on our broadcast tonight, turning the tide. in libya, if the rebels are going to win, it's going to be a tough long haul, and gadhafi is going right at them now. anonymous no more. an inside look at the world of secretive computer hackers that have some big organizations scared. tough choices, getting a cancer diagnosis while pregnant. complicated issues. and an inspiring success story. and "education nation," a new movie with a powerful message for parents. your kids are overworked. also tonight, a big development involving one of america's best known brand names. "nightly news" begins now.

captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. it hasn't been stopped cold, but it has been slowed way down. this rebel uprising in libya that made such progress early on and seemed to be coming after moammar gadhafi is now under attack, and has slowed down. and while a lot of libya remains under rebel control. tripoli is holding as gadhafi territory. the military is attacking using real weapons against people, while the whole region may be changing, change may take a long time. and libya's long time leader has no plans to give up easily. we begin tonight again with nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in tripoli. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. gadhafi is using both brute force, killing his own people and trying to control journalists, all in an effort to stop this rebellion.

air power and gadhafi's trained army are driving back, motivated but undisciplined rebels as they struggle to advance. in ras lanouf, an oil town on the mediterranean, rebels fired anti-aircraft guns in the air. the rebels sound defiant. >> down, down. >> reporter: but the reality is, they're losing momentum, crushed by gadhafi's air strikes. in nearby bin jawad, the rebels, most of them inexperienced new recruits are exposed as they cross the desert. so far, gadhafi's forces have attacked in the open, avoiding population centers like benghazi. on the eastern battlefield, gadhafi's troops warn that could come next. >> today we kill you in ras lanouf, tomorrow we will kill you everywhere in libya. >> reporter: in tripoli, gadhafi's propaganda machine is in full force.

state television showing pro-gadhafi rallies and footage of captures nonstop. foreign journalists are confined to two luxury hotels, our movements monitored and restricted. today we were told to wait for a visit by moammar gadhafi. the ground rules were strict, very, for our safety we were told. >> don't do that, don't tell me. please. come on. >> reporter: it's been over four hours and we're waiting in the lobby of this hotel. this is all we've been allowed to do today, just sit and wait for a visit that may never happen. seven hours late, gadhafi did finally arrive. with almost no security. there was pandemonium. gadhafi was here to do interviews with turkish and french television. he said, brian, he'll do more interviews in an effort to "clarify the situation in

libya." but what he said today was the same old argument we heard before, that al qaeda is behind the revolt. he's not taking any responsibility. brian? >> richard engel in tripoli tonight, richard thanks. and in egypt, where the people's uprising brought down the government, there was a stark reminder of what hasn't changed. women are still far behind men when it comes to equality. not just there, but in much of the world, and it came into sharp focus, once again on this 100th anniversary of international women's day. nbc's anne thompson went to cairo's tahrir square today and reports on what happened there and beyond. >> reporter: in egypt's tahrir square, today it's clear gender equality has a long way to go. a million woman march attracted only hundreds. the loudest voices, those of young men, telling the women to go home and stay home. on international women's day, this man tries to convince these

women their role is to clean and mop. one activist said it's time egypt's majority population, women, get equal rights. >> no discrimination on any basis. not on gender issues, not on religious issues. >> reporter: the women at this rally, want a role in reshaping egypt. basically, they want a place at the table. a place that despite the revolution has yet to be offered. there are no women on the committee to revise the constitution, and only one woman in the new cabinet. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton today said women must have a significant voice. >> the women in egypt and tunisia and other nations have just as much right as the men to remake their government. >> reporter: the demand for equality heard around the world today as women continued to demonstrate against oppressive regimes. in bahrain and the ivory coast, where soldiers opened fire and killed at least seven women

protesters last week. they want what egypt has, a new government. and women here want respect. >> what's wrong with egyptian men. it's not acceptable because i'm wearing a dress, mini-skirt or tight jeans, you give yourselves the right to touch or slap or say bad words to women. >> reporter: a housekeeper raising three children with no support from her ex-husband says women are no longer afraid. after the revolution, everybody is bolder. as egypt's women insist the nation's new freedom be theirs as well. anne thompson, nbc news, cairo. back in this country tonight, nbc news has been given an exclusive look inside the secretive organization known as anonymous. a loose-knit group of computer hackers who came to the defense of wikileaks and got the attention of law enforcement in the process. they are young and stealthy and they are potential giant

killers, who are promising a new wave of cyber attacks. our national investigative correspondent michael isikoff with us from our d.c. newsroom tonight with more on this. michael, good evening. >> reporter: the group has spooked major u.s. corporations. the pentagon is now singling them out as an example of the serious new cyber threats facing the country. barrett brown is an underground commander in a new kind of warfare. >> it's a guerilla cyber war, if you want to use the term cyber war. >> reporter: 29 years old, a cocky college dropout, brown calls himself a senior strategist for anonymous. a loose connection of tech savvy hackers, credited with bringing down the websites of mastercard and visa last december. retaliation, they say, for cutting off service to wikileaks. >> we sent a message, we don't appreciate you working with the feds. >> reporter: the feds, the fbi is now investigating anonymous for those attacks. raiding homes and issuing dozens

of subpoenas. >> it's amusing, though. >> reporter: a self-described anarchist, brown proclaims he's policing wrongdoing, at least as anonymous defines it. and promoting the free flow of information. >> you may not know that wikileaks is protected by a global hacker nerd brigade known as anonymous. >> reporter: joked about by some, but very serious. they call themselves hacktivists. communicate via secure internet chatrooms, and in public protests, they hide their identities behind masks. >> when we break laws, we do so in service of civil disobedience. we do so ethically, we do it against targets that have asked for it. >> reporter: targets like h.b. gary, a major cyber security firm some agencies rely on to keep their computers safe. last month h.b. gary boasted it would expose anonymous. the response was swift. anonymous took down their website. the ceo resigned. how did they do it?

it was tech savvy, to be sure. but also an old fashioned con. brown says a 16-year-old girl posed as h.b. gary's founder in e-mails and tricked the computer security manager to reset his password. anonymous is credited with bringing down government websites in tunisia, egypt and libya. and now it's made new threats against companies and government officials complicit in what it views as the mistreatment of bradley manning, the army private accused of leaking to wikileaks. >> anonymous is powerful enough that it certainly struck fear into the hearts of the biggest technology companies in the whole world. >> we got stuck in this -- >> reporter: anonymous even claims to have a version of the notorious stuxnet computer virus, that was reportedly used to bring down the iranian nuclear program for several months. >> that's a pretty dangerous piece of information. it's dangerous software. it shouldn't have been floating around like that. it shouldn't have been available to get ripped off by a

16-year-old girl and her friend. it shouldn't be in the hands of anonymous, but it is. c'est la vie. >> reporter: brown told us he's not personally involved in any computer hacking, but he fully expects federal prosecutors will come after him. we spoke to h.b. gary's founder who called the members of annonymous vicious individuals and criminals breaking into computer systems and stealing information. brian? >> michael isikoff, with our exclusive reporting tonight from d.c. michael, thank you. from southern california tonight, a story about voters, perhaps getting their revenge. it's about the town of bell, california, which received national attention when the people there, and then the rest of us, discovered how much local officials were paying themselves during hard times for everybody else. the payback is expected when all the votes are counted. our report tonight from nbc's george lewis in california. >> reporter: many voters in this low income, mostly latino, los angeles suburb, viewed today's

election as a chance to clean house. >> we just want to move forward after all this corruption, and hopefully change will come. >> we hope to see a better bell. >> reporter: four out of five city councilmembers face recall, although most have already resigned, with this election expected to sweep all the incumbents out of office. in a place where voter apathy was the norm in years past, the citizens are energized now. according to some analysts, there's a lesson here. >> political participation is a way, particularly when you're as frustrated as the bell community has been to change things. to throw the bums out. >> how are you going to defend yourself? >> reporter: the city manager, robert rizzo and seven other officials face charges of misappropriating public funds. prosecutors allege that rizzo received $1.37 million compensation in 2009 even as he was hiking taxes and parking ticket fines to balance the city

budget. >> i understand the outrage. but the question is, did it violate a law? >> reporter: the district attorney contends the law was broken. >> being paid excessive salaries is not a crime. illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime. >> reporter: one question the new bell city council will face, whether to disban the local police department and turn enforcement over to the county sheriff to save money. that's led to a nasty political fight with the police union backing one slate of candidates, and a well-healed tea party contributor backing another. even as they work on reforming bell, the voters are discovering that politics as usual with big money behind the scenes remains a factor here. brian? >> george lewis in bell, california, for us tonight. george, thanks. and a grim scene in southern california tonight. the pictures from redondo beach show a massive fish kill. millions of dead fish, anchovies and sardines mostly at a local

marina. now they're trying to figure out why it happened. one official says the fish may have moved into the harbor to escape a red tide, before getting trapped there by high winds. the crowding of fish perhaps depleted the water of oxygen, causing suffocation. when we come back here tonight, the rising number of pregnant women battling cancer, and the challenges of healing when two lives are at stake. and later, a new movie that strongly makes the case that our kids lives are too frantic. part of our coverage of "education nation."

as we mentioned, there's an important medical story to report tonight. it's about the increasing number of women who are receiving a cancer diagnosis while pregnant. this story was first reported on our website, msnbc.com. it's covered here for us tonight by nbc news chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman. >> reporter: for lisa and ryan

bender, these should be the happiest moments of their lives. >> oh, wow! >> reporter: a call from her doctor, when she was just in her 11th week changed everything. a diagnosis of stage ii breast cancer. >> i was yelling in the car, no, no, no, no, no. this can't be happening. >> reporter: lisa bender is one of a growing number women who are pregnant and fighting cancer. according to the national cancer institute, one in every thousand women in the united states is diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy. some 3,500 every year. why? some experts believe women having babies later in life may be a reason. in fact, a 2009 swedish study found the number of breast cancer cases associated with pregnancy has more than doubled in the past four decades. in the past, doctors have recommended terminating the pregnancy or delaying treatment. but that has changed. many cancer drugs are now safe for women to take during pregnancy. >> we understand that certain chemotherapies are safe as well.

women can carry the pregnancy through, it's a very good option for them. >> reporter: lisa chose to have a lumpectomy and followed with chemo in her second trimester. >> i don't have control over how long i live. i do have control over how i live now. and having children is such an important part of that, for me -- for my husband and i. >> reporter: she says it's also important to keep balance in her life. but her treatment is far from over. >> once the baby's here, then she'll be able to really hit cancer with everything we can. all the drugs and radiation and everything. >> reporter: lisa and ryan are due to deliver next week, a healthy baby girl. of course, every situation is different, and women with more advanced cancers might make different decisions. but having the choice and knowing the cure rates are good, that's the big news tonight. for more on this, you can go to

our website, nightly.msnbc.com they really did some great reporting on this, brian. a wonderful story on our website. >> a tough story. but important to pay attention to. nancy, thanks, as always. >> you bet. we'll take a break, but up next, it may have rained on their parade, but the party is still going strong.

some of the folks there say this has been the best and most profitable mardi gras season in new orleans in the six years since katrina, even in the wake of the bp spill. the french quarter, never a place for the faint of heart. it's packed. hotels are at capacity, flights are full and business has doubled in some places. all of it despite the fact that new orleans has endured some rough and wet weather for the past few days. an emotional night on the court last night in michigan. the fennville high school boys basketball team took to the court for the first time since their star player, 16-year-old wes leonard, died of a heart ailment minutes after scoring the winning basket to cap their undefeated regular season. his parents watched from the stands as their son's team kept the winning streak going beating lawrence high 65-54. both teams embraced at the end

of the game. fennville's coach said wes was watching down on them all. his funeral was just today. there's a very big changing of the guard to report tonight. at least it's big news in the fast food business across america. where subway has passed mcdonald's on its way to ubiquitous superiority, at least for now. at more than 34,000 outlets now, there are more subways than mcdonald's worldwide. though mcdonald's still makes more money, $24 billion in revenue to $15 billion for subway. up next here tonight, "education nation," and the film with a powerful message for parents. ease up on your kids.

a school event in boston today, brought together president obama and melinda gates, wife and philanthropy partner of bill gates. tomorrow the forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world will show gates has dropped down to second place because of all the billions he's given away in his charitable efforts like education. which brings us to our series of reports, "education nation." tonight a new film on education, and what life is like for some parents and their kids. it's called race to nowhere, and

as you might be able to tell by the title, it questions what all this work and stress on our kids is all about in the end. our report tonight from nbc's kate snow. >> reporter: for a few minutes right after school, the andano kids are all in one place before they scatter. >> come home before practice. come home again, dinner, shower, homework, and then go to bed. >> the price of oil is going to go up. >> reporter: rachel is feeling a lot of pressure to get into a top college. all four kids have head-spinning schedules. >> ap classes. >> swim now. >> i play hockey. >> i play tennis. >> it was so overwhelming to see it on film. what you kind of feared about. >> reporter: the film is race to nowhere. >> produce, produce, produce. >> it's impossible. >> i couldn't cope. >> reporter: when mom saw it, she was in tears. >> the first thing i did when i came home, i went upstairs to rachel and said, i really don't care where you go to school.

i really tried to take the pressure off of it, because it had such an impact on me. >> reporter: it's had an impact on thousands of parents. >> i put so much pressure on myself. >> i definitely feel a lot of pressure to have perfect grades. >> reporter: vicky is the mom who made the movie. >> i saw homework taking over our family life, extracurriculars taking over our family life. a great deal of anxiety in my two middle school daughters. >> reporter: this movie doesn't have a huge hollywood budget or big, fancy publicity, just word of mouth. since september, more than 1,000 community centers, churches and schools have invited people to packed screenings. >> the role of homework and testing -- >> reporter: a town hall conversation picks up where the film leaves off. >> it highlights the collateral damage we're inflicting on our students. >> it's really, primarily a call to open our eyes, and make sure we're not needlessly affecting them. >> reporter: an 11th grader says she's no longer staying up past

midnight to study. >> i just realized there was more to learning than just doing homework. it's also important that i got my rest. >> reporter: one high school in new jersey assigned no homework over christmas break. >> it's not just a school issue, it's a community-based issue. >> it's scary to change by yourself. it's scary for schools to make the change. i think it's what's great about this film, it's bringing people together to engage in a dialogue and make changes together. >> reporter: terry says she's trying to take things down a notch. >> it's a daily evaluation of your goals, your priorities. >> we'll be back around 5:00. >> reporter: small steps -- >> all right. where are you going? okay. >> reporter: -- toward a less stressful life. kate snow, nbc news, new york. >> and there's more on kate's story and the film, and a chance to voice your own vote on student stress. we put it all on our website, nightly.msnbc.com.

that is our broadcast for this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com san jose wants tea eliminate 90% of the marijuana shops from the city. how they're weeding out the good from the bad. and the shooting outraging cops. we learned what's next for the oakland officer shot a man running from them.