nbc's mike tiabbi with us tonight from london with more. mike, good evening. >> good evening, brian. even among media watchers who have been transfixed by this story, there was one reaction i heard several times today, we didn't see this coming. the news of the world, the lynch pin of rupert murdock's media empire, gone as of sunday. >> reporter: the latest allegation that may have been the breaking point that grieving relatives of british solders killed in action have had their cell phones hacked and their voicemail messages accessed. >> if the actions are proved to have been verified, i'm appalled. i find it disgusting. >> reporter: prime minister david cameron and both sides of the aisle in a rare emergency session in the house of commons. all in agreement that the public needs to know who was hacked, who did it and what they're doing about it. >> obviously the people responsible must pay a penalty. >> reporter: in fact while 80-year-old rupert murdock dodged reporters' questions, his son james said if the allegation is true, the breach i

nbc's mike tiabbi is thehere inn maloot. where the rebels say they're preparing for an all-out assault on gadhafi's center of power. mike, good evening. >> reporter: brian the rebels here say they have a better shot at getting to tripoli and getting to moammar gadhafi than those in the east who have been stalled hundreds of miles away for months. but gadhafi is fighting back too, turning his town into a ghost town. three more platoons of rebel soldiers ready to join the war. the training here in maloot, just 40 miles from the border crossing in tunisia the rebels control. they also control almost all the mountain towns along the main highway supplying the gadhafi regime in tripoli. now the rebels are aiming for the town of garyan, less than 60 miles from the capital. the commander of the rebel forces who asked not to be identified because of fear of retribution against his family says the rebels can win, but need more help from nato. right now, as men try to salvage captured gadhafi army weapons because they don't have enough

mike tiabbi is in the region with the very latest for us live, good morning to you, mike. >> reporterow are you? those rebel fighters have made lunching process this week, more advances, one step back, a couple forward. the next target, the target garyan, a couple of miles from where we are now, we're talking about tripoli itself and mounting an attack there, we were told there are armed groups of rebels waiting for the signal to move. none of that could happen without the help that was promised at this point. by any measure, this has clearly been an up and down week for the rebels here, winning then losing, then fighting to retake a single town, qawalish, that will move them one notch closer to tripoli, about 80 miles away now. the new promise of international financial and political support was welcome news for these fighters. says former gadhafi air force colonel, juma ibrahim who's now fighting for the rebels. the chances for a rebel victory seemed limited in our two visits to the changing front line earlier in the week. we all stick together, right? okay. we saw very young fighte

nbc's mike tiabbi has been in the fight this week and reports from the town of qawalish in that region. >> reporter: by any measure, this has clearly been an up and down week for the rebels, winning and losing and fighting to retake a single town, wrk qawalish that would have moved them one notch closer to tripoli. the new promise of international, financial and political support was welcome news for these fighters. said former gadhafi air force colonel, who's now fighting for the rebels. is that good news for you to hear? >> exactly, it's very, very good news and gives us more of a chance to give freedom to our people and our country, especially. >> reporter: the chances for a rebel victory seemed limited in our two visits to the changing front line earlier in the week. we all stick together, right? okay. >> reporter: we saw very young fighters going into battle with home made rocket launchers and then scattering with gadhafi's heavier artillery landed close by. the rebels have been left with a catch-as-catch-can arsenal. weapons seized from gadhafi's troops were made from scratch, or