mtv music awards. "early today" starts right now. >> announcer: this is "early today" for monday, april 15th, 2013. >> good morning. i'm betty nguyen. we are following a developing story out of iraq right now. officials say at least 22 people are dead after a wave of violence across the country. at least 100 others were injured in the attacks. mostly car bombings spanning from the capital city baghdad northwest to new jersey and in northern kirkuk. the attacks come at a potential turning point for iraq. the country will host the first elections since the u.s. withdrew troops in 2011 in less than two weeks from now. north korea is developing the 101st birthday of its founding further and washington fears the current leader may use this occasion to flex his military muscle. john kerry just reached up a three-day trip to the region.

andrea mitchell reports now from tokyo. >> reporter: in tokyo john kerry reassured japan the u.s. will defend it from north korea but said the obama administration wouldn't negotiate with pyongyang under the right circumstances. >> what we ought to talk about is possibilities of peace and i think there are those possibilities notwithstanding the rhetoric and the provocation. >> reporter: kim jong-un has shown he's not interested in diplomacy. his father negotiated in 2000 and released two american journalists in 2009 and hits grandfather reached a nuclear agreement with former president jimmy carter for the clinton white house. critics warn that north korea has broke every past promise to disarm. >> this has been going on for decad decades. a cycle and false hope that somehow the north koreans would give up efforts to acquire

nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. >> reporter: some experts believe there's a peaceful path out of this crisis. >> i think kim jong-un has run out of bluster. maybe it will end with a fireworks display or a whimper but he's going back in his box. >> that was nbc's andrea mitchell reporting. closer to home, it's a big week on capitol hill for immigration and gun control. florida's republican senator marco rubio managed a world wind media blitz appearing on seven programs. tracie potts has more from washington. good morning. >> good morning, everyone. he's part of that g-8 here. gang of eight coming up with a new immigration bill that we expect to be introduced on tuesday, tomorrow. it is not amnesty rubio argued on those talk shows over the weekend. a compassionate but responsible way of dealing with the 11 million people who came here illegally and we saw some of their supporters out on the mall last week pushing for

immigration reform but there are still concerns especially by conservatives that this was for more low wage workers into the system and that the border is not being dealt with first. let's also turn to gun control because that's another issue the senate is expected to deal with. likely a vote by wednesday or thursday on this compromise crafted by democrat joe manchin and republican at that time toomey. there is still conservative opposition. if this passes it could be a tight one. conservatives concerned about loopholes and about the fact that they say these measures won't stop criminals from getting guns. we do know, however, at least one republican has signed on. susan collins of maine says she will vote for this compromise. as she calls it it's a reasonable approach. we're standing by for what could be votes or some action on the

senate side on both of these issues this week. >> definitely a busy week. all right. tracie potts, thank you very much. here's a programming note. savannah guthrie will have an exclusive interview with president obama on gun control, immigration and other issues. that's tomorrow morning on "today." late last night a former bus driver became venezuela's new president. the interim leader clinched the title by fewer than 300,000 votes. he's a protege of former president hugo chavez who died of cancer last month. the opponent is calling for a full recount. our gas prices will unlikely be impacted. the faa is ordering the inspection of more than 1,000 boeing 737 jets that could cause pilots to lose control after

word that some parts could have factory defects. the parts in question help stabilize the up and down movement for the nose of the plane. the faa says these are just inspections and there's no immediate threat or incidents reported. before we look at the forecast, check out this. this is what happened in bismarck, north dakota, on sunday where they are no strangers to nasty weather of course. more than 17 inches of record breaking snow in mid april, come on already. chaos on the road in minnesota where blizzard conditions caused three semitrucks to collide including one carrying dozens of pigs and another hauling cattle. what a nightmare. meteorologist bill karins joins us now. bill, is there any chance we could get this behind us already? >> no. week after week we can't stop talking about snow. i'm really sick of it. i'm not even dealing with. i-94 is closed right now through the entire state of north dakota. that's the only major interstate that rolls through the area. we're continuing to watch that

heavy snow falling in this region. winter storm warnings still in effect. look at how much snow. we mentioned bismarck record breaking 17 inches. most snow ever in a snowstorm in april. still snowing hard in fargo with seven inches on the ground. the white shows where you it's snowing. a ball of snow from bismarck to fargo up to grand forks and i imagine a lot of kids will have a day off of school in that area. the snow is coming to an end in areas from duluth northward. that is that area of snow. that will slowly end during the day today. if you watched end of the masters yesterday, that rain there in augusta is now up through central portions of virginia. light rain for you coastal areas of carolinas from south carolina into north carolina. so a little bit of bad weather out there today. in general, we're still slowly heading in the right direction. 88 in dallas more like it. that's your national forecast. here's a look at the weather outside your window. washington can't complain.

66 degrees. clouds and showers early in the day to the south of d.c. the afternoon should clear out nicely. slight chance of a storm there in indianapolis. atlanta, looking better today. unfortunately there's another winter storm behind the one -- >> you're joking. >> we already have winter storm warnings in the rockies. >> thank you, bill. straight ahead, general motors teams up with ford on a ten speed and the trial of a doctor heats up and a bus driver loses his cool with a curious passenger. details in two minutes with "early today" returns.

welcome back to "early today." a director from the cdc will be among health officials traveling to china this week to help authorities respond to the bird flu outbreak. it comes as 11 fresh cases are reported bringing the number of confirmed cases to 60. so far no cases in the u.s. at least one woman is dead

after being buried in an avalanche in washington state. the search has been suspended for a missing man from another avalanche that hit another group. a police officer has been fired for using a target resembling trayvon martin. a man was left partially paralyzed and with severe brain damage after a concussion during high school football practice in 2008. it is a girl for former first daughter and "today" show contributor jenna bush hager. margaret laura hager was born saturday night in new york and will be known as mila. congratulations to all of them. how high can the markets go? the dow and s&p both set several

new all-time records last week and in fact in less than four months the s&p has already blown past targets set by some analysts for the entire year. there is also a whole lot of earnings on deck this week and citigroup will start things off reporting before today's opening bell. on friday, heavy weights wells fargo and jpmorgan chase reported record high profits but lower revenues with soda sales falling for eight years in a row, investors will look results from coca-cola and pepsico and updates on home prices in march and china reporting its economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first quarter raising concerns that last year's recovery is already losing steam. general motors and ford are teaming up to make nine and ten speed transmissions. the partnership will save the automakers hundreds of millions of dollars.

wrigley field, the second oldest park in the majors will get a $500 million facelift. the deal was announced sunday night. it will include the first electronic outfield video board, parking improvements and more night games. nearby rooftop business owners who may lose their bird's-eye view have yet to weigh in on this. it is tax day and you know what that means. freebies and deals galore including free cinnabon bites and arby's fries. you may need them after paying the tax man. i know i do. the only sport where a viewer can call in to change the outcome and tiger woods is the target. you're watching "early today."

now tother stories that caught our eye this morning. a massive explosion rocked a utah county leaving a heap of twisted metal and rubble in its wake. the powerful blast inside an oil filled building was ignited by a combustible mix of two ruptured propane tanks and air. no one was injured but 26 structures including four homes were damaged. a nebraska bus driver was fired for this attack. look at this on a passenger. the victim is punched 18 times

and later dragged off the bus after he apparently agitated the driver with several questions about the route. assault charges against the driver are pending. next to el paso, texas. the implosion of the old city hall building lasted less than ten seconds and rattled neighbors. nearby residents ducked for cover as the blast blew debris through apartment windows. the longest breech in the florida keys attracted over 1,500 runners. two floridians took home the top prizes in men's and women's division. in sports now, an exciting playoff finish at the masters. on the second playoff hole, cabrera's putt for birdie stopped short of the hole. then, adam scott sank his 12-foot putt giving him a one stroke victory over cabrera. scott is the first australian to

win the masters. >> what an incredible day. everything fell my way in the end i guess. you just never know and i just kept plugging away. >> good for him. following the win, they held the traditional green jacket ceremony there to welcome scott into the exclusive club as masters champion. jason day was third and tiger woods was tied for fourth. the big controversy came following a television viewer's call and tiger woods was given a two-stroke penalty for an illegal drop. thomas vonn sent out a tweet joking he was the viewer. no problem. happy to call in and help. you always have to keep an eye on those cheaters. an 18-foot jumper to pass the 25,000-point mark for his career. he's only the 17th player to do that in league history and the mavs beat new orleans.

in baseball with a no-hitter going, clay buckholtz got a called third strike to end the no-hitter but it ended after a broken bat single to right field. jason wirth hit a long fly ball but a great catch at the wall and braves get ninth straight win over the nationals and for harry potter fans out there, they held the world cup in central florida. this version does not include flying of course but players are still required to use broom sticks as they run around the field. where is harry when you need him? >> announcer: "early today" sports is brought to you by touch of gray. get rid of some gray and never all. just ahead, stories leading the news. plus a big weekend for "42." details next.

welcome back. i already mentioned the next winter storm is already on its way. snow throughout the day in areas of wyoming. this is the snowfall forecast for the week. white showing you where three to six inches could fall. 6 to 12 in pink. this storm goes in the exact same spots getting snow currently through north dakota and possibly sections of south dakota and minnesota. it's ridiculously cold for april in the northern plains and that

continues today. the other story this week is wednesday is the key day for severe weather and tornadoes. we have to watch out around oklahoma. >> we've been warned. thank you. jackie robinson continued to make history this weekend. "42" had the biggest opening weekend ever for a baseball movie pulling in $27 million over three days. "scary movie 5" made $15 million. the big win at sunday night's mtv music awards went to "silver lining playbook" and will ferrell took home comedic genius award. he accepted his trophy in a money printed three-piece suit and brought his family with him on stage. albeit a fake family. no word where he got those folks. kelly ripa revealed in an interview that she has not seen former co-coast regis philbin since he left the show. they're not best friends and

hugh jackman got a scare when an alleged stalker followed him into a new york gym. she was arrested minutes later. jackman was not injured. justin bieber visited the anne frank outside over the weekend and managed to anger everyone when he wrote hopefully she would have been a belebeber. really? serious history there. >> trying to get his younger tradition to believe. a lot of negative news on the biebs lately. >> i'm betty nguyen. this is "early today," just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station.

>> the number of shootings and murders that have killed police on their toes. >> a key moment for immigration reform. that story is coming up. >> the

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captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> you're watching wbal-tv 11. live, local, late-breaking. this is 11 news today at 5:00 a.m. -- if hewas my child did something, he needs to stop. >> the search continues for a teenagers. hit two >> the proposals would limit the rights of law-abiding citizens. >> not undermining second amendment rights. >> it will be a contentious week on capitol hill. we will have the latest from washington. >> it would be like other