on our broadcast tonight, what a sight here in new york led by president obama offering a big challenge to an audience, including interesting characters. the red storm that took place that had some wondering if their city was onfire. keep the change. big banks agreed to back down on the hefty overdraft fees we uncovered. the venger behind the spoof that blew the lid off the a.c.o.r.n. organization. "nightly news" begins now. good evening, president obama wanted to sound different today and he did. no u.s. president has given quite the speech he did before the u.n. general assembly here

in new york. it can be said no one looked out on an audience quite so unusual. it's where we begin tonight with andrea mitchell across town tonight. good evening. >> good evening, brian it was the president's first speech and marked a stark departure from the policies of george w. bush. reaching out to new friends and old foes. president obama was welcomed to the world stage, along with a gallery of long time international people. moammar gadhafi back at the u.n. for the first time in four years. hugo chavez. president obama's message was the u.s. is no longer going it alone. >> those who used to chastise america for acting alone can now

stand by and wait for america to solve the world's problems alone. >> reporter: ahmadinejad looked bored. the president was cheered for closing guantanamo. >> the use of torture by the united states of america. >> reporter: he showed his impatience. warned north korea and iran against the nuclear arms raid. mr. obama and his team made a quick exit moving on to a series of events, steering clear of the next speaker. >> leader of the revolution, president of the african union, king of kings of the traditional kings of africa. >> reporter: he raged on, waving a copy of the u.n. charter, then

pretending to rip it up. >> translator: it should not be the security counsel, it should be the charity counsel. we are happy if obama can stay forever as president of america. >> reporter: he made no mention of bombing. the assassination of president kennedy. >> we want to know who killed him. somebody by the name of lee harvey, then another, jack ruby killed lee harvey, why did he kill him. >> reporter: mystifying the u.n. and the white house. >> if i had to defend his actions, i would be busy for the better part of the afternoon. >> reporter: tonight, iran's president is hosting for u.n. delegates. he vowed to continue negotiations and picked up the

possibility of important support for the first time to consider sanctioning iran fw they do not comply. >> andrea, thanks. we have seen this kind of circus sphere inside the u.n. the fact is the stakes are high. our chief white house correspondent, political director, chuck todd here in new york while the president is in new york. chuck, for awhile, it looked like the bar scene in "star wars" except the stakes are so high. while the president spoke, you know, he's got other issues simmering. afghanistan and health care. >> let's start with afghanistan. it's been a public debate. watchers of the military tell me, not since vietnam have we seen a public debate between the white house and the pentagon. the white house says this is what president obama campaigned on. this is what he likes. nobody likes it to be this public. you have general mckris toll and

general petraeus in charge of strategy. we are hearing all about this. in the actual policy, the white house reminds us, general mckrystol wrote it. >> it's the first time we have heard it. >> their argument is going to be this. things have changed. if we don't have a stable partner, we need a better strategy. >> where is health care? >> we know this, the real senate majority leader is olympia snowe. it means we will not see a health care bill until, at the soonest next tuesday. the white house was hoping to get it tomorrow. >> a lot of it being tinkers for one republican senator from maine. part of my interview with gordon brown about his time with president obama in the states and this recent strain over the

release of the man who brought down pan am 103 over scottland. we now turn to the most startlingly beautiful cities in the world. why some people initially thought their city was on fire. it was not fire, but something very unusual is going on in sydney, australia. ian williams reports. >> reporter: australians woke this morning to an ap derelictic vision. swept in from the outback. the harbor bridge all but disappeared. this is what it usually looks like. the storms seen in this satellite photo blowing 5 million tons of dust over much of australia's eastern coast. flights were diverted. urgent health warnings as they went off the charts.

emergency services treated a flood of patients. >> it's been unbelievable from nearly the crack of dawn, we have had joggers come in, fit young men and women who have had real trouble breathing. >> reporter: sydney had seen nothing like it in 70 years. >> i thought the city was on fire. >> i'm 72 years old and have never seen it before. >> a low pressure system swept in from central australia. whipped up dust from the worst drought on record. >> because it picked up vast quanties of topsoil that got pushed along the coast. >> reporter: by this afternoon, the dust was beginning to clear. the sun struggling to breakthrough. the storm powering north toward the city of briz ban. >> in southern california, state of emergency now in ventura

keocounty after a wildfire that burned almost 16,000 acres. the dry, windy weather is making the job of fighting the fire tougher. >> the toll is growing. now, nine deaths reported in northern georgia. the cost of property dam over $250 billion. many of the buildings hit are not insured. federal reserve is keeping the key interest rate at zero while painting an upbeat picture of the economy. they are winding down their purchases of mortgage debt. the dow went up more than 80 points to down more than 80 points at the closing bell. all of that in the course of one day's trading. we reported in the past couple weeks about a practice that rakes up banks, hitting

customers with huge overdraft fees. purchases as much as a cup of a small cup of coffee. they announced they are changing the policies. our report from lisa myers. >> reporter: in a major reversal bank of america says beginning next month, it will allow customers to opt out of overdraft protection. that means, if there's no money in the account, the transaction will be declined. now, the transactions are paid for a fee of $35 each. the bank also will no longer charge fees on very small overdrafts and limit the maximum overdraft fees per day for a cost of $140, down from $350 now. the change comes in response by consumers. some vented on youtube. [ inaudible ] >> yes, i deserve two, two

overdraft fees, but six? come on. >> reporter: wells fargo announced changes similar to bank of america. jp morgan chase generates more fees. consumer groups say all are welcome changes, but not nearly enough. >> overdraft fees are one of the most abusive practices in the marketplace. >> there are things consumers can do to avoid over draft fees. if your bank won't let you opt out of overdraft protection, shop around. bank of america says it's making the changes now to provide immediate help to customers who repeat idly overdraft their account. banks hope to quell demand for a crackdown by congress. lisa myers, nbc news,

washington. a lot more to tell you about when we continue on a wednesday night, including portions of my interview with the prime minister ofreat britain. how special is that special relationship these days? inining. progresso. your chicken tuscany says it has fiber in it. yep. four tasty new soups with 28% of your daily fiber. but i like this chicken tuscany. i like it too. but it has fiber in it. that's right. fiber? yeah. but i like it. (announcer) progresso. you gotta taste this soup. your p.a.d. isn't just poor circulation in your legs causing you pain. ok-what is it?

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reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. we're back now. as we mention wd a portion of my interview with british prime minister, gordon brown, here in new york. for that matter, we'll see him tomorrow at the g-20 in pittsburgh. we sat down to talk not far from where high level meetings were taking place. the first thing i asked about were reports he was being snubd by president obama over

the controversial release of the locker bibomber. >> i met president obama last night and we had a long talk about the big issues affecting us. i have been meeting him in pittsburgh on a one-to-one meeting. the special relationship and the relationship between britain and america was strong and continues to strengthen. >> relationships sours after the release of the lockerbie bomber. you said you didn't want to see the man die in prison, but found his welcome home -- >> my thoughts were for the relatives who died. i don't forget the day the lockerbie bombing happened or forget the sufferis of the family that is went through years of pain and anguish. it's regarded by us as personal responsible for the crime. his sentence has not been

commuted. he's been let out by the scottish authorities because they believe he will die within three months. i understand the reaction to that. i can always understand feelings about britain as a result of that. this was an legal grounds by the scottish administration. we could not have done anything about it. >> the problem is, some of your citizens will forever believe, and a fair number of americans, that it was the result of a deal and the dl had to do with oil. >> there was no deal. i can give you absolute assurance there was no deal on oil or anything else. there was no double dealing or conspiracy or no prior agreement or anything. i think we have to put this in one perspective. over the last ten years, we have seen libya try to move to a better position in the international community by renouncing nuclear weapons. at the same time, renouncing any

rule in international terrorism. we have to hold libya to the promises. these are the security issues i will continue to raise with libya. no deals, no back room stitch up of any sort and i do assure the american people we would never put them in that position. >> let's talk about afghanistan. in the iraq war, the brits got a violent, long slog in afghanistan british forces have been in heldman province. you have suffered 217 losses there. will we see a substantial dramatic reduction in forces, a reorganization on the british side of this fight? >> let me say, first of all, we have a duty, all of us to prevent terrorism returning to the streets of new york or

london. the second thing is the way forward in afghanistan, even after the disputes of the election is very clear to me. it's got to be a policy of the afghan people, the army, the police taking responsibility for their own affairs. we are prepared to put the troops necessary to make sure the training and mentoring of the afghan forces leads to an army of 130,000. our strategy is afghanization, it's the afghan people taking control of their own affairs that's the way forward for afghanistan. >> part of our conversation earlier today here in new york with gordon brown. it's all on our website at nightly.msnbc.com. you perhaps saw the spoof on camera, it delivered a punch. it got a.c.o.r.n. in trouble. now, we learn more about who he is and what he's doing behind

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tonight, an nbc news exclusive. in his first broadcast network news interview, the young man behind the camera li-like spoof against the group a.c.o.r.n. he tells his story. they filed a lawsuit over the hidden camera video that got two employees fired and touched off a big internal investigation. mara has the story. >> reporter: this is how most of the world was introduced to james keefe. he was drezed as a pump.

the community advocate si group. they were targeted by president obama's opponents. this is how i met him, as a soft oken self-described radical dealing with a lot of attention that's caught him completely by surprise. >> did you expect all these rep cushions when you started? >> no. >> reporter: posing as a pump and prostitute, he and a friend caught a.c.o.r.n. employees appearing to give advise on tax evasion, human struggling and prostitution. >> if you are just taking money from underage prostitutes, that doesn't sound good. >> reporter: they spent about $1300 to fund their trip. he won't say how many offices they visited. >> i consider myself a progressive radical. i don't want to conserve anything. >> reporter: how do you define yourself? >> i don't have a business card.

i'm too busy doing what i do. >> it's a controversial style he's been honing since college days at rutgers university. >>. >> we're not all short. we have our difference in height and we are stereo typical. >> reporter: moved on to more outrageous political affairs like calling planned parenthood to accept donations to abort black babies. >> there's too many black people in ohio. i'm trying to do my part. >> okay, whatever. >> reporter: he's started thinking about his next project. >> i hope to do more of these types of things and expose more corruption and do more investigating, absolutely. it would be a privilege. >> reporter: his hope, this introduction to the public is the beginning of a long

relationship. when we come back, a big milestone in the life of bruce springsteen. can you blame the rest of us for thinking we're not that young anymore? the one thing about smoking - is it dominates your life, and it dominated mine. and the sad thing about it is that you can always use an excuse if cigarettes don't kill me, oh well - something else will. but, you can't use that as an excuse. i honestly loved smoking, and i honestly didn't think i would ever quit. it was very interesting that you could smoke on the first week. chantix gave me that extra help that i needed to get through a tough time. (announcer) chantix is a non-nicotine pill. in studies, 44% of chantix users were quit during weeks 9 to 12 of treatment, compared to 18% on sugar pill. it is proven to reduce the urge to smoke.

i did have an unopen pack of cigarettes in my purse and then i think i opened my purse and realized it was still there. and i said, "what the heck, i don't need these..." ...i said, you know, "bye, i don't need you anymore, you're not my crutch, i don't need a crutch." (announcer) talk to your doctor about chantix and a support plan that's right for you. some people have had changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice agitation, hostility, depression or changes in behavior, thinking or mood that are not typical for you, or if you develop suicidal thoughts or actions, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. talk to your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which can get worse while taking chantix. some people can have allergic or serious skin reactions to chantix, some of which can be life threatening. if you notice swelling of face, mouth, throat or a rash stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away. tell your doctor which medicines you are taking as they may work differently when you quit smoking. chantix dosing may be different if you have kidney problems.

the most common side effect is nausea. patients also reported trouble sleeping and vivid, unusual or strange dreams. until you know how chantix may affect you, use caution when driving or operating machinery. chantix should not be taken with other quit smoking products. as a non-smoker it's wonderful. the best thing that ever happened. the best thing i have ever done besides my husband, and dogs, and family. with the chantix and with the support system, it worked. it worked for me. (announcer) talk to your doctor to find out if prescription chantix is right for you.

a couple things here before we go tonight. first an example of why timing is everything in life. at fire station 99 in l.a., a group of firefighters just finish add refresher course on how to deliver a baby when a couple on the way to the hospital, can you guess the rest? pulled into the driveway, they were having a baby. the team swung into action. second child for the couple. everybody is fine. everyone on the shift says the baby has eight new uncles. while moammar gadhafi was talking, pick your spelling. three of them, for the record, the accepted spelling that nbc uses is khaddafy. finally, tonight, this was a big

day in my home state because my number one citizen turned 60 today. bruce springsteen is 60 today. he's an active 60, working his way through a nine month, 60 city world tour. he sold 1.5 million tickets so far. he played for over three hours this past weekend in chicago. let's not forget, he's the head of a huge organization, what he calls the heart stopping, pants dropping, booty quaking, love making e-street band. happy birthday, boss. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. ♪

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