making news in america this morning, alleged mastermind captured. special forces use the cover of dark this is to nab a suspect in the benghazi attack. what's next for the accused terror group leader now on his way to the united states? severe weather. more tornadoes tearing through the heartland where the dangerous conditions linger today as record-breaking heat settles down in some areas. and prime suspect. a mother who documented her son's illness online is now under arrest for his death. how prosecutors say she caused his lifelong medical crisis. caught on camera. the driver of an suv loses control and goes airborne on the side of a highway.

good wednesday morning. we're learning more about that critical takedown by u.s. special forces. >> the man believed to be the mastermind on the u.s. consulate in benghazi aboard a u.s. ship in the mediterranean. >> it remains at the center of a battle on capitol hill. tahman bradley joins us with more. >> reporter: good morning. u.s. officials tell abc news the suspect had been under surveillance in libya for months. he was surrounded by special forces and taken into custody. the obama administration thinks it's nabbed one of the masterminds of the deadly attack on the american consulate in benghazi, libya. abu had been sought by the u.s. for 21 months before special forces captured him. >> no matter how long it takes we will find those responsible. >> reporter: he is being interrogated aboard a u.s. ship

before being brought to the u.s. for trial. they hope to get as much intelligence out of him as possible. >> the most valuable thing we can get from this terrorist is information. >> reporter: u.s. ambassador chris stevens and three other mers were killed in benghazi. the massive attack fueled intense partisan criticism of the obama administration and the role of then secretary of state hillary clinton. >> we want to know who was behind it, what the motivation of the leaders and the attackers happened to be. there are still some unanswered questions. >> reporter: patricia smith's shawn was one of the americans killed and told our san diego station kagtv she still has many questions about what happened. >> i'm glad they got one of them. there was a whole bunch that set fire to that place. >> reporter: abu khatallah will be tried in federal court in washington, d.c. >> tahman bradley live in

washington. thanks. the other top issue in washington this morning is iraq. president obama has decided not to use air strikes for now because there's not enough information on gooding its. >> the president is expected to brief top lawmakers on the crisis. meanwhile, on the ground the islamic militants continue their march towards baghdad and abc's alex marquardt filed this moments ago. >> reporter: it is a fight to save the capital from falling. here kurdish fighters from northern iraq pin down as rounds from nearby isis fighters are around them. they meet the oncoming of insurgent jihadists that attack town after town and shot at a convoy of civilians this man said, the bus was carrying 24 men of they killed them all. this morning, sunni militants reportedly attacked the country's biggest oil refinery in beiji just 10 miles north of

baghdad. iraq's prime minister has appeared on tv with other leaders daaling for unity. a call that has so far fallen on deaf ears as he faces accusations of stoking the deadly sectarian violence. >> if i were an iraqi and whatever persuasion, i would be thinking hard about do i want maliki to continue to be the prime minister? he has failed as a leader. >> reporter: the u.s. is sending almost 300 troops including special forces to help secure american facilities including the embassy. president obama has ruled out putting americans into combat on the ground. this administration that proudly pulled american forces out of iraq now forced to decide to what extent they have to go back in. alex marquardt, abc news, jerusalem. >> millions of americans are watching the skies this morning with vicious storms reigniting again today. >> those storms spawned this. what the weather service is calling a large violent tornado in the town of coalridge, nebraska. they caught the slow-moving

twister on camera as it tore a path to the northeast. take a listen to those winds. officials there say it's still too early to estimate damages. >> about an hour south where a pair of giant tornadoes virtually leveled the town of pilger. nebraska's governor flew over and said it's the worst thing he's seen since he took office. dozens of homes were torn apart or damaged beyond repair. the town area is not much more than a pile of bricks. two are dead including a 5-year-old girl. the disaster has left many doubting the town can ever rebuild. >> everything is gone. they found some of my mom's clothes like three miles north. >> their motto is a town too tough to die. so i think they're going to give it every effort. >> the governor has declared a state of emergency. the national guard is moving in to help with the cleanup. the worst of stormy weather is moving east away from

nebraska. >> those hot sticky summerlike conditions are about to stifle some of the country. we continue with accuweather meteorologist jim dickey. good morning. >> keeping it mild across much of the nation's midsection on into the east. widespread 90s expected. you factor in the humidity. it will feel like triple digits from the plains to the southeast. carolinas up on towards d.c., towards philadelphia. into the 90s on the fringes that have mild air mass we'll see another round of severe storms. from philadelphia, new york city, westward across the chicago area, all the way west in the dakotas so large hail, even the threat for tornadoes. devin and reena, back to you. >> thank you, jim. overnight two death sentences have been carried out the first since that botched execution in oklahoma seven w k weeks ago. a missouri man was put to death for killing two women and in georgia marcus wellens was executed for the 1989 murder of his 16-year-old neighbor, india roberts. there appear to have been no complications in either of the

executions unlike the one in oklahoma where the condemned man eventuallily died of a heart attack. new details from the phoenix v.a. hospital at the center of that scandal. they received $10 million in bonuses even as hundreds of vets waited months to get an appointment. a newspaper investigation found that more than 2 you thousand employees got the bonuses over a three-year period. the bonuses were trigger after some staff manipulated patient wait time records. dr. oz is joining those against unscrupulous weight loss doctors. after making claims about green coffee bean extract. companies started popping up on the internet. >> why would you say that something is a miracle in a bottle? >> i still am comfortable telling folks if they can buy a reputable version, i don't sell it and these are not the long-term use. >> one company is now facing a

federal lawsuit accused of false advertising. and using dr. oz's name without permission. dr. oz says he since changed the way he talks about some products. >> now to the world cup. team usa back in preparation mode getting ready to play portugal on sunday. the players had a light workout after monday's emotional victory over ghana. jurgen klinsmann hopes jozy altidore can recover from the hamstring injury before the tournament ends but that's far from certain at this point. the world cup even has an audience in space. three astronauts on the international space station were watching monday's action. unfortunately for them they can only see 20 minutes of tv at a time due to satellite limitations. and coming up, pricey spices. popeye's shelled out a staggering amount of cab for a chicken recipe. a mommy blogger who documented her son's illness and death now accused of making him sick. how prosecutors say she did it. road to recovery the circus

acrobat seriously injured talking about how their lives are forever changed.

if you've been experiencing some sticker shock when shopping you have good reason. consumer prices are the highest they've been in three years and beef prices are now at record levels. the government says the price of beef is up an astounding 74% over the last five years. prolonged drought in texas is blamed for keeping cattle herds small. meanwhile, food costs overall are up fractionally. something else is going up. airfare. a new report says fares jumped nearly 6% in may. that's the steepest one-month

increase in 15 years. rising fuel costs because of the situation in iraq meant that ticket prices are unlikely to come down soon. amazon expected to launch its first smartphone today. one feature likely to be part of the phone is a 3d printer, photos and we should get answers about how it'll interact with amazon's retail website. fast food chain popeye's shelled out $43 million to own its own secret recipe. it turns out the original recipe had been held by a third party. the fried chicken chain had been paying more than $3 million a year in licensing fees. and when we come back, home alone. a quick-thinking little girl makes a brave move after men break into her house while she was there. a wild wreck. a jeep careens out of control and goes airborne. instead of mailing everyone my vacation photos, i'm saving a ton of time by posting them to my wall.

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welcome back. tornadoes rage in the plains and summerlike heat bakes the southwest. a rare snowfall is hitting parts of utah. three inches fell in the northern and central mountains there. a winter weather advisory in effect until noon. >> drivers there will need to be careful with lots of rain on the way. look out for wet roadways and some flooding across the northern tier. the storms are affecting air travel. airport delays are possible today in minneapolis, chicago, detroit, new york and philadelphia. back to the news now and the bizarre case involving a mommy blogger in suburban new york city. >> lacey spears wrote extensively on social media about the multiple medical crises suffered by her 5-year-old son but now she's charged with murder for killing the child by feeding him too much salt. >> this defendant researched, planned and executed her crime against her own son in a wanton and depraved manner. >> authorities suspect she poisoned the boy three types back in january.

they believe it happened when she was alone with her son in the hospital and his sodium intake spiked to suspiciously high levels. a 12-year-old girl in south florida is being lauded for stopping a burglary in progress. her name is kylie. she was home alone on monday when she heard someone trying to get inside. it's believed at least two men broke in but didn't realize the girl was home. she called her mom and then dialed 911. >> what room are you in? >> i'm in the back room and i'm in my sister's room in the bathroom there. >> i was just trying to stay calm and think of the positive things like not worry about what might happen. >> police dash cam caught the suspect's car speeding a what. believed the same man broke into a nearby home and stole thousands of dollars in jewelry and electronics. for the first time we're hearing from four of the acrobats injured during the hair-hanging circus stunt. the women are planning to sue after crashing 20 feet to the floor. it happened, of course, during

that ringling brothers show. the eight have had two dozen surgeries combined. five of them are still in the hospital. >> my dream was to be a star performer. now my dream is to get up and walk. i will walk and one day and take my 1 1/2-year-old son to a park. >> investigators believe a clip used to suspend them in the air snapped. lawyers for the women are not saying who would be the focus of their lawsuit. search crews are stepping up their efforts to find a firefighter who went missing during a camping trip in southern california. michael herdman was hiking with a friend in the rugged terrain of los padres national forest when he went running after his dog wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. he is an experienced outdoorsman so they're hopeful. a spectacular accident on interstate 70 with his cell phone camera. a jeep grand cherokee smashed

into a pickup sitting on the shoulder. it went airborne and landed in a ditch. the driver survived and is hospitalized. and an odd situation for rory mcilroy. the tweets tell the story. >> he was tweeting and says "hey, united landed in dublin yesterday morning from newark and still no golf clubs. sort of need them this week. can someone help?" he's, of course, playing in the irish open starting tomorrow. united replied we have good news. your clubs will be in tomorrow and we'll deliver them to the tournament for you. i guess we'll see. all right, at the world cup three more first round matches on the schedule today. >> south korea and russia tied yesterday. belgium won and mexico took on the host brazil. highlights from espn. >> good morning, america. welcome inside "sportscenter." i'm john buccigross. goals have been coming at a ridiculous pace but on tuesday a goalie from mexico was the star.

guillermo ochoa. to the highlights. neymar, brazil's star, attempting the header. but look at the ground, ochoa covers it and gets a mitt on it and keeps it out. 86th minute. silva gets free but, again, ochoa is there. the game ends in a scoreless draw. brazil and mexico tied atop group a. looks good for them to advance one game left in their group. mike trout had no trouble scoring tuesday night. no goalies in baseball. two home run, 15th and 16th. angels beat the indians 9-3. they hold the first wild card spot in the american league. how about masahiro tanaka of the yankees. cy young favorite, maybe an mvp candidate down the line won his 11th of the year. yankees beat the blue jay.

leads the a.l. with a 1.99 e.r.a. clearly valuable to the yankees so far. for more check out a live "sportscenter" coming up 9:00 a.m. eastern on espn. up next in "the pulse," a serious situation for the situation. new details about why police arrested the reality star. nearly an entire high school class busted for cheating on final exams. how the teacher caught on. stay with us. [ male announcer ] type 2 diabetes affects millions of us. and for many, it's a struggle to keep your a1c down. so imagine -- what if there was a new class of medicine that works differently to lower blood sugar? imagine...loving your numbers. introducing once-daily invokana®. it's the first of a new kind of prescription medicine that's used along with diet and exercise to lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes.

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detroit high school believe some students got ahold of the answers for a final exam while the teacher stepped out of the classroom and took pictures and then shared them with everyone. >> but they weren't all that cagey because almost the entire class scored 100% on the test and that made the teacher pretty suspicious. >> check those phones at the door. next up, the situation, you will likely remember him from "jersey shore." >> mike sorrentino was arrested at his new jersey tanning salon after getting into a fight with his brother franc. the sitch is charged with simple assault. >> the brothers have been fighting over twitter and it reportedly happened when he fired him from the salon. by the way, the new reality show debuts in a few weeks. >> i'm not so convinced this wasn't possibly staged. took a while for traffic to hobble back to normal after some serious gridlock in thailand. check it out. you won't believe what caused it. >> a gazillion ducks decided to cross a rural road all at once.

waddling along as drivers waited and waited and waited for them to go by. the apparently endless parade of ducks hurried through the cars after appearing completely out of nowhere. >> listen to those quacks. still not clear where they came from or where they were going to but they are going there in a hurry. >> they say it's about 100,000 ducks there and thailand, it happened in thailand. good for incredible animal video from elephants to ducks in this case. >> look out. >> it's like the running of the bulls. the running of the ducks. well, for some of you, your local news is next. for everybody else we'll be back with what our four-legged friends is really thinking. stay with us. [ male announcer ] if your road trip stops at the corner of

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>> ♪ >> hello everyone. good morning, it's 4:27, wednesday and it's days like this that we must remind you of how brutal our winter was because we'll be sizzling in summer like heat and humidity today, 3 days before summer officially arrives. meteorologist karen rogers is tracking the soaring temperatures and the potential for severe storms. a man is shot while sitting outside a home. "action news" has overnight details on what happened just before the gunfire. a marijuana bill is scheduled to get a new look from some local lawmakers. and an error forces a developer to move a $1.8 million home next on "action news." antic and gulf. and finally on this wednesday morning, getting inside the brain of man's best friend. >> now we know sometimes it doesn't seem like there's much going on in there but one expert

tells us it's not the case at all. >> and abc's clayton sandell went to find out. >> denver, did you do this? >> reporter: any dog owner will tell you that fido has feelings. >> denver, was this you? >> reporter: guilt. >> denver, you won't look at me. >> reporter: to pure joy. >> oh. >> reporter: but researcher mark beckoff who spent years analyzing dogs' play, every nip, wag and bark in slow-motion, says there is more going on. he has discovered dogs share with us a sense of fairness and might even know right from wrong. >> you can say, oh, they're just playing but they're rapidly exchanging signals. >> reporter: watch as this great dane invites a dog half its size to play. this move is called a play bow. it means i want to be your friend. >> there is no doubt about it. it's saying, okay, you're okay. let's play. >> reporter: and take a look at

this, that bite looks fierce, but this husky is holding back. bekof calls it self-hand capping, a way of playing fair. and what happens when a dog doesn't play by the rules? this little guy tries to push his way into the action, but is left barking on the sidelines. >> animals learn very fast if they violate the rules, they're ostracized. and opens the doors to animals known morality. doing what is right and wrong. >> reporter: a lot more than just the same old tricks, a closer bond than we ever thought possible. clayton sandell, abc news, boulder, colorado. >> did you know that animals can dream? >> i did not. >> yeah, apparently they can dream and have empathy as part of a test done if london. >> and morality. one thing my dog doesn't have is self-control. he would eat anything in sight. that's what's making news in america. >> stay with us for "good morning america." have a great wednesday, we'll see you back tomorrow.

>> ♪ >> "action news." delaware valley's leading news program. with matt o'donnell, tamala edwards, karen rogers and meteorologist, david murphy. >> ♪ >> hello everyone and here's what's happening on this wednesday, june 18. all set to sweat. accuweather says record highs could bake the area today plus storms are on the way. >> also this morning, and new overnight words and then gun shots. now philadelphia police are shots. >> and digging deeper. another toll hike is coming to the pennsylvania turnpike. >> and let's talk about this accuweather. it's 4:30 now. david murphy is off. >> good morning. >> good morning. let's go over to karen rogers. she's got more details on a really hot day. >> yeah, that's ri