nbc's mike taibbi is in tripoli with more on last night's nato strike. >> reporter: there's no doubtre was an air attack. nato confirmed it. reporters here who are tightly controlled were bussed to the scene to record the damage. two of the four structures at the compound destroyed. blood trails on the floor. a government spokesman says moammar gadhafi's son, saif al arab, was killed. at the time of the air strike on saturday night, gadhafi and his wife were also reportedly in the compound for a family gathering. >> he's in good health. he wasn't harmed. his wife also is in good health. she wasn't harmed. >> reporter: in rebel controlled benghazi, eastern libya, there were celebrations of the news that the strikes had killed members of gadhafi's family. there are also doubts expressed that gadhafi's son was actually killed. nato's commander said all targets were military in nature. that nato had no independent confirmation of casualties or of the identity of any casualties. in fact, though, the air strike was the third in a week that reportedly came close to taking out gadhafi himsel

the story tonight from nbc's mike taibbi. >> reporter: on summer mornings on the southern tip of newaise a special flag each day. it's the coffin flag of a fallen u.s. veteran, brought by family members to sunset beach. on this day it's the flag that once draped the coffin of felice uzalino, dora to her friends, who served in the army during world war ii. >> my mother would be honored and very proud of this day. she's like up there. she's just flowing with the wind. you know. standing tall like my mom would. >> reporter: the flags were the idea of sunset beach owner marvin hume, himself a world war ii veteran, who lost a childhood friend when the japanese attacked pearl harbor. his friend's body was never recovered, but hume wanted to find a way to salute his sacrifice. >> i thought, here's the last flag in the southern part of our state. what a place to honor my friend. >> reporter: and then in 1973, to honor others who'd perished in service to their country, he ran a single newspaper ad asking for veterans' coffin flags to fly. >> all filled up. >> yeah. every other page we're all

nbc's mike taibbi is in tripoli. mike, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this happened at about 8:30 last night. we heard two huge explosions near the hotel and were taken to the compound of saif al arab gadhafi, the youngest of the seven sons of moammar gadhafi. he, according to a spokesman, was killed along with three of colonel gadhafi's grandchildren, all said to be 12 years old or younger. now it was said to us by a government spokesman this was a direct attack to try to assassinate the leader of the country. it is said they do not target families. there was an air strike at that location, he could not independently confirm any casualties or the identity of those casualties but now the story from the libyan government is that the youngest son of moammar gadhafi and three of the grandchildren have been killed. gadhafi himself, by the way, has almost been killed three times this week in air strikes that came quite close to where he was. earlier yesterday in a long rambling speech on state television, he reiterated his defiance. he said i'm not going to

we want to get more reaction from mike taibbi in europe. and when we heard that the president was going to be doing the 10:30 p.m. press conference on sunday night, and a lot of people harkened back to the news that there was a nato air strike that harkened in libya that killed one of moammar gadhafi's sons, and people thought it had to do with moammar gadhafi, and people were floored it had to do with osama bin laden. so how is the reaction playing out there in libya? >> well, it thomas, it is interesting to hear the reaction, because we just returned from saif al arab who was reportedly killed in the nato air raid, at his funeral. of course, there were calling for revenge, and i was getting translations of the remarks of osama bin laden lives on and on, and i spoke to a businessman about 30 years old and he made a speech to me that while he is not defending gadhafi necessarily and it is wrong for a sovereign nation to send people into another country, excuse me, and assassinate anybody, and let him have the say. i asked him what he though

mike taibbi, nbc news, tripoli. >> nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel is in benghazi tonight where is this conflict headed? >> reporter: well, there seems to be a growing consensus that gadhafi himself is a target. and the question is, will nato continue this process of targeting gadhafi directly or at least his compound? many people here feel that gadhafi should be targeted. he's been taking a series of steps to escalate this conflict, particularly over the last several days. he's mined the port of misratah, making it very difficult for humanitarian ships to bring aid to that besieged city. he's also encouraged his own supporters in tripoli to carry out those vigilante attacks against the embassies of the uk and italy. also the compound of the united nations. the u.n. said today it is evacuating its foreign staff, and people here believe that as gadhafi gets more and more desperate, he will become more dangerous. and they hope that gadhafi will be targeted directly. >> and if he is being targeted directly and this is, in effect, regime change, a tentative regime change we're

mike taibbi is there for us. mike, have we gotten that confirmation? >> reporter: no, we have not. we have to use the word reportedly a lot. yes, this is all coming from the libyan government spokesman who said last night at about 8:30 at night we heard the explosions, that among the victims were moammar gadhafi's youngest son, saif al arab, and three of his grind children, all said to be under the age of 12. now, in the meantime, a lot has happened as a consequence of this reported incident last night, the reported deaths last night that have not been confirmed independently. there have been protest demonstrations all throughout the city. we confirmed that with the libyan government spokesman, that the british embassy was attacked. in exchange for that, the libyan ambassador to london, and also alleged attacks to the italian embassy. they all have been vacant for obvious reasons, but supposedly they've been attacked and even ransacked. in exchange the government has expelled the libyan ambassador our he said i'm looking for a flight out of the great britain. that seems to confirm

we were at the hotel here downtown, and you could feel the rumbling -- >> unfortunately, we lost mike taibbias given after the attack. >>> so let's go back to rome. we'll give it another shot right now regarding the beatification with pope john paul ii, with chris jansing, who is live there for us. delivering mass, what did he say about his predecessor? >> reporter: we heard about a pope john paul ii that the people in the crowd really know, a great leader of chris ant chr. and they upped the number of pilgrims that turned out for the beatification ceremony, 1.5 million people that crowded the streets. just starting with the appearance of pope benedict, who was close and worked for many, many years alongside pope john paul ii at the vatican. they knew each other very well. it was that moment when they unveiled right in front of st. peter's behind me, that beautiful tapestry with the picture of pope john paul ii on it, about 17 years into his service, and you see the life in him and the cheer that went up from the crowd was long and sustained and the flags were flying and people crying, and i

mike taibbi is there. good morning. >> reporter: it happened 8:30 local time. we heard two explosions, and we were brought to the cam pound for the gadhafi family, we were shown that two were virtually destroyed, and there was ununexploitunune ununexploded missile. it was explained that the youngest of the seven sons of moammar gadhafi had been killed, along with three of the gadhafi's grandchildren, all under the age of 12. the government spokesman called it a direct operation aimed at an assassination of the country. and in all instances in the campaign bombing were targeted on military targets. he said we do not target individuals or individual families, and he regretted any loss of life, especially innocent civilians. again, the youngest of moammar gadhafi as well as three grandchildren, killed. >>> let's bring in mike viqueira. >> reporter: good morning, alex. >> what is nato saying about the strike? >> reporter: well, there is a contradiction from the u.n. mission resolution security counsel, 1973, and 1975, their numbers to protect libyan civilians from

>> mike taibbi, thank you very much. >>> it is 7:04 pacific time. here's matt. >>> one of the most influential bankers in the world and a possible candidate for the presidency of france is due in a new york court this morning after he was arrested and charged with a sexual assault at a luxury manhattan hotel. jeff rossen is outside the courthouse. good morning. >> reporter: just to give you an idea how powerful this man is, he runs the international monetary fund that controls about a trillion dollars. so obviously he travels well and he was in new york city this weekend, staying at one of the nicest suites at one of the nicest hotels in midtown manhattan just steps from times square. police say inside he sexually assaulted one of the hotel maids twice in a violent, violent rage. this morning he's gone from luxury to a holding cell here at court. you may not recognize his face or his name but make no mistake, dominique strauss-kahn is one of the leaders of the world. as leader of the international monetary fund, the imf, strauss kahn lends money to

but first here's nbc's mike taibbi. >> kate mccann writes she might have missed a warning from madeleine. she also says a note left by staff might have tipped about a pedophile. it was just days before her birthday when little madeleine disappeared from her bedroom. her twin siblings were asleep nearby. but that morning her mom kate writes why didn't you come when sean and i cried last night? she changed the subject quickly but kate writes she might have missed a hugely important clue. it's my belief there was somebody in or trying to get in the children's bedroom that night. she also reveals that a staff had posted a note that a predator might have seen that the children might have been left unattended while they dined minutes away. they checked every 15 minutes or so until the last time when madeleine was gone and the window was open. >> when i went in, there was a gust that blew the curtains opened, that's when i knnoticed that the shutter had been pulled off. >> kate concentrated on the find madeleine website which

mike taibbi has more. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, meredith.an official reason given for the delay in the royal honeymoon but the american raid that killed osama bin laden has been floated as a possible reason. now there is confirmation that the honeymoon has begun and reportedly in a location few had guessed. the royal wedding was seen by billions worldwide and covered by more cameras and international press than any other event in television history. but there was one question no one could answer -- where were william and kate going on their honeymoon? the answer, at least according to the british tabloids is the se seychelles, a destination both william and kate visited before in 2007. the islands have always had a special meaning for the couple. >> it was there that their reck centu reconciliation happened and a lot of promises were made there. >> reporter: they both enjoy soaking up rays and have a passion for water sports. it's the perfect paradise for sailing and scuba diving. throughout the wedding coverage the betting was either an isl