nbc's michelle franzen is at newark's international airport tonight with that part of the story. michelle? >> reporter: lester, passengers here at newark and abroad were met with strict additional security measures in light of the latest target involving cargo shipments. that's because more than half of international air cargo bound for the u.s. is transported by passenger planes, not cargo jets. at airports around the world today heightened security following the cargo bombing attempts and heightened concerns for international travelers and those waiting for loved ones. >> with this situation going on, we have to be extra careful to be vigilant. >> reporter: at newark, jill gordon happily greeted her daughter becca, who arrived from london's heathrow. even though the suspicious packages filled with explosives were discovered on cargo jets, experts say those packages could have ended up on a passenger planes. nearly 60% of international cargo bound for the u.s. is transported on passenger flights. the problem -- screening regulations overseas vary from country to country. and that

we get more tonight from michelle franzen. >> reporter: in new rk city eight up suspects arrested overe weekend were arraigned on hate crime charges stemming from the brutal attacks of three individuals believed to be gay. they say nine members of a gang beat and tortured a 17-year-old recruit inside this bronx apartment after learning he was involved with main. >> he was thrown into a wall, made to strip naked, cut with a box cutter and sodomized with a wooden handle of a plunger. >> reporter: they attacked and tortured two more victims, unthinkable crimes premeditated and motivated by hate. >> you don't attack somebody because of who they are unless you are a ignorant coward. >> reporter: the attack marks the 50th anti-gay hate crime in the city this year, up from 41 at this time last year, and nationwide hate crimes based on sexual orientation are also on the rise. >> we have got to continue to do the work of changing hearts and minds and really getting at t root causes of hate-based violence. >> reporter: it is not always violence that triggers fearn victims. just two weeks ago rut

michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >>> that's news4 at 4:00. news4 at 5:00 starts right now. >>> two friends are killed trying to cross rockville pike over the weekend. tonight, new clues reveal what happened in the moments just before that deadly crash. go evening, everybody. i'm jim handly. >> and i'm wendy rieger. the blend shot and killed by a driver and police say alcohol with you a factor but so far there are no charges. pat collins joins us live at the montgomeryounty police headquarters. >> reporter: sources tell news4, the driver in that double fatal accint had a blood alcohol level of .13. .08 is the legal limit. also, at 3:00 a.m. at the time of the accident, the traffic signals in this intersection were flashing. the walk/don't walk signs were off. the victim, adam. 26 years old.

for "today," michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >> we're coming up on 12 minutes past the hour. time for a check on the morning's other headlines with carl quintanilla at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning, everybody. we begin in north korea where kim jong il appeared wit his successor, his youngest son, at a parade commemorating the 65th anniversary of the ruling party. >> reporter: we have been brought here to see what's been called the largest er military parade in the >>> good sunday morning. a little bit of sunshine out there on our early sunday morning. temperatures are mostly in th 50s right now. it's goingo be another ry warm afternoon today with high temperatures gradually reaching into the upper 70s and low 80s this afternoon. here is your day part forecast. in the low 60s by 9:00 a.m. near 80 by 3:00 this afternoon. and up into the mid-80s tomorrow. a slight chance for a shower tomorrow. staying warm until midweek. >>> thank you. up next "today," who's the guy that stole all the attention from this amazing tiger woods shot? we found him. right after this. ♪

for "today," michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >> we're coming up on 12 minutes past the hour. time for a check on the morning's other headlines with carl quintanilla at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning, everybody. we begin in north korea where kim jong il appeared with his successor, his youngest son, at a parade commemorating the 65th anniversary of the ruling party. >> reporter: we have been brought here to see what's been called the largest ever military parade in the country's history and that's saying? ing because practically everyone in this country is in the military. what matters here in this country is who the armed forces support. as long as the ruling family have support of the military they can keep control of the country that's been described as a cross between hitler's germany and stalin's russia. the ranks of the army in north korea will soon be ruled by the next leader in the world's only communist dynasty, a man in his 20s with little experience in global negotiation. he will have his finger on the nuclear button. no wonder the west is worried. bac

michelle franzen reports. >> reporter: new york city police say the brutal hate crimes took place at this vacant bronx apartment. the first of three attacks occurred after members of a gang called the latin king goonies beat and tortured a 17-year-old recruit they believed was involved with a 30-year-old man. >> he was thrown into the wall, made to strip naked, cut with a box cutter, and sodomized with a wooden handle of the plunger. >> reporter: throughout the night, the gang attacked another teen and dragged the 30-year-old man to the building. >> they engaged in wolfpack tactics of 9-1. >> reporter: police released this photo of the ninth suspect, still at large. 22-year-old rudy vargas perez. state leaders condemn the crime. >> we will not tolerate it in the city of new york. >> reporter: the city has seen a rash of anti gay violence and bullying cases. three men reported being attacked. including one at the legendary gay bar stonewall. and rutgers university student tyler clementi jumped off a bridge to his death after his sexual encounter was streamed over the internet. >> we'v

nbc's michelle franzen has more on this most disturbing story. good morning. >> good morning. the suspects could be arraigned as early as today. these crime have outraged residents and community leaders and it's also the latest in a series of antibullying and gay reports asking is it enough to address hate crimes. new york city police say the brutal crimes took place at this vacant bronx apartment. the first of three attacks occurred after members of the latin king goonnys beat and tortured a 17-year-old man they believe was with a 30-year-old man. he was thrown into the wall, made to strip naked, hit in the head with a beer can, cut with a box cutter anded so onlyized with the wooden handle of a plunger. later they attacked another man, dragged him to the apartment and tortured him for hours. >> these suspects had employed terrible wolf pack odds of nine against one. >> the suspects range from 16 to 23. one turned himself in. but police released the photo of the ninth suspect still at lancht 20-year-old rudy perez. in the bronx they condemn the crimes. >> we will not tolerate

michelle franzen is joining me here in studios. >> investigators are sorting through the details but here's what we know right now. 11 of the 12 people sickened were women, they were all drinking at a house party in rose lynn, washington, friday. there were 50 people at the house reported there in total, and most were students from central washington university. at some point, things got out of hand, police say. officials received a report of a young woman at a nearby grocery store who apparently overdosed and possibly assaulted. the police chief says when he spoke to the alleged victim and her friends they appeared to be severely intoxicated though they insisted they had one or two drinks tops. when they arrived they found 11 partygoers barely conscious. police suspect a drug may have been slipped into the victims' drinks. right now they're awaiting toxicology results. >> officers called in about every ambulance service that we have in the county. we certainly have seen those time of drugs in our communities before. what makes this unique, we haven't seen it on a mass scale that we

in lower manhattan, michelle franzen, news doreen, back to you. >> thank you, michelle. >>> u.s. intelligence officials are trying to peace together mo information about the possible terror plot thated to the travel alert for europe. some of the latest information under analysis includes reports that five germans were among the eight people killed in a cia drone attack in pakistan yesterday. according to reports received by nbc ws in pakistan, the other three people were taliban fighters. those reports always say that a top taliban commander survived the drone attack, his names kari husin and runs a training camp for suicide bombersp he is a top cia target because he is believed to be the mastermind on a cia post in afghanistan back in december. >>> out west they're looking for a man from maryland who vanished in yellowstone park. he's 478 years old, lived in burtonsville. they found his abandoned car on sunday night. it was not near any of the hiking trails in the park. he was on a cross country trip. park ragers have been searching from the ground and in the air for him. so far

. -- michelle franzen ahs thhas te story. these are crimes the leaders as they were motivated by hate. >> what is so upsetting is that they went looking for these particular victims because they thought they were gay. >> this started with the torture of a 17-year-old record after learning he was involved with a man. >> he was thrown into a wall, made to strip naked, hit in the head, cut with a box cutter, and sodomized with the wooden handle of this calendar. >> we will not tolerate it in the city of new york. >> human rights advocates say across the country hate crimes based on sexual orientation are on the rise coming 12 years after the debt -- after the death of matthew shepard. he was tortured and tied to a fence post because he was gay. since then, his mother has successfully fought to ban hate crimes. >> i had hoped by this point in time that kids would be more accepting and society on a whole would be more accepting of the gay community. unfortunately, we are finding that is not the case. >> it is not just violent atta

more now from nbc's michelle franzen. >> red, blue -- >> reporter: for three years she was the voiceart. >> come on, vamanos. >> reporter: nickelodeon's animated sensation, and popular kid role model, "dora the explorer." >> really happy to be a part of it. >> reporter: but now 14-year-old caitlin sanchez, shown here in august promoting dora's tenth anniversary, is suing the children's network and parent company viacom. the suit, filed by caitlin's mother and attorney, claims the tv network exploited the teen's talents. underpaying her millions of dollars for voice and singing performances, residuals, and promotional work for the multibillion dollar brand of all things dora. in a statement, attorneys say caitlin's parents were pressured to sign the original contract, and not given time to consult a lawyer, saying, quote, i've never seen as convoluted an inscrutable a contract as i've seen here. before lawyers filed the complaint, nickelodeon stopped using caitlin as the voice of dora. saying a change in the teen's voice no longer made it possible to portray the latina's character. ni

as michelle franzen reports, he told a judge that a defeat of the united states is imment. >> reporterrt, faisal shahzad remained defiant and showed no remorse for his failed times square bomb plot. instead, he said he welcomed the six life sentences handed down and claimed the defeat of the u.s. was imminent. the sentencing comes after the pakistani erican pleaded guilty in june to 10 counts of weapons charges. shahzad admitted to authorities he packed his suv full of explosives and left the vehicle on busy street in times square with the intent to kill as many people as possible. precutors entered two publicly releed videos for evidence today. one shes the fbi test blast. the force of the explosion demonstrated how deadly the bos could have been in a bustling times square. in the other, shahzad apars in a taliban produced video. >> it is

michelle franzen, nbc news, new york. >>> advocates say that school need to continue with program that teach tolerance and respect for other people's differences. >>> new york republican gubernatorial candidate carl paladino is under fire for his comments about gay marriage. he told orthodox jewish leaders rkd opposes gayarriage and doesn't consider homosexuality a valid option for children. the speech writtenor him originally included line about homosexuals being dysfunctional but he removed it. today on the "today" show he stood behind what he said. >> the remks that i made i believe them. the remarks deleted is nobody else's business. it was put in there by somebody and i'm not responsle for that. i'm only responsible forwhat i say. and i've always stood behind he go that i said. >> meanwhile paladino's campaign manager is accusing a worker for cuomo of threatening two gay members of the paladino staff. the cuomo campaign denies any confrontation ever happen. >>> coming up, a recall of the popular cholesterol lowering drug lipitor. >>> thcrime spree continues for that bold burglar s

france france -- michelle franzen has that story. >> this investment is in line with our commitment to a clean energy future where we believe beinging good environmental stewards makes good business sense. >> and an opportunity to create new industry and jobs. it would link to a major electrical grid. >> we're talking about building a transition system that will result in thousands of megawatts of wind being delivered to the east coast. >> it is the latest wind farm investment by giant goog. google has been testing high-tech machines able to stop, steer, and navigate using technology. >> it shows that google has taken great steps for the future. >> experts say these are bets the company is used to taking. >> they are not afraid of failure. the complication for them is that these sectors of business outside of web development and silicon valley may not see failure the same way google does. >> google tapping into the power of its brands along with new technology, using wind to change live as we know it on and off the internet. michelle franzen, wbal-tv 11 news. >> we're off to a clear st

. >> michelle franzen is following the case for us. where do things stand with the investigation?>> reporter: certainly, over the weekend the eight suspects out of the nine were arraigned and all entered pleas of not guilty. the charges included robbery and assault, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment under the hate crimes act. of course, they are still looking, as you mentioned, for the ninth suspect that was expected to turn himself in. we understand that the nypd is looking for him very actively with all of their resources. of course, you mentioned all of this coming to a head over the weekend. the latest in the series of hate crimes that has taken its toll not only on the city but has gained high-profile status nationwide as the country grapples with both the rhetoric of certainly anti-gay slurs as well as violent acts that have also taken present over the weekend. >> thank you for staying on top of the story. the bronx attack marks the 50th anti-hate gay crime this weekend. nationwide hate crimes based on sexual orientation are on the rise. kristen quinn, we heard you in t