a day to dry out. up and down the east coast, assessing the damage done by the massive and deadly rainstorms. the midterm battle. new poll numbers out today suggest the race for the house could be closer than people think. the gop is not allowed to take over. a new terror threat. the role osama bin ladin played directing a plot against several countries. rush to judgment? one of the biggest home lenders admits to foreclosing on thousands of homes without even reading critical documents. good morning to you. i'm very on a de la cruz. nice to see you this morning. we are assessing damage from the historic storms that pounded the northeast on friday.

as much as ten inches of rain fell on parts of pennsylvania. in delaware county, pennsylvania, firefighters pulled residents from the upper floors of buildings. flash flooding submerged cars from the midatlantic through new england. >> at 8:00 this morning the truck was parked right here. an hour later the truck had disappeared and had floated down the street. and it is lodged down by a telephone pole. >> the rains were the remnants of tropical storm nicole. it is being blamed for five deaths in north carolina and one in pennsylvania as motorists lost control in high water. in new york wind gusts reached 40 miles per hour causing flight delays at jfk and laguardia. across the region yesterday, 50,000 residents lost power. for a look at the complete weekend forecast, we'll go to nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, good morning to you. >> good morning. it was quite the event. this storm started on tuesday in north carolina, didn't exit maine until early this morning. and now we are just left, as we mentioned, with the cleanup from the storm.

it is a clear morning. the storm system is well out now into areas of canada. the 48-hour rainfall totals were very impressive in upstate new york and in vermont and new hampshire hit pretty hard. a bull's-eye in eastern pennsylvania. where the heaviest rain fell, that's where we have the flood warnings. the rivers should crest today. after that, the rivers should recede with the worst of the damage over. eastern new england is recovering nicely. same for virginia and north carolina. especially near wilmington with over 20 inches of rain k. you imagine that? today's forecast looks just fine, a gorgeous day to get your pumpkin, picking your apples, it will be a perfect weekend. i know a lot of the leaves came down at their peak in northern new england with the heavy rain, but central new england looks good. this weekend cool weather dominates. just a little bit on the east coast going throughout sunday, but temperatures are chilly. 42 in minneapolis this morning. 52 in d.c. the forecast looks like this for your saturday. much of the country is dry. we are still hot in the west. and look at areas in the

southeast. atlanta, only 77. and we'll look at the complete weekend forecast. look at that, veronica. 68 in atlanta on sunday. that's chilly for those folks down there, but thankfully nothing is coming in the tropics. no heavy rain event on the way. a nice quiet weather pattern through the weekend. >> bill, you didn't just say pick your pumpkin today, did you? >> i did. >> it is too early for that, i think. >> down in the south they rot pretty quickly. thank you, bill. for the latest advisories and the forecast where you are, head to the web and check out weather.com. the rutgers university football team is planning a moment of silence before the game today against tulane to remember a fellow classmate who kited suicide last week. 18-year-old tyler clementi jumped off the george washington bridge in new york. his roommate is accused of putting a sexual encounter of him and another man.

he could face hate crime charges. students and faculty at rutgers university in new jersey called yesterday black friday and handed out roses in memory of clementi. his family issued a statement through their lawyer on friday saying, quote, our hope is that our fam i family's personal tragedy will serve as a call for compassion, empathy and human dignity. in texas prosecutors will look into what led to the suicide of an eighth grade boy who parents say was relentlessly bullied at his middle school for two years and was the target of gay slurs. asher brown fatally shot himself in his family's home last month. asher's parents complained to school officials several times about the harassment but the school says no one reported the boy was being bullied. the district also says it is currently conducting its own investigation. asher's funeral will take place today. new messages from washington this morning as both parties try

to claim a lead on the economy. president obama and the senate's republican leader each blame the other side of the aisle for the nation's struggle to create jobs. >> in the pledge they recently released, the republican leadership is promising to scrap all the incentives for clean emergency projects, including those underway. even with all the jobs and potential they hold. >> virtually every single piece of major legislation democrat leaders in washington have proposed over the past 19 months has made it either harder for businesses to hire new workers or retain the workers they already have. >> let's bring in mike baa caro live for us at the white house. mike, the midterms are a month away. can we expect the divide to grow? >> reporter: you're absolutely right. it is wide enough. and the question is, can et get deeper? it is all about the economy. you heard the president there, one of his signature issues as part of the stimulus and other programs was clean energy.

you know about it at the wind farms, electric batteries, he often talks about competition with china and india. the pledge to america that house republicans came out with two weeks ago would slash funding back to 2008 levels. and that has provided the white house with what they think is an opening to talk about all the things that would be lost. the president in his internet address today talking about a solar project out of the mohabi dessert. if the republicans had their way, that would mean 1,000 jobs cut in california. meanwhile, republicans lead by mitch mcconnell and john boehner in the house talk about the stimulus as a big all baa traz to hang around the president's neck. they don't think the stimulus was effective contrary to statistics from the cbo and other non-partial sources that say it boosted the gdp and creating more than 3 million jobs. the fight is going to be continuing. the president is going to be back on the road in campaign mode, including a week from tomorrow in philadelphia at one

of the rallies like we saw in wisconsin late last week. >> it will be a busy month. mike baa caro live for us at the white house. nice to see you, thanks. this morning labor and civil rights groups from across the country are gathering on the national mall in washington, d.c., near the steps of the lincoln memorial being called the one nation working together rally. alex witt will anchor live from the rally and the march starting at noon today. and it will run until 3:00 p.m. eastern. more politics now. a new poll out today. voters may appear to be angry, but that's not enough to altar the midterm elections. the new polling from newsweek shows voters who consider themselves angry are no more likely to vote in upcoming elections. 84% say they will go to the ballot box compared to 81% of calmer voters. when it comes to how the president factors in, his approval rate stands at 48%, far better than where george w. bush stood in 2006 and bill clinton in 1994. and voters are split about which

party they want to control congress. 44% went for republicans, and 46% for democrats. we are going to talk to a "newsweek" writer in our next hour for more analysis. new developments to tell you about this morning in the terror threats in big european cities. u.s. counter terrorism officials say osama bin ladin may have a direct hand in the planning. we'll go right to tazene with the latest. >> reporter: good morning, veronica. they are saying he was a key figure to coordinate attacks in the european cities and the u.k. france, germany, it would consider shooting rampages similar to the mumbai attacks a few years ago. if he was involved, this is the first time since the 9/11 attacks he played a direct role. counter terrorism officials say al qaeda is trying to prove they are still strong with the muscle

power at a sometime when their support base and finances have been weakened. these officials said they won't reveal what evidence they have that bin ladin was so heavily involved, but the details of the plot are known to senior al qaeda leadership hiding out in northwest pakistan. and to describe bin ladin's operations to say that are very involved. officials say the plot was in the early stages and the timing and target were yet unknown. >> all right. azena, thank you so much. bank of america is now joining two other banks in delaying foreclosures. it may have rushed the process for thousands of homeowners. gmac and jpmorgan are reviewing tens of thousands of foreclosure cases after it was revealed employees signed documents without reading what was in them. bank of america isn't saying how many cases will be affected. coming off the september

surge, the dow kicked off october by posting modest gains on friday. the dow finished up 45 points yesterday. but for the week it dropped 30 snapping what had been four straight weeks of market gains. joining me now is msnbc analyst vera gibbons. good morning to you. nice to see you. >> good morning. nice to see you. >> september growth is sustainable in october? >> well, we'll see. there's still a lot of up certainty out there. growth is still very, very slow. and i think the expectations for the economy have actually risen over the past month, so it will take some significantly improved economic data to propel stocks higher, but it was a good day on friday. a nice way to start october. >> definitely. in the housing market, do you see hopeful signs on home prices. >> there were. the case stiller index shows property values were up, which is a good thing, because we have been seeing it go down, down. up in 12 cities, including san francisco, up 11%. new york, really nice to see

this kind of data from june to july. property values rose in a dozen cities. and i think that it doesn't necessarily suggest that the housing market is recovering any time soon. it certainly does suggest that things are sort of leveling off. >> so beginning fourth quarter, what does consumer confidence look like? >> confidence took a big hit in large part because of the deteriorating market. but on the flip side, consumer spending and incomes were up, which is why the market was up due in large part to the extension of the unemployment benefits and sentiment in terms of how people are feeling was up as well, even though it is still at some of the weakest levels we have seen in some time. >> two seconds ago bill karins was mentioning shopping for pumpkins, but we are already starting to see christmas in the windows of stores. so does that mean we are seeing holiday hiring as well? >> this is the time of year when the retailers do bode up on seasonal workers. if you are looking for some work, this is the time to get the resumé out there.

jcpenney, best buy hiring 30,000 seasonal workers. toys r us, 45,000. the limited is hiring 50,000 workers. macy's, 65,000 workers. the good news is some of the seasonal jobs do become full-time jobs. so if you are looking for work here and need extra cash, this is the time to get the resumé out. >> there you go. there's good news. vera gibbons, nice to see you. the search for the missing american balloonist, new clues into what happened to the balloon racers before disappearing off the coast of italy. also, saving homes. what's happening right now to stop a new wave of foreclosures. but first, countdown to midterms. how democrates are defining their agenda for decision 2010 through clouts of the economic climate. this is msnbc. hey, lawrence, my parents want to talk to you.

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at least 36 are dead and dozens severely injured in indonesia after one train slammed into another stopped at a station. officials say it was probably human error to cause the fatal accident this morning. the collision overturned three cars as the train derailed. it took rescue crews hours to pull passengers from the mangled wreckage. day four in the search for two american balloonists missing off the coast of italy bringing little hope. the two disappeared in a thunderstorm during a balloon race this week. today race organizers say it is very unlikely they survived. the balloon's tracking device shows the craft plunged to the sea at 50 miles an hour. it is believed it may have been hit by lightning. search crews have been scouring the adrian sea for any sign of the pair. with the med terms just around the corner, the party in power is working to define its

agenda. but with some voters on edge, is the best strategy out thing touting past achievements or plotting new ones for the future? we'll bring in jonathan, a reporter for politico. democrats are working hard to define their agenda, why are they in this position? what happened here? >> well, it is interesting, there's a real disconnect between what democratic leaders believe they have done, which is to achieve a lot for the country. some voters feel that, but a disconnect with other voter who is believe those achievements have taken the country in the wrong direction, have gone too fast, have cost too much. right now you have democratic leaders in a quandary over how to deal with that. right now they are arguing that republicans would take the country back to the bush administration, quote/unquote to the exact same policies. they are trying to figure out what the best message is right now. you hear things from them about bringing back manufacturing

jobs. they have a quote/unquote make it work in america agenda to try to do that. you hear them talk about closing tax loopholes to ship jobs overseas. these are things the democrats have been talking about for a long time. most of the time when you ask democratic congressmen, what's the agenda, what are you going to do next year if you are reelected and put in office, you get a lot of blank stares or a lot of talk about sort of moving in the same direction but maybe a little more slowly. >> john, the bottomline is that democrats have pushed through some major legislation. health care for one. the stimulus, wall street reform, why not just run on the accomplishments? >> well, i think they are trying to do that to a large degree. you hear the speaker's office talk frequently about -- they don't call it the stimulus, they call it the america recovery and reinvestment act because the word stimulus is something of an albatraz these days, but they encourage their members when

talking about the bills to talk about specific projects within them rather than the big scope of the dollars for the entire country to talk about. a roads project that's being done, to talk about teachers hired, to talk about with regard to the health care bill, to talk about benefits kicking in september 23rd with the six-month anniversary when benefits started to kick in. you hear them talk about it like a piecemeal. they don't want to enrage voters that are upset about the yawning gap between them, the amount of money government is bringing in and the amount of money it is spending. >> so the vice president keeps pushing this idea that midterms will be bad for dems, but he's saying that that isn't the case. what can you make of this? >> well, the vice president has to say that. if he said it is going to be a blood bath for democrats, you would see the doners dry up, the activists wouldn't show up, you would probably see some of the members pack it in. the vice president has to say that. he's a member of the party, one

of the leading voices in the party, but as far as political analysts go, he's out there, you would call him an outliar if he was saying democrats are going to do well. >> thank you so much, john allen. nice to see you this morning. the psychological battlefield at school and online. how to help your kids rise above bullies coming up next on msnbc. n that saves you an average of over $450 a year, with monthly plan premiums less than $15 and copays as low as $2. with savings like these, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. ♪ go to walmart.com for details.

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memorials are set throughout the weekend for tyler clementi, the 18-year-old who jumped to his death from the george washington bridge after a private sexual encounter was sent live to the internet. rutgers university had a student who put it on the internet. rutgers has planned a moment of silence at the football game and the university will hold a vigil tomorrow. in the meantime, the case is raising new legal questions as prosecutors pursue invasion of

privacy charges against these two students. joined by our legal panel, karen desoto is a former prosecutor and defense attorney. thank you so much for joining me today, both of you. welcome. so karen, some are calling for the two to be charges with hate crimes and also reckless manslaughter. >> well, you know, that is a very, very tough call. they have the invasion of privacy. to be able to raise it to a hate crime, obviously you have to prove this was a biased crime, that there was -- because it was homosexuality, that somehow that was the reason for doing what they did. >> and is there evidence in this case? >> well, interestingly enough, with the young girl there's actually evidence, there's been a lot of rumors out there, as you can imagine, because this case has been in the press so much, that she did not -- she just allowed the other young man to borrow her computer. she did not know what he was doing with it and she had no

idea what he was doing or what he was posting. so there's information out there. i don't know if that's just a rumor. again, you know, there's a lot of rumors out there. so you really have to pull it apart. but right now they are looking at an invasion of privacy. >> paul, what would the bear minimum be with a charge of hate crime? >> under new jersey which has the toughest biased laws in the united states, you basically would be doubling the exposure, the prison exposure. so the invasion of privacy charge, which in new jersey, if you public sexual content of other people over the internet without their permission, that's invasion of privacy. that's currently punishable by a maximum of three to five years in prison. if, however, prosecutors can prove this was done with hatred of gay people in mind, for instance, which is what they will be trying to prove here, that could double the sentence to ten years. >> with a what exactly would you have to prove? >> what they would have to show

is that the college students who did this were motivated by hatred or bias against gay people in doing it as opposed to that maybe it was just a prank and they were trying to humiliate tyler clementi. >> obviously, as attorneys the first thing we are going to say was it was a harmless college prank, he was just doing it to make fun of his roommate. so now getting into the next level as paul would tell you, that's the difference between a third and fourth-degree prime. i can tell you as a prosecutor the invasion of privacy is something we deal with in the municipal court. and if you have a clean record, that's something you will get provisioned for. >> i think what will get more complicated is this as it goes on. we have an entire group of people who communicate through the networks constantly. and a lot of things are shared through blogging and all the social networking places. are we going to criminalize

stupidity on the internet? if we do, a lot of people will be in jay. this will be the case to show publishing this material hurts other human beings. >> we keep seeing more of these as the days go on. paul and karen, thank you so much. tensions rise in pakistan with new nato air strikes and fresh new protest. how is it impacting u.s. forces in afghanistan? wee take you live to the region after the break. [ animals calling ] ♪ [ pop ] [ man ] ♪ well, we get along ♪ yeah, we really do - ♪ and there's nothing wrong - [ bird squawks ] ♪ with what i feel for you ♪ i could hang around till the leaves are brown and the summer's gone ♪ [ announcer ] when you're not worried about potential dangers,

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well, hello. it is msnbc saturday. i'm veronica de la cruz. two train crashes in indonesia today killed 37 people. 36 of them died when the train crashed into another parked at a rail station. for a second straight day there's a tape reportedly from osama bin ladin. in today's audio release on the internet, the al qaeda leader called on muslims to do more for people in flood-ravaged

pakistan. people in jamaica are cleaning up and trying to recover from tropical storm nicole's fury. the storm killed a dozen people. and arnold schwarzenegger and state legislators agreed on a new budget. both parties are trying to come up with ways to reduce california's $19 billion budget deficit. and the fdic has shut down two more banks making 129 bank failures so far this year. and those are your fast five headlines. new developments in afghanistan today as u.s. tension with neighboring pakistan escalates dramatically. five people are dead after a drone attack in northwest pakistan. in the meantime, the taliban and pakistan is claiming responsibility for attacking a convoy of nato oil tankers saying it was retaliating over the deaths of three pakistani soldiers. john yang is live for us in kabul, afghanistan. john, good morning to you. what do we know about today's drone attack? is it related to the attack on

the night toe nato convoy and other developments this week? >> reporter: well, it is an indication that the united states and the allies are not letting this tension with pakistan, not letting pakistan's closure of a key supply route affect it strategy. their strategy and tactics. the anger in pakistan is over these attacks from afghanistan to pakistan. they are at a record number, 23 in the past five weeks, as the coalition forces press against insurgents who launch attacks from pakistan into afghanistan. and there are complaints among the military official that is pakistan is not doing enough on its own in the areas to take on the forces who are associated with the taliban and with al qaeda. of course, the pakistani officials have closed a key supply line route into

afghanistan that goes from the sea port of karachi to nato bases in afghanistan. nato officials say there's no impact of that yet. there's no squeeze on supplies yet. and they say it will have to be closed for some time before there would be a squeeze. meanwhile, officials are continuing to talk to the pakistanis and they say they are trying to work things out and trying to work their way through this, veronica. >> john yang, we appreciate the report. thank you. after 16 years of silence the united states is coming clean about a secret government program that affected hundreds of people in guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases. president obama called the country yesterday to offer an apology. american doctors infected prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers with syphilis to test the effectiveness of penicillin. in some cases american tax dollars went to affected

prostitutes paid to sleep with the unknowing text subjects. the got malan officials say they are mounting an investigation. the leftovers of tropical storm nicole slammed the northeast with driving rains and winds. six to ten inches inundated the region. the storm delivered winds up to 40 miles per hour in some areas. >> the weather this morning was crazy. i saw the wind that looked like -- it was a crazy wind. >> in new hampshire a strong gust blew a tree onto a horse pinning it to the ground. fortunately, crews were able to save the 15-year-old horse. for a look at today's weather, we'll go to nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning to you. that's an amazing story. i thought for sure the horse wouldn't make it. that's great. as far as the storm wave, it hit during the week, so a lot of people had problems getting to and from work on thursday and friday morning along the east coast. boston last night had the red

sox/yankee game canceled. they will probably try to do a doubleheader this weekend. the storm is leaving into the gulf of canada. there's a storm near the great lakes, but that's a clipper-type low with cool air behind it. don't be prepared for a warm, summer weekend around chicago or minneapolis. it will be chilly, very chilly. here's some of the rain coming down. lafayette, indianapolis, a little bit of wet weather along with toledo and detroit. as i mentioned, all the heavy rain is over with. we are looking at a very nice fall-type weekend with highs in the 60s for new york city. d.c., right around 60 today. the warmest of weather is still out west with near record highs in phoenix. remember earlier this week l.a. hit 113? the all-time record high. it is much cooler today, 83 and only 75 for sunday. that's not a misprint in chicago. that's a high temperature of 56 degrees on sunday. that's almost a little early taste of winter. we'll have the first possible frost and freeze in the areas of the midwest.

veronica, the east-coast soaker and all the tropical threats are over with for now. >> that's some good news. bill karins, always nice to see you. to track the latest weather systems to see what's in the forecast for your area, head to the web to check out weather.com. and homeowners facing foreclosure. bank of america is now joining gmac and jpmorgan in stopping sales involving foreclosures. right now the banks are reviewing which they rushed through the proceedings with homeowners without reading the documents. peter alexander is in downtown los angeles with more. >> reporter: new evidence the nation's foreclosure crisis is far from finished. >> come on in. >> reporter: thousands of people, some from as far away as arkansas and florida looking for free help in a last-ditch effort to hold on to their homes. among them, prentice hill. what's your situation? >> the situation is i'm in an interest-only loan that's killing me.

>> i can't rent a house for less than i'm paying, so i don't want to end up on the street. >> reporter: nationwide one in seven borrowers are behind on their mortgage or in foreclosure. 95,000 homes were repossessed in august alone. bank of america joined gmac and jpmorgan chase in extending evictions across 23 states. the move is raising new questions about whether banks cut corners to expedite home repossessions. an employee with b of a acknowledged she approved up to 8,000 foreclosures a month and typically didn't read them. in a sworn deposition a gmac employee admitted to signing off on 10,000 cases a month. critics say that is robosigning where it is seemingly impossible for one person to review so many documents. this attorney says his client is among those who lost his home as bankers looked for shortcuts. >> i feel the time is now to stop this. >> reporter: all three lenders say they are reviewing their

procedures, both gmac and chase insist none of the processing errors resulted in inappropriate foreclosures. still, experts say the new confusion will only make things more difficult in an already stressed real estate market. >> we have a glut of foreclosures right now that need to be processed and gotten out onto the market and resold to borrowers who can afford them. if you delay it, you just put the pain farther down the road. >> that was peter alexander reporting. next week we'll have a report on pending home sales. well, it is the most popular social networking site on the web with more than half a billion members around the world, and now the man who created facebook along with a controversy surrounding the origin are the source of the new social network. >> i'm marilyn dolby. >> what do you do? >> i'm a second-year associate at the firm. my boss wanted me to sit in on the associate fees.

what are you doing? >> i'm checking in to see how it is going in bosnia. >> bosnia, they don't have roads but they have facebook. >> joining me live is entertainment editor with the associated press alita coral. what are the critics saying about the fill system? >> our movie critic basically said it is fantastic. go see it. not only are they loving it, they are giving it early oscar buzz already. >> what about early estimates? >> $27 million. it should be top at the box office this weekend. this weekend is all about the social network. >> very interesting. so let's move on to bruin know mars. i hear he's facing pretty serious charges. >> extremely serious. >> first of all, who is this guy is this. >> he's the "it" boy. his album is out on tuesday. he's on four number one hits. he's a singer, the next best thing, but he's charged with felony cocaine possession. he got caught after his nightclub performance with

cocaine. these are very serious charges. >> how have paris hilton of him? >> very paris hilton. >> what song does he sing? >> he sings "beautiful girls," and "nothing on you." this is a sad story. he's talented. >> i have heard of the songs for sure. maybe not the name, but the songs for sure. >> i won't sing them. >> it is probably better than mine. let's talk about heidi montague and spencer pratt. she's filing for divorce? >> she filed earlier this summer, but she has called it off and with drew the proceedings. they have reunited in coastal rica so the world can relax. spidy is still together. >> i hear they are constantly creating tabloid headlines. >> that's the thing. you don't know if they are real or not. there was allegely a sex tape and they reunite. >> do they love each other or hate each other.

what's next? >> exactly. >> big news for harry potter fans. >> this is a major subject. j.k. roling was on oprah. the series has ended but all the books are in her head. she could write several more and is never saying never. >> hasn't she ended the story? >> she has. she wrote the books for 17 years. when you are writing so long you can't just turn it off. in her head other books are written, but it is a matter of if she will or won't. >> alicia cross, thank you so much. the season of tricks and treats is fast approaching. despite tough economic times, americans are expected to spend $20 on candy this halloween, 18% more than americans spent last year. you are watching msnbc saturday. stay with us. being a leader means moving fast.

across the country when the economy tumbled, jpmorgan chase set up new offices to work one-on-one with homeowners. since 2009, we've helped over 200,000 americans keep their homes. and we're reaching out to small businesses too, increasing our lending commitment this year to $10 billion... and giving businesses the opportunity to ask for a second review if they feel their loan should have been approved. this is how recoveries happen. everyone doing their part. this is the way forward.

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he could run but he couldn't hide for long. a suspected bank robber near boston is trapped and arrested after police found him hiding in a trunk. officers found the getaway car minutes after. they had it towed and then realized he was in there. they pulled him out and arrested him. u.s. counter terror officials believe that osama bin ladin was involved in a plan to distract several european cities in a coordinated assault. he may be trying to show al qaeda is strong and able to launch attacks on western targets. joining me live now is alex kips kingsberry. good morning to yule, alex. how are u.s. counter terrorism officials making links between the european threats and osama

bin ladin? >> well, we don't know. it appears one of the plotters of the supposed attack plan has been apprehended in pakistan by u.s. counter terrorism officials and is now talking to them in some form. that's just sort of what's being reported, but that seems to be the sense of it. more details have leaked out as the person has described more about what this group was planning. >> and do you think officials might have evidence that this type of attack on targets in tourist areas may also be planned for the united states as well? >> well, that's been a long health concern by the u.s. counter terrorism community, even after 9/11. the fear was al qaeda was targeting shopping malls within the united states withgh armedguys with handguns and machine guns. that doesn't appear to be part of their plan. this was targeting countries in europe, france, germany, britain, in particular. that's all we know at this point, but it has been a long

standing concern for attacks on the homeland as well. >> what is the situation telling us about osama bin ladin's capabilities? >> we don't know. it is rumored he was behind the plot. that's something pakistanis plan to put out there frequently. what this says about al qaeda's central capabilities we don't know. there have been numerous franchise groups of al qaeda behind different plots, the christmas day plot, for instance, and some of the others. but they have expressed a long health concern to continue attacking europe and the united states as sort of a message reiterated in the most recent bin ladin audiotape resurfaced. they are still in the border areas of pakistan and that's all we know. >> what do you make of the new tape? >> well, frequent for osama bin ladin to talk about the anniversary of 9/11. many were waiting for the new

tape to come out and to see what it talked about, in this case, a lot of natural disasters and relief efforts. it is a constant reminder that ten years after 9/11 he is out there and a threat and planning to continue attacking europe and the united states. >> in the meantime, we have not seen osama bin ladin. when was the last time we have last seen him? >> several years ago. he still manages to release the audio recordings. quite frustrating for the u.s. counter terrorism and european officials. >> alex kingsbury, we appreciate your time today. thank you so much. >> thank you very much. the rescue of the 33 trapped miners in chile may come sooner than expected. officials in chile now say they hope to get the 33 trapped miners out later this month instead of in november. yesterday rescue crews tested out a specially-designed capsule used to lift them out of the shaft. currently, all three rescue

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back now to the death of tyler clementi, the 18-year-old freshman who killed himself this week after a case of signlcyber bullying. the suicide has triggered an outpouring of emotion on the internet where celebrities are weighing in and telling gay teens who are feeling pressure to seek help. >> there are messages everywhere that validate this kind of bullying and taunting and we have to make it stop. and i want anyone out there who feels different and alone to know that i know how you feel and there is help out there. . >> psychologist jeff gardier is an msnbc contributor and a

contributor to health.com. we just heard ellen talking about, get help, you're not alone in this. how do you talk to a young person about something like this? >> the most important thing is that parents shouldn't be in the closet themselves about the sexuality of their children. quite often parents may say, well, we didn't know he was gay or lesbian, but parents do know, they do have an inkling, so they have to have these conversations very early on in life with their children and offer them the support. as difficult as it may be for parents to accept the sexuality of their child, let that child know that you love them and that there is support, as ellen degeneres said there are such port groups out there and we have to talk to kids, because these bisexual kids, transgender kids, kids who question their sexuality, are four times more likely to commit suicide than kids that are heterosexual. >> i know parents are very, very

scared to begin that conversation. what would you suggest, how do you begin that conversation? what can you say? >> i think what you need to do is let your kids know that you do love them, instead of doing the talking, do a lot more of the listening and let them know that you are there to speak to them about it. and let's face it, for heterosexual parents, this is very difficult to come to the realization that your child is a different sexual orientation than you are and you don't want them to suffer, so it's difficult to talk about it. but speaking to other parents who have gone through the process of their children coming out. >> what about cyber bullying? this seems like it's a growing problem, how prevalent is cyber bullying these days? >> it is prevalent. we know that at least 30% of school aged children say that they have been cyber bullied and some people say as much as 50% have been cyber bullied.

the problem is kids have not caught up to the technology as far as their culture. they have this power in their hands, they can stream life, they can upload things to youtube and so on, but they don't realize the power that they wield with that sort of thing. so even though those two student who is did this thing to tyler clementi may have been bone heads, maybe they just really wanted to give them a hard time and didn't want him to die, that was never what they wanted. they didn't realize how much power they had in causing him to have this kind of emotional angst. kids need to realize, you have a tremendous amount of power, and you need to be careful, but more importantly, you need to respect other people who are different than you are. >> exactly. but two questions, how do parents protect their children and how do children protect nemss? >> the way parents can protect their children is to go on the

internet early on, teach them the ropes and be able to help them navigate in a very intelligent manner. know what your kids are doing, don't wait until there's a major conflict in their lives. and for the kids themselves, when they go on to the internet, there's a lot of sites that tell them how to protect themselves. but don't put something on the internet in a way that somebody may be able to find you and exploit your weaknesses. at the end of the day, it's about the face to face interactions, the quality of the interactions and certainly having the self-discipline to be nice to yourself and to be nice to others on the internet. >> jeff gardier, always nice to see you. it's a door to door weekend tradition that could come to an end pretty soon. we're not talking about trick or treat, see why and when the postal service may put an end to saturday delivery. you're watching "msnbc saturday."

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