tried to bomb times square. while in on our broadcast tonight. > candidates reshaping their images a month to go before the elecon including one candidate row assuring voters she's not a witch. a red river of toxic sludge, a new and alarming example of what we've done to our world. a woman's choice. the drastic measures some women are taking to prevent breast cancer. and making a difference. what drew a best-selling author back to the land he left more than 30 years ago. also tonight, a change coming to the white house. "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. he says he used to watch surveillance cameras to figure out what time of day times square had the most pedestrian affic so he could kill the most people when his car bomb

went off. well, we're all very fortunate that faisal shahzad and his case and where it led law enforcement was a wake-up call and helpful to u.s. investigators. his case is closed having confessed to the crime he's now going to prisofor the rest of his life. tonight in this country and around the world, there are several new developments to rert in the effort to stop terrorist before they carry ou attacks. we begin with our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell. od evening. as police crackdown on terror suspects in europe and africa here at home that would be the times square bomber was defiant as he was sentenced to a mandatory life in prison. an fbi test shows justow bad the damage could have been. a warm spring night last may. a congested times square. and a nissan path finder loaded

with exexplosives with faulty wiring. faisal shahzad smirking and taunting the judge, said, brace yourselves. the war with muslims has just begun. consider me only a first droplet of the flood that will follow me. the judgtold him -- i hope that you'll spend some of the time in prison thinking carefully about whether the kuran wants you to kill people. in a video the government released prior to today's sentencing, shahzad, who became a u.s. citizen last year appeals for attacks against the u.s. >> i've been trying to join my brothering in jihad since 9/11 happened. perfectly appropriate that he forfeited freedom because he was early willing to forfeit people's lives. >> reporter: shahzad in pakistan cia drones attacked yesterday killing germans but nbc news learned missing their real target. top taliban commander and master trainer, who builthe bomb that killed seven cia officers in afghanistan last december.

hussein was inside the house but local sources tell nbc news escaped with bruis. intelligence officials say pakistan's training camps preparing as many as 100 westerners ready to launch plots in europ only today, police in france arrested a dozen suspects. and a german was arrested in kenya. >> western europeans are the perfect al qaeda operative. they have have clean passports and don't fill the profile of previous al qaeda terrorists and because they don't neevisas inside western europe they can move from country to country. >> reporter: u.s. officials say they cannot confirm that he survived the drone attack in pakistan. other officials say today's arrests in france prov they were right to issue the travel alert for americans abroad. brian? >> andrea mitchell starting us off. a month away from an election day that some pollsters say could be historic.

voters are angry. in the midst of a prolonged bad econy and a violent anti-incumbent mood that led to some surge candidates getting traction. nothat we're in the fina weeks some of the outsiders are trying to polish their images and others are doing damage control. kelly o'donnell has the report. >> reporter: after her own words brought the tea party star weeks of ridicule -- >> i dabbled into witchcraft and hung around people who were doing these things. >> reporter: a top gop advertising firm from california toned down christine o'donnell's look and took on her past. >> i'm not a witch. i'm nothing you've heard. i'm you. >> reporter: in new york, another tea party republican, carl paladino attempted a le glossy image fix. after damage done by this heated scuffle with a reporter --

>> this campaign is not about my family. it's not about divorces or affairs. reporter: paladino posted on the web this calm and serious campaign video. starkly different this year, a number of outsiders candidates are doing fewer traditional voter events. >> so increasingly we're seeing campaigns being run via television commercial with less and less interaction between the candidates and the voters in between the ndidates and reporters. >> reporter: in connecticut, where democrat dick blumenthal, and republican linda mcmahon, their negative ads hit the big screen and each other. >> he lied abo vietnam, what else is he lying about? >> she took home $46 million and now she's talking about lowering the minimum wage. >> mcmahon was angry. >> i never said it. >> and he's contrite, admitting that he did not go to vietnam while in uniform. >> i want to say that i'm sorry. particularly to our veterans. >> reporter: blumenthal's big

lead over the former wrestling ceo has narrowed. >> the civility will probably break down even further in the next several weeks. who knows what kind of ads they have in store. >> rorter: in west virginia's tight senate race national republicans are spending millions to link the democratic governor to president obama. >> we better keep joe right here in west virginia. >> awafrom washington. >> yup. that's the only way we're going to stop obama. >> reporter: and governor has a high job approval rating, but is in a tgh fight in the senate race. one other note, brian, many states have early voting and in some places that's already started so a campaign desion today or next week could actually be the last word for some of those early voters. >> working so far out ahead. kelly o'donnell watching the campaign for us. thanks. in just about every city or town in this country you can find a place where toxic chemicals are stored. and an incident overseas tonight has a lot of people wondering -- could this kind of thing happen

here? and what have we done? all of us, to our natul worl it's sludge from an industrial plant, tons of it, flowing through several towns in hungary. at least four people are dead and over 100 others affected physicallynd tonight, there are fears of a major environmental catastrophe. we get more from stephanie gosk. >> reporter: in this video it looks like a mudslide, flooding streets and destroying homes. but there is nothing natural about this disaster. a waste reservoir at an aluminum plant in hungary burst unleashing 35.3 million cubic feet of red chemical sludge. four people are dead. another six are still missing. in some places, the hazardous tide rose six feet. my father had to push my mother out the window, this man says, he's in the hospital now. the waste created in the production of aluminum is filled with heavy metals cluding lead. it can burn thskin.

more than 120 people were brought to the hospital with injuries. i have burns up to mchest, this woman says, it feels like it's still burning. hungary's president declared an emergency in three counties and met with victims. on top of the human tragedy officials say it's a disaster. the sludge is dangerously close to polluting the danube river and could kill local wildlife. the government launched an investigation into what they say is clearly a man-made disaster. in atatement, the company that runs the pnt said there were no signs the reservoir was about to break and that the waste is not considered toxic by european union standards. the nearly 7,000eople swamped by chemical sludge may disagree. stephanie gosk, nbc news, london. and back in this country, we learned the verdict today in one of the worst cases of murder and home invasion we've ever seen and the details to be honest, are tough to watch.

this attack in a suburban connect home three years ago, left a woman and her two daughters dead and a father now alone life, to live with those memories. nbc's jeff rossin has covered the triafrom the start and he's live for us in new haven, connecticut. jeff, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. as you mentioned the crime was so horrific the evidence during the trial was so gruesome with photos and videos and audiotapes and there were times the jurors themselves were crying in the jury box. it took them less than five hours to reach a verdict. guilty of 16 felonies including capital murder. it is a bittersweet victory for the lone survivor. >> there's just been a lot of support. >> dr. william petit who waited three years for this day. steven hayes, found guilty. the man that tortured and killed his wife, jennifer and their two daughters, 11-year-old michaele and 17-year-old haley, now faces possible execution. >> what was going through your

mind as they read each count, guilty, guilty, guilty? >> justears of relie that's all. just -- i was trying to maintain my composure. >> reporter: prosecutors say they broke into the petit home as the family slept in 2007. tying william petit to this pole in the basement and his two girls to their bed posts upstairs. i hrd the moaning and thumps, he testified. surveillance tape shows jennifer petit withdrawing $15,000 from a local bank to pay the men threatening her family while the bank manager called 911. >> we have a lady who is in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house. that if the police are told they will kill the children and husband. >> reporter: jennifer petit was sexually assaulted and strangled

and then the suspect set fire to the house. william petit came to court every day surrounded by extended family and suppoers. he says he's grateful for the finding but it won't bri his family back. >> i miss them every day and i try to focus on them and the goodness they had to get through each day. >> reporter: here is what's next. that same jury that decided guilt or innocence today will come back to court later this month to begin the sentencing phase and decide once and for all, whether steven hayes should be put to death. we should note, brian, just after what happens the other suspect, the other suspect, will stand trial. >> at least this chapter of this just increble story is now over. jeff rossin in new haven, thanks. the obama white house announced today they are installing solar panels on the roof of the white house itself, to make it more energy ficient. and there was something about hearing that story today that

sounded very familiar to us. >>he president carter went up on the roof of the white house today to show off the new solar water heaters installed there. and he called for using solar power to produce 20% of this country's energy within 20 years. >> and so in this way, the white house itself, nicely mirrors our national energy policy over the years. it was ronald reagan who ordered the carter era solar panels taken off the roof and now, new panels go up there as if nothing has changed. when our broadcast continues in just a moment, women making a wrenching medical decision. to try to save their own lives. and later, a best-selling author goes home to afghanistan to try to find homes for so many displaced by years of war.

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we have a story here tonight about a wrenching decision that more women are making regardin their own health. ever since a gene mutation tied to ovarian and breast cancer was discovered, women who have found they have it must consider whether toave their own breasts removed, even with no sign of cancer present. researchers say preventative mastectomy can reduce the chance of developing cancer to less than 1%. our chief medical editor dr. nancy snyderman has this report. >> reporter: in august of 2008, 21-year-old claudia giore got the call from a genetic counselor that dramatically changed her life. >> i could tell by the tone of her voice it wasn't going to be good news. >> rorter: tests showed that she had inherited a genetic mutation called br ac-1 believed to affect one in every 800

people. the gene and a related people called brac ii incases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer several fold. >> the risover a lifetime for a mutation carrier would be between 40 and 75%, roughly. versus about 10% in the general population. >> reporter: the standard course for a brac carrier is usually, watch and wait, with more frequent breast images and more biopsies. ving watched her beloved grandmother succumb to the disease that threatened her own life, claudia made a decision. >> on january 11th, 2011, i will have a doue mastectomy, this is surgical removal of the breasts. >> reporter: it can slash th risk to 80% to practically zero. >> we take the breast tissue off the muscle. e.r.a. oh. >> reporter: the director of the

breast health center at georgetown university hospit says she's seeing an increase in the number oyoung women choosing surgery. >> once you find out you're a gene mutation carrier it's not so much a matter of if you're going to do something, it's often times matter of when yore going to do it. >> reporter: patient advocates say women need to be fly informed. >> women need to understand that this is not an easy fix. that they will have to have multiple surgeries for reconstruction, and there is no guarantee that they won't get breast cancer or some other kind of cancer. >> i'm trying to soak it in. >> reporter: claudia h been documenting her experience in blogs as she anxiously awaits the surgery she says she's come to see as a gift. >> to know that i have become my own biggest hero and i define my destiny. >> reporter: a very personal and controversial choice for a growing number of women. dr. nancy snyderman, nbc news, new york. when we come back, talk of a change in the air on board commerci flights.

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upwards of hundreds of flights a week across the country. at first, they were more often than not, men in suits in first class, on the aisle, with nothing to read or listen to. they were very easy to spot. but a story in the "wall street journal" saysome airlines believe the marshalls belong in coach where most of the people are and where most of the threat wod be now that the cockpit doors are re-enforced and congregating in the front of the plane isn't allowed. both the attempted shoe bombing and the christmas-day attempted bombing in detroit originated with coachassengers. big news about the ipad. the most quickly adopt electronic device ever, other than cell phones. in english, that means we're buying ipads faster than we ever bought things like dvd players or other electronics wn they first came out. 3 million people bought ipads on the first 80 days they were on sale on selling over a million a month. one business analyst called it a run-away success of unprecedent

proportion. less successfuwas the new bag sun chips came in. it made a sound similar that that of a jet engine, the cost of good intentions as it was made of a cringely but well-intentioned bdegradable material. if you went anywhere neait or tried to open it or tried to reseal it, all conversation in the room had to stop. you couldn't hear the tv or the sound of, say, a passing train or a rolling stones concert. the sun chips folks have relented mostly. they have announced they're changing the packaging on all but the original version of their chips. there's still time. when we me back here tonight, he wrote a best-selling story of friendship and love. now the author of "the kiterunner" has gone back the land and the people he left to make a difference there. ...as well as motorcycle insurance... gecko: oh...sorry, thnical difficulties.

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if jaw problems or severe bone, joint, anor muscle pain develop, tell your doctor. i'veot this one body and this one life. so i take boniva, which has helped me stop losing and start reversing. ask your doctor about boniva today. to get one month free, plus more tips, visit boniva.com or call 1-800-4boniva. we're back and it's time for we're back and it's time for our "making a difference" report and tonight it's about khaled hosseini, a man americans may knows the author othe best seller "the kiterunner" a novel that shaped ny people's views of his native land, afghanistan, where america has been at war for years. that war is displaced millions

of people. the violence has driven them out of their homes. that's where khaled hosseini comes in hoping to make a difference back home. our own john yang has the report from kabul >> reporter: best selling author khaled hossein is back at his birth place, enjoying a childhood pleasure, the afghan national pastime of kite flying. >> i was one of those kids flying kits when i was a kid here. >> reporter: hosseini who lives in northern california is best known for writing "the kiterunner" a novel that becam an award-winning movie. on only his fourth trip back to afghanistan since leaving as an 11-year-old boy, he's on a mission to find much-needed shelter for the country's 2.8 million displaced persons. >> they make do with so little. >> reporter: 45 families have been living in this abandoned school for as long as eight years. about 100 more are in the field behind. no running water, no

electricity, no heat. sseini says it's more than just a warm place to sleep. >> a sense of dignity and a sense of belonging. a sense of cultural shame about being homeless. >> reporter: this man has been squatting here with his eight children since last year when they fled the violence. >> this is the reason i've come back to afghanistan. there's so many stories like this. a colleae of mine likes to say that there are a thousand tragedies per uare mile. >> reporter: a trained physician, he's horrified to discover that the mud from his house comes from a pool of standing water littered with garbage and human waste. >> this is a nightre because i can imagine all the pathogens that are floating around. >> reporter: since 2008, his foundation raised enough money to place 170 displaced family a number he's trying to double. >> there's sill a long way to go and the afghan people are hopeful the international

community will remain engaged with their country. >> reporter: a man with high hopes for the land he left more than 30 years ago but still feels connected to in his heart. john yang, nbc news, kabul. and if you're interested in learning more about his foundation and learning more from him, you can logon to our website nightly.msnbc.com. at's it for now. thank you and we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. for now. for now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

four years ago, bob ehrlich got fired as governor of maryland. for good reason. first, he protected tax loopholes for giant cable ble companies. then, he let utilities jack up our rates %. and for the last four years, he worked as a hired gun for big