. We are not going to let Unite destroy this company."

Unite has also attacked the airline's decision to train pilots, baggage handlers and engineers in cabin crew duties, saying that will put BA's passengers' at risk in emergency situations. The union said that a 21-day fast track training program is no substitute for the minimum three-month course given to permanent cabin crew.

"From my personal point of view I wouldn't wnat to be flying on any plane not manned by experienced, trained cabin crew," said McCluskey. "This isn't just about pushing a trolley up and down the aisle. Our members are trained to deal with all sorts of incidents."

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Dock Street Theatre in Charleston's historic district, on the site of America's first theater, is reopening after a three-year, $18 million renovation.

The theater is known to audiences regionally and around the world for the productions staged there by the Spoleto Festival USA.

"This theater for 70 plus years served our city and really the country," said Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., as he conducted a tour of the renovated building.

"It became a showpiece for Spoleto Festival USA and it became in our city, with so many historic buildings, a very special part of the city's history and its cultural and architectural character," he said.

The original Dock Street Theatre, on what was then known as Dock Street, was built in 1736 and was the nation's first. It burned down and several replacement structures, including a hotel, occupied the site over the centuries.

The existing building was renovated for use as a theater in the 1930s by the economic stimulus agency of that day, the Works Progress Administration.

But after seven decades the Dock Street needed everything from new wiring and plumbing to replacements for termite-damaged timbers, Riley said.

The building also had seismic upgrades for earthquake protection that weren't included in the 1930s. Charleston was rocked by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake in 1886 that killed more than 100 people. Riley said part of the theater renovations were covered by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"It was a very complicated engineering challenge which required boring under the ground and basically strengthening and retrofitting and supporting the foundations," the mayor said.

The exterior walls and stairwells were also reinforced. Other improvements include soundproofing, new dressing rooms and elevators and, a change audiences will like, cushions on the wooden theater seats.

"Every component of the building was restored," the mayor said. "But we knew that among our challenges was to make sure when you came back in the building it would be the same building you remembered."

The theater reopens to the public next week.

On April 1, the Spoleto Festival USA holds a gala to celebrate the opening of the theater that each year is the venue for its popular chamber music concerts among other productions.

Also to celebrate, the festival this season is staging "Flora," the first opera performed in the American colonies, at the Dock Street.

This year's Spoleto Festival USA opens May 28 and runs through June 13.

SAO PAULO – Nearly 50 passengers aboard an international cruise ship docked in Brazil have been stricken with vomiting and diarrhea, a health official said Friday. It was the same ship that last week was briefly placed under quarantine after hundreds of people came down with gastroenteritis.

"At least 47 passengers on the Vision of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean International, were stricken by what we believe are noroviruses that cause gastroenteritis," a spokesman for the National Agency for Sanitary Vigilance said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy.

The ship, docked in the port of Santos, was not placed under quarantine and the nearly 2,000 passengers aboard were allowed to leave since "no one was seriously ill and there was no danger of the disease spreading."

It was the Vision of the Seas' first cruise since last week when 310 people came down with gastroenteritis caused by noroviruses, the spokesman said.

The ship will be cleansed again "but now that we are pretty sure that noroviruses are again to blame, we know what kind of cleaning agents to use," the spokesman said.

Noroviruses cause gastroenteritis — a common inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Norovirus typically is not life threatening and does not generally cause long-term effects. In rare cases, the elderly and young children can die from dehydration caused by norovirus symptoms.

The first case was detected Wednesday when the ship was heading to Santos, its last stop on a weeklong cruise.

Royal Caribbean spokesman Alexandre Raith said most passengers were Brazilian.

A statement by Royal Caribbean confirmed the number of stricken passengers but provided no detailed explanation on how gastroenteritis struck the same ship twice in a week.

In January last year at a port in Salvador in northeastern Brazil, hundreds of passengers on a Swiss-owned cruise ship were also stricken with severe vomiting and diarrhea caused by food poisoning.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – For more than 55 years, Savannah counted Ellis Square among its lost historic treasures.

Of the city's 22 public squares, Ellis Square was one of the first plotted in 1733. Since 1872, it was home to the City Market where farmers sold crops directly to shoppers.

Then came the wrecking ball. Ellis Square and the market were demolished in 1954 to make way for a new four-story parking garage. The loss was a flashpoint that galvanized citizens to organize Savannah's historic preservation movement.

Now, more than a half-century later, Ellis Square has been resurrected. The city spent nearly $32 million and more than four years bringing back the 1.5-acre square after razing the parking deck in 2005 and building an underground garage in its place.

"This is a proud day in the history of Savannah," Mayor Otis Johnson said after a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony held Thursday despite pouring rain. "It's been a long time coming."

Shaded by gnarled live oaks and marble monuments, the manicured squares of Savannah's downtown historic district are one the signature features of Georgia's oldest city.

Ellis Square, the city's second largest, was among the first four squares plotted by James Edward Oglethorpe, who founded Georgia as the 13th American colony in 1733. It was named for Sir Henry Ellis, Georgia's second royal governor.

Savannah's squares eventually totaled 24, but the arrival of the automobile in the 20th century wiped three of them off the map. Ellis Square was sacrificed for additional parking. Liberty and Elbert Squares were bisected by a major street to allow traffic to pass unimpeded — and remain that way today.

"In the 1950s and '60s, I think we were fixed on a concept of newer is better," said Daniel Carey, president of the Historic Savannah Foundation. "The destruction of City Market (at Ellis Square) was the flashpoint of the crisis."

The Historic Savannah Foundation was established a year after Ellis Square's demise and has worked ever since to save the city's historic homes and buildings. Today, Savannah's 2.5-square-mile downtown area forms the largest National Historic Landmark District in the U.S.

The new Ellis Square is anything but a recreation of its past incarnation. It has a glass-walled visitor center and restrooms with grass growing on the roof to capture rainwater. There's a giant chessboard with knee-high pieces. Near the center is a $440,000 fountain that shoots streams of water 10 feet in the air — perfect for cooling off in the summer.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Savannah square without live oaks. So the city uprooted five of the 30-foot trees from alongside a parkway and had them transplanted to Ellis Square last year.

"It'll be nice to have people come mill around," said Jan Clayton Pagratis, owner of the Chroma Gallery on the south side of Ellis Square. "For once, we have a view all the way to the river. We hope it's going to make a huge difference."

TOKYO – Tokyo's third international airport opened Thursday with festivity — and heavy criticism that it is a wasteful project likely to serve just a fraction of the passengers forecast.

Hundreds of passengers and visitors wandered through Ibaraki Airport's concourses and halls as special commemorative flights were scheduled on opening day. About 170 first arrivals on a special flight from Kobe in western Japan were greeted by marching bands, officials and airport mascots.

But its regular schedule has only one international flight a day and no domestic flights until next month.

It was conceived to relieve worsening congestion at Narita, Tokyo's main international airport, and Haneda, which handles more domestic traffic. But Ibaraki's initial annual passenger estimate of 800,000 is now expected to be a quarter of that size.

That is negligible compared to Tokyo's two main airports, which serve 100 million passengers together. Ibaraki also is more than two hours by train or bus from central Tokyo — even farther than Narita, which many already complain is a hike.

Small wonder that Ibaraki is expected to lose as much as 20 million yen ($220,000) in its first year.

Japan's new government has harshly criticized the airport as unnecessary and epitomizing the often-wasteful public works projects promoted by previous pro-business administrations.

But the 22 billion yen ($240 million) project wasn't halted because it was too far along when Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government came to power last September.

Ibaraki Airport, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, becomes Japan's 98th airport.

Transport Minister Seiji Maehara has said Japan has too many unprofitable airports, and past pressure to use them has burdened domestic airlines — including Japan Airlines Co., the nation's largest, which is under government restructuring following a bankruptcy filing in January.

"We are not going to build any more airports, and we will not force airlines to use them," Maehara said last week. "And I do not plan to force Japanese airlines to fly to Ibaraki."

The airport, funded by money from the central and local governments, has only one regular international flight to Seoul, operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines. No regular domestic flights are expected until mid-April, when budget carrier Skymark Airlines plans to start flying to Kobe.

The airport, designed to accommodate budget airlines, boasts low-cost features such as use of boarding ramps on the tarmac rather than bridges from the gate.

Ibaraki Gov. Masaru Hashimoto, speaking at Thursday's airport opening ceremony, acknowledged that the airport had a bleak start, but said he still hoped it would contribute to regional development.

Surrounded by several golf courses, the airport may need to lure golf tours from South Korea to survive, Japan's Fuji TV reported.

(This version CORRECTS estimated loss to 20 million yen instead of 200 million yen.)

WASHINGTON – The Senate is pushing to strengthen pilot training and hiring requirements in an effort to improve the safety of regional airlines, a problem exposed by an air crash last year that killed 50 people.

Debate began this week on a two-year, $34 billion bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration while imposing a host of safety and consumer measures.

Along the way, however, the bill ran into headwinds as senators sought to attach unrelated amendments on issues ranging from education to debt reduction. The bill is seen as a vehicle to pass measures unable to clear the Senate on their own.

The bill would require airlines to look at all of a pilot's records, including previous tests of flying skills, before the pilot is hired. Another provision would require the FAA to beef up airlines' pilot training programs.

The FAA administrator would also be required to perform surprise inspections of regional airlines at least once a year.

Over the past decade, major airlines have increasingly outsourced their short-haul flights to low-cost regional airlines, who often operate under a name similar to the major carrier. Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo, N.Y., on Feb. 12, 2009, was operated by regional carrier Colgan Air Inc. for Continental Airlines.

Regional airlines now account for over half of domestic departures and a quarter of all passengers. They are the only scheduled service to more than 400 communities. Major U.S. air carriers, suffering from the economic downturn, lost over $8 billion in 2009, but regional airlines recorded $200 million in profits, according to FAA.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board pinned the cause of the crash of Flight 3407 on a mistake by the flight's captain, who responded incorrectly to the activation of a key piece of safety equipment, causing the plane to stall. But the board's investigation also found that pilots weren't being sufficiently trained on how to recover from a full stall. The captain had also failed numerous tests of his piloting skills before and after being hired by Colgan, but was allowed to retake the tests, which he ultimately passed. Colgan officials said they were unaware of most of the previous failures at the time the captain was hired. The accident revealed a gap in the safety record of regional airlines and major carriers.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will offer an amendment to require airline co-pilots have a minimum of 1,500 hours of flight experience. Captains are already require to have that much experience, but co-pilots can have as few as 250 hours. The proposal is a priority for the family members of the victims of Flight 3407, who have made dozens of trips to Washington to lobby Congress. It's opposed by the airline industry and flight schools, who fear it will cause students to bypass schools in an effort to earn flight hours as fast as they can.

Most major airlines already require more than 1,500 hours for both pilots, but regional carriers often hire less experienced pilots and pay them lower wages.

The bill doesn't tackle all the safety issues raised by the Buffalo crash. Potentially fatigue-inducing long distance commutes, for example, are not addressed.

"A lot of questions have been raised. We don't have a solution for all of them," said Sen. Bryon Dorgan, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate's aviation panel.

Among other safety issues, the bill would ban pilots from using laptops and other personal electronic devices in the cockpit, a response to an October incident in which a Northwest Airlines plane carrying 144 passengers flew more than 100 miles past its destination of Minneapolis while the flight's two pilots were working on their laptops.

The bill also would double the frequency of FAA inspections of all foreign aircraft repair and maintenance stations that work on U.S. planes, requiring them twice a year instead of annually.

Airlines used to perform nearly all the major maintenance and repair work using their own workers. Over the last two decades, they have increasingly outsourced the work to domestic and foreign repair stations that use cheaper, nonunion labor.

___

On the Net:

Federal Aviation Administration http://www.faa.gov

PERTH, Australia – A Western Australian taxi driver named the state's favorite cabbie in an online contest has won the right to take 22 passengers on a 4,000-mile (6,500-kilometer) ride.

Oh, and 25,000 Australian dollars ($23,000) for his trouble.

Doug Slater won the most votes in an online poll run by Tourism Western Australia and will now rack up the miles ferrying passengers to the top 11 tourist sites in Australia's largest state.

An international competition is now under way to choose the passengers for what the tourism department is calling "The Extraordinary Taxi Ride," part of an AU$5.6 million ($5.1 million) state tourism campaign. The competition is open to residents of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia and Germany.

The journey begins April 9, and each leg of travel takes between four to nine days.

"There's ... lots to see and show," Slater said after his win was announced Friday. "This is about getting the message out, doing something different."

Western Australia's campaign follows a widely publicized tourism promotion last year by Queensland state, which held a worldwide competition to hire someone for the "Best Job in the World" — caretaker of a tropical island for six months. The winner of that contest, Briton Ben Southall, completed his blogging and sightseeing job on Dec. 31.

Slater was handed the keys to a new taxi by Tourism Minister Liz Constable in a beachside ceremony. The driver, from Bunbury — 100 miles (175 kilometers) south of Perth — said his previous longest taxi fare was about 110 miles (180 kilometers).

Western Australia boasts the whitest beach in Australia, diverse reefs, famous wineries, a large chunk of the Outback and a cone-like range of sandstone peaks known as the Bungle Bungles in a World Heritage-listed national park in the state's northeast. The 2008 film "Australia" starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman was filmed in remote parts of the state.

TOKYO – Tokyo's third international airport opened Thursday with festivity — and heavy criticism that it's a wasteful project expected to serve just a fraction of the passengers forecast.

Hundreds of passengers and visitors wandered Ibaraki Airport's concourses and halls as special commemorative flights were scheduled on opening day. About 170 first arrivals on a special flight from western Kobe were greeted by marching bands, officials and airport mascots.

But its regular schedule has only one international flight a day and no domestic flights until next month.

It was conceived to relieve worsening congestion at Narita, Tokyo's main international airport, and Haneda, which handles more domestic traffic. But Ibaraki's initial annual passenger estimate of 800,000 is now expected to be a quarter of that size.

That is negligible compared to Tokyo's two main airports, which serve 100 million passengers together. Ibaraki also is more than two hours by train or bus from central Tokyo — even farther than Narita, which many already complain is a hike.

Small wonder that Ibaraki's expected to lose as much as 200 million yen ($220,000) in its first year.

Japan's new government has harshly criticized the airport as unnecessary, epitomizing the often wasteful public works projects promoted by the previous pro-business administrations.

But the 22 billion-yen ($240 million) project wasn't shut down because it was too far along when Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government came to power last September.

Ibaraki Airport, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, becomes Japan's 98th airport.

Transport Minister Seiji Maehara has said Japan has too many unprofitable airports, and past pressure to use them has burdened domestic airlines — including Japan Airlines Co., the nation's largest, which is under government restructuring following a bankruptcy filing in January.

"We are not going to build any more airports, and we will not force airlines to use them," Maehara said last week, before the airport's opening. "And I do not plan to force Japanese airlines to fly to Ibaraki."

The airport, funded by money from the central and local governments, has only one international regular flight to Seoul, operated by South Korea's Asiana Airlines. No domestic regular flights are expected until mid-April, when budget carrier Skymark Airlines plans to start flying to Kobe, in western Japan.

The airport, which is designed to accommodate budget airlines, boasts low cost features such as use of boarding ramps on the tarmac rather than bridges from the gate.

Ibaraki Gov. Masaru Hashimoto, speaking at Thursday's airport opening ceremony, acknowledged that the airport had a bleak start, but said he still hoped it would contribute to regional development.

Surrounded by several golf courses, the airport may need to lure golf tours from South Korea to survive, Japan's Fuji TV reported.

GENEVA – Global airlines are undergoing a surprisingly strong recovery with Asian and Latin American carriers leading the way, the leading industry group said Thursday as it halved its loss forecast for 2010 to $2.8 billion.

The International Air Transport Association said carriers began bouncing back late last year, and have continued to see stronger demand after posting record losses during the global economic crisis. The group also lowered its 2009 loss estimate to $9.4 billion from $11 billion because of the year-end rally.

"We are starting to see some blue skies ahead of us," said IATA chief executive Giovanni Bisignani.

The group, which represents 240 airline companies worldwide, had predicted in December that 2010 losses would total $5.6 billion because of the "extraordinarily low" yields airlines are generating — the average price someone pays to fly one mile.

Yields are now expected to improve 2 percent for passenger planes, and 3.1 percent for cargo traffic this year, despite a glut of planes on the market and lower corporate travel budgets. Both key statistics dived 14 percent in 2009.

Passenger demand should grow 5.6 percent for the year, while cargo demand could jump 12 percent, IATA added. It said strong growth in Asia and Latin America was offsetting lagging demand in Europe and the United States.

"We are seeing a definite two-speed industry," Bisignani told reporters. He noted that American and European travelers may take a longer time to return to higher-priced business class seats for short-haul flights, and said markets in their regions continued to contract.

European carriers are expected to post a $2.2 billion loss, the largest in the world, while North American airlines could lose $1.8 billion because of a jobless recovery and poor consumer confidence, the group said. By contrast, Asian-Pacific companies could make $2.7 billion and Latin American carriers another $800 million.

Bisignani said 2010 represents the halfway point in a recovery effort that could take three years — even if that still doesn't mean profits. Airlines should generate $44 billion in revenues more than last year, but that is still be $43 billion below the industry's 2008 peak, he said.

IATA warned, however, that higher fuel costs would hamper any industrywide rebound. It is now gauging an average oil price of $79 a barrel for the year, meaning $132 billion in costs for carriers. That's over a quarter of all operating costs.

"Oil is a wild card," Bisignani conceded.

Speaking on industry developments, he noted over 30 airlines were knocked out of business since the crisis began and that carriers have lost nearly $50 billion in the last decade. They now hold over $200 billion in debts.

"This is not the time for increases in salaries or prices for services," Bisignani said, without mentioning specifically Lufthansa's strike last month or similar action threatened at British Airways.

"It's certainly not the time for strikes," he said. "All the partners need to work together to get out of these red numbers."

WASHINGTON – Tourists and history buffs will be able to see some rare, personal belongings of abolitionist Harriet Tubman when a museum of African-American history opens on the National Mall.

On Wednesday, historian Charles L. Blockson donated about 40 objects from Tubman's life to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The museum is slated to open near the Washington Monument in 2015.

Once owned by the woman who led hundreds of slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, the items range from a knife and spoon from her kitchen to a shawl given to her by Queen Victoria, as well as Tubman's favorite hymnal.

They are the only relics from Tubman known to exist outside of her home in Auburn, N.Y., said museum director Lonnie Bunch.

"For me to be able to tell the story of the Underground Railroad through Harriet Tubman with actual artifacts is really a surprise I didn't expect," Bunch said. Seeing the artifacts for the first time, he said, was "really one of the most moving moments in my career."

Tubman was born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore. After escaping in 1849, Tubman led countless slaves out of the South to freedom. The donation coincides with the anniversary of her death, March 10, 1913.

She will one day have a prominent place in the museum's planned "Slavery and Freedom" gallery, curators said.

In a donation ceremony on Capitol Hill, Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson said Tubman was a hero for her work in the Underground Railroad and as a spy for the Union Army.

"That was before women's rights as well, but she had the courage to do it," Johnson said.

The hymnal published in 1876 is perhaps the most special item for Bunch.

"Remember, when she used to go into the South to help people run away, she would sing certain songs, and that would be your clue that OK, it's time to go," he said.

Tubman's signature penciled in cursive inside the book's front cover adds even more meaning, he said.

"We tend to forget how few people could read," Bunch said. "It must have been an amazing moment that almost encapsulated freedom when she could sign her name."

The items were passed down through Tubman's family to a grand niece named Mariline Wilkins. Wilkins left them to Blockson, who also has family ties to Tubman.

Blockson, 76, is a prominent collector of black history. The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection at Temple University in Philadelphia started with a donation of 20,000 items in 1984 and has grown to more than 200,000 items including slave narratives, art and rare texts.

Of all the items Blockson has collected, though, the Tubman items are the most precious, he said.

"It touches the inner chambers of my soul," he said.

Blockson said he prayed and kept the items under his bed for months before deciding to send them to the Smithsonian.

"On the mall here, people will be coming from all over the world. It belongs here," he said. "This donation will lead others to donate; this is what I'm hoping."

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On the Net:

National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nmaahc.si.edu/