this morning on "early today," wave of unrest, protests in bahrain turn deadly after the government cracks down on demonstrators. engine trouble, president obama and tea party republicans score a victory in the house as plans for an expensive jet engine are scrapped. and holy will robinson is a real-live version of the lost in space robot headed into orbit real-live version of the lost in space robot headed into orbit soon? captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning. welcome to our viewers across the nation including the pacific time zone. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with beyond egypt.

this morning, bahrain is the newest and fiercest flashpoint of unrest in the middle east. inspired by egypt's revolt, police have squared off with protesters in a confrontation that's killed at least four people. with more cnbc's jackie deangelis joins us with more from bahrain. jackie, good morning. >> good morning. the roads right now are blocked. we have major police force in pearl square. that's where last night's altercations occurred. there were reports that protesters were going to do another march today, but it seems like it's nothing for right now. now some hospitals are overflowing with people who are injured in last night's attack. police came in swiftly into the square, they were aggressive and fired shots and tear gas in the square around 3:00 a.m. we know thousands of protesters were camped out there. they've been protesting for about three days.

reports of about four dead and hundreds are injured at this point. we also know that bahrain defense force sent military tanks into the square, as well. we know some demonstrators are gathering outside of hospitals, again, hoping that people can get treated and trying to gather together. it is a very tense scene here in bahrain right now. >> jackie deangel circumstance, thank you. meanwhile, a similar scene is unfolding in libya where some are calling today a day of rage. opponents of libyan leader muammar gadhafi are simulating plans on public websites. the call follows clashes involving anti-government demonstrators and police. yesterday there were rallies by supporters of gadhafi, having been in power over 40 years. also raising tensions in the middle east, israeli complaints that two iranian warships plan to cross the sauz kanell

overnight for the first time since the country's revolution. israel's prime minister called it a, quote, provocation and said he had alerted friendly forces in the region. the possibility of them encountering each other in the mediterranean was enough to send the price of crude oil to a 29 month high yesterday. an official reported the warships withdrew their application following israel's outcry. here at home, an unlikely coalition combine to strip hundreds of millions in government funds earmarked to build duplicate engines for f-35 jets which the pentagon has long said it doesn't need or want. the move is being called a victory for the president in high stakes budget battle. for more on this and other news on the hill we go to nbc's kristen dahlgren. good morning to you. >> good morning, lynn. some tea backed house republicans are on the same side

as the president on this one. the house rejected the program for the f-35. the pentagon called it an unaffordable luxury. speaker boehner and other gop leadrs were in favor of the funding but some of those freshmen republicans broke with leadership to kill that program. this one also causing a lot of talk here in washington. cia director leon panetta in front of the senate said if captured they would send osama bin laden to guantanamo bay keeping with the bush administration policy this white house has been critical of. after that hearing they tried to clarify it. a spokesperson saying policymakers would ultimately make that decision and that director panetta does support the president's commitment to closing gitmo. >> kristen dahlgren in washington, thank you. a look at some other stories making news early in america. in mississippi one student had a rough day at his new school when he was attacked by four students. the victim had been attending the school for just a few weeks

at the time of the beating. all four attackers have been arrested and charged with assault. in new york, sothebys has a few toys you can play with if you have a few million to spare. the auction house is selling the largest toy collection, but not piece by piece, the owner wants to sell the entire collection to a buyer who will keep it intact. it features 35,000 vintage toys and trains that date back to 1850. and finally, in michigan, the man who battled his neighbor's house fire with a snow blower, has been rewarded. for his fast-acting heroics, steve has already received national attention, but now he has something he can use in case another fire breaks out, a brand new snow blower. now for a look at your national and regional weather, here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. good morning. i feel like we need to have a disclaimer, you know, we do not support the use of snow blowers to put out fires because we don't know how that's actually done. >> that was the grand daddy of

them all. >> seriously. >> there is snow happening in the rockies and blizzard warnings have been issued for areas near colorado. the cool air is in the west, spring fever continues for the rest of the country. the storm system that brought the cooler air is finally beginning to lift out, at least a little bit. still got more rain in the forecast out there for central and southern california. right now, you see some of the snow up around montana and also the high elevations of idaho. just rain showers, if not as heavy of a rain as we saw yesterday but still out there. as far as the wet weather goes right now, you can see around san francisco some of those rain showers and also heading right up interstate 80 to sacramento. windshield wipers needed with the umbrella. a little cooler than it was yesterday. temperatures are in the 40s. 41 medford, 42 portland and only 44 in seattle. still cool and chilly with the on and off rarm air.

tucson has only a 68. lynn, there is dry weather coming up. i'll let you know when. >> thanks so much. also coming up, the s&p comeback. the housing resurgence, and borders bankruptcy. your early morning business headlines are straight ahead. when it comes to that game show battle between man and machine, the outcome wasn't so trivial. coming up -- chris bosh returns to toronto, a tough break for dale earnhardt jr. and the cavs pull off the unthinkable. you're watching "early today."

good morning and welcome back to "early today." i'm lynn berry. here's some of your top headlines this morning. the city government of baghdad not only wants the united states to apologize, but also pay $1

billion for damage done to the city by humvees and heavy concrete blast walls. since the u.s.-led invasion that toppled saddam hussein, city officials charge, quote, u.s. forces changed this beautiful city to a camp in an ugly and destructive way. more protests expected at wisconsin's state capitol against a bill targeting workers and their unions. the legislation would essentially strip collective bargaining rights to their employees and increase the costs of their pension and health benefits. the state's republican goner is pushing the measure to help combat a $137 million budget shortfall. in a new tell-all memoir, to be released next week massachusetts senator scott brown reveals as a young boy he was sexually assaulted by a camp counselor and physically abused by his stepfather. but he says, quote, like a fractured bone, i have knit back stronger in the broken places.

a european cargo rocket is headed towards the international space station after launching from french guiana. the unmanned vessel is carrying fuel, food, oxygen and clothing to the iss crew. and something else that may soon be joining a space station, a talking robot. japan's space agency is considering sending the android into space to keep astronauts company, monitor their health and communicate back to either earth vena -- via twitter. >> and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 12,288 after gaining 61 points. the s&p added 8 points and the nasdaq rose 21. taking a look at overseas trading this morning, in tokyo, the nikkei climbed 28 points while in hong kong the hang seng was up 24. -- 144. a slew of strong earnings pushed stocks back into the black on wednesday. impressive earnings from dell got the day off to an update start.

cable giant comcast beat the street with its earnings thanks to a healthy increase in customers. deer and company plowed past quarterly estimates thanks to growing sales of its large farm equipment. teen retailer abercrombie & fitch doubled its net income sending shares 7% higher. cbs said an uptick in advertising helped its fourth quarter report card. genzme got a boost after a long awaited deal to be bought out for $20 billion in cash. family dollar led the s&p on a generous buyout bid that priced its shares at a 36% people up. the s&p 500 rose wednesday to twice its value from two years ago, a bounce not seen since the great depression. rising construction of new homes fueled confidence in that struggling sector. an uptick in factory production fueled optimist in the fed's forecast for economic growth this year. investors get a read on

inflation today. borders filed for bankruptcy forcing it to close nearly a third of its book stores. google is taking a swipe at apple with its service for subscription based apps charging publishers only 10% of sales versus apple's 30% fee. keep an eye on invidia. finally an ohio man made valentine's day memble by plastering a proposal on the side of a bus and the $300 ad paid off. his girlfriend glanced outside the restaurant where he took her for lunch and said yes. well done. coming up, the huskies hustle, the heat reunite and junior kisses the wall. the most dramatic evidence yet that the los angeles lakers are floundering. your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. spring fever continues with near-record high temperatures and the storm continues to pound the west. your thursday forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today."

good morning. if you're just waking up this is "early today." in sports, how bad have things gotten for the nba champion lakers? last night they lost to a team best known for being the punch line of late night talk show jokes. here's fred roggin with an early look at all your sports headlines. good morning.

listen, do you hear that? can you hear it? that is the sound of hell freezing over. the 9-46 cleveland cavs worst team in the nba, a team that has lost 26 straight, a team the lakers beat by 55 last month, that same cavalier team beat the defending champs last night in cleveland. lakers made sessions look like an all-star, came off the bench to score a season high 32. jj hickson with the dagger late in the fourth, the dunk, follow, cavs pulled off the upset. lakers have dropped three straight. chris bosh returned to toronto for the first time since returning to the heat. he was booed every time he touched the ball. didn't bother him. he scored 25 against his former team. miami's big three combined for 76. heat cruise 103-95. to boston, celts and nets tied going into the fourth and then the celts went on a tear. outscored new jersey by 14 in the quarter. paul pierce led everybody with

31. boston heads into the all-star break with the west record in the east with a 94-80 win. knicks and hawks play the game turned in by wilson chandler. reverse alley-oop from felton. knicks down the hawks 102-90. nascar's dale earnhardt jr. says he feels like he is snake bitten. he might be right. three days after winning the pole for the daytona 500, junior crashed his qualifying car during a practice run yesterday. he'll a have to use his backup car for the 500 and forced to start in the back of the pack on sunday. finally number 12 uconn knocked off georgetown. kem ba walker, a one-man wrecking crew, case in point, passed it off to the backboard to himself and hits the jumper. who needs teammates? kem ba had 31. uconn wins, 78-70. that's your early look at sports on "early today." i'm fred roggin. early today sports is brought to you by just for men mustache and beard. keep your edge. an explanation behind the lohan/letterman debacle. your early morning entertainment

headlines are straight ahead. plus, chicago's tough neighborhood swallowed up a future potential of children there for decades until now. you're watching "early today."

welcome back on this thursday. the forecast, this probably looks a little worse than it's going to be. it is going to rain on and off today. san francisco to sacramento. more showers going to rain, be

in and out. it's not going to be an all day rain like some areas experienced yesterday. cold fronts kicking through arizona, temperature much cooler today. vegas 59, phoenix at 69. as we go through the day tomorrow you even got a chance of some rain down here around l.a. notice the northwest kind of cool, highs only in the low 40s. at least you'll be dry on your friday. another storm will come in towards the tail end of the weekend. if you're watching us on knbc, nbc 4 in los angeles, california, browse through photographs, letters and personal artifacts illustrating an ethnic history that's both ordinary and extraordinary at the japanese-american national museum and that's your pacific event of the day. >> thank you, bill. now here's a look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. the mystery of the lindsay lohan friend who made bogus arrangements for her to appear on david letterman last night has apparently been solved. lohan's father, michael, admits he was behind the plan telling tmz lindsay knew about the booking but backed off after her more official representatives heard about it.

as for letterman, clearly annoyed, he cracked up his audience last night with a sarcastic apology saying, quote, i hope i didn't embarrass you, lindsay, and your family. elsewhere, jessica alba announced she's pregnant with her husband, cash warren. halle berry won a big victory in her custody battle. with ex-boyfriend gabriel aubrey. a judge gave her the okay for her to travel to new york with her child where she will have a lesser role in the movie she was forced to drop out of in order to go to court. and watson, the mega brain, officially trounced his flesh and flood opponents in jeopardy with total winnings in two games of over $77,000. this just confirms my fear that one day you're going to come in, and i'm going to be replaced by a flat screen. >> not by watson. i give that double thumb's down the last three days on "jeopardy". >> so fascinating. it was an infomercial, hit the button faster than the other

players. >> that's what's so cool. how it knows so quickly. >> you can't answer until alex finishes talking and that's the key to who pushes the button faster. >> we'll finish this after the show. from wmaq, nbc chicago, in illinois, where a group of students from a rough city street became a different kind of statistic. one their community can be proud of. for the second year in a row, 100% of urban prep academy's graduating class has been acc t accepted to college. some at the most selective schools at the country. the charter school which has defied the odds and its skeptics, plans to tell the same story of success once again next year and we hope to share it right here as well. i'm lynn berry, this is "early today," your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station.

a quirkry trick in celebration of the chinese new year is causing quite a stir. in one show, a magician directs six gold fish to swim in perfect unison. animal activist say they're concerned about the use of magnet or electric current and it's cruel to use the fish for entertainment. while the magician won't reveal his secret, he says the fish are living happily. in less controversial news people in taiwan are diving into the new year. they took a dip in a cold harbor hoping to wash away bad luck and bring good fortune. participants jumped in and swim nearly 1,000 feet before emerging from the water. this year, many are hoping better luck comes in the form of a better salary.

here is new meaning to candy being an indulgence. one chocolate shop in dubai is selling a luxury chocolate truffle for almost $300. the truffle infused with a rare single estate chocolate ganache and a rare black truffle is said to be the most expensive in the world. since the store opened in mid-december, the owners have already sold 17 pieces. it's that black truffle. it's that whole -- >> you know, just give me my hershey bar with the almonds in it and let's call it a day. >> a simple man with simple requests. time now for an early look at some of the stories we'll follow throughout the day here on nbc. president obama will sign into law a bill naming a new federal courthouse in yuma, arizona, after federal judge john roll. roll was one of the six people killed in the shooting in tucson last month. the navy will hold a ceremony for comedian bill cosby. recognizing him as an honorary chief petty officer. cosby served in the u.s. navy from 1956 to 1961.

and today is the unofficial holiday known as random acts of kindness day. people are being encouraged to make generous gestures like giving directions to someone who is lost or just smiling at someone. all day long, you can stay on top of the very latest developments in those stories and others as they break on msnbc. and tonight be sure to watch brian williams with nbc "nightly news." and, finally, here's a look at what's coming up later this morning on the "today" show. hear what troubled actor charlie sheen had to say during a call to a radio show. and meet a texas teen with a rare immune system disorder and the robot that allows him to attend school. now keep it on this channel for continuing local news, weather, sports and more. i'm lynn berry. thanks for watching "early today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station. have a good one. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com