pete williams in d.c. tonight. pete, thanks. >>> and tonight there is fresh evidence of what the world has feared and assumed watching this ongoing nuclear crisis day after day at japan's fukushima power plant. it's serious enough now to be put in the same category by the japanese themselves as the 1986 disaster at chernobyl. nbc's john yang is with us tonight from tokyo. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. for many japanese when the government put the nuclear crisis in the same category as chernobyl it was the strongest psychological aftershock yet. from a remote-controlled mini helicopter, one of the closest, most dramatic looks yet at the wreckage of the fukushima power plant, now officially one of the two worst nuclear accidents ever. today japanese officials raised it from level 5 to level 7, defined by the international atomic energy agency as a major accident with widespread health and environmental effects. only chernobyl was worse. that disastrous 1986 explosion released ten times the radi

>> pete williams at the justice department tonight. pete, thanks. >>> now we turn to libya and the news from there tonight. after a two-day extension over the weekend, u.s. military officials now tell nbc news american war planes tonight are really going to end their air strike mission against moammar gadhafi's military targets, but they will continue to fly what they call support missions for nato aircraft. >>> meanwhile, libyan rebels and gadhafi's forces are in a standoff tonight in the strategic oil town of brega today. our chief foreign correspondent richard engel traveled there today and back. he's now back in benghazi where he joins us tonight. richard, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. that support mission remains very significant here. it means that u.s. aircraft will be refuelling other jets, collecting intelligence and if specifically requested by another nato partner, flying combat missions as well. the front line on the desert highway outside brega can change in seconds. gunfire by gadhafi's troops forces the

our report on all of it tonight from pete williams. >> reporter: it's not just apple's mobile devices that store and send out data on where they are. so it turns out do phones operating with google's android software. a convicted computer hacker turned consultant said he discovered android phones report their locations to google several times an hour. >> people don't know that when they have this phone in their pocket, it's constantly sending their information, their coordinates and information about all the wireless networks around them. >> that news and this week's disclosure that the iphone and ipad store a year'woh ea of data on where users have been have some consumer groups wondering if apple can still claim to be the anti-big brother it did in this iconic 1984 tv ad. >> it's definitely weird that something could track me and my location at all times. >> when i heard they could be following our every move, the first thing i did was shut off the satellite tracking on the phone. >> reporter: and members of congress have questions about potential misuse. >> i'm concerned an iphone

that story from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> today we announce the homeland security advisory system. >> reporter: announced with great fanfare shortly after the 9/11 attacks, color-coded alerts were intended to indicate changes in the severity of the terror threat. >> we're now at high risk. >> the united states government is raising the threat level. >> raising the threat level to our highest level of alert, severe, or red. >> but after changing the threat color 16 times, the government concluded the system was useful mainly to late-night comics. >> a color-coded threat advisory system you'll want to consult every morning to make sure your outfit matches your dread. >> so today, the homeland security department announced a new system of streamline alerts intended to be more informative. they'll be issued at two levels, elevated when there's potential information about a threat, and imminent when information is specific about a target and suggests an attack could come soon. the homeland security expert said the alerts will provide specifics. >> they will say how you

pete williams from washington. >> reporter: the playstation network has been shut down for a week after a massive hacker attack. sony is telling their 20 plus million u.s. subscribers that their names, addresses, birth dates, and passwords were stolen, and they can't rule out the possibility that credit card numbers were taken, too, throw not the security numbers. sony urges customers to watch their credit card accounts for possible fraud. >>> and we heard from apple today a week after researchers found that the ipod and ipad record the user's movement. they keep a record of the nearby cell phone towers and wi-fi hot spots they encounter so they can triangulate where they are. that's useful for applications like maps that depend on specific locations. the company said it never intended the phones to store an entire year's worth of those results and said that will be soon corrected and the data will be encrypted in the next version of the soph ware, and apple said they never used the information to track the movements of individual customers. >> our justice correspondent, our electronics

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> still to come, tale of the tape. lohan 911 calls from the heated betty ford clinic confrontat >>> and a dream come true for a girl whose story will touch and inspire you. we'll tell you more about it after these messages. your joint, but of the things you love to do. your joint, and the longer you live with the aching, swelling, and stiffness, the closer you may be to having your favorite things... taken away from you. but you can take action today. go to ra.com for your free joint profile so you can better talk to your rheumatologist about protecting your joints. air optix contacts let up to five times more oxygen through the lens for enhanced breathability. air optix. the lens you can survive a long day in. go to airoptix.com for a free one-month trial offer. air optix. the lens you can survive a long day in. ["stir it up" playing] stir up a smile with hershey's syrup. to have their close-ups taken by a fashion photographer. then we asked them to try new dove visible care. a revolutionary new line of body wash with

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams has details on this. pete, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. tl attorney general says he's still convinced that a federal courtroom here in the u.s. is the best place for a federal trial. he says that's where the strongest evidence can be presented. he said he has to accept that congress simply won't let that happy. >> they'll be brought to new york. new york. >> reporter: a year and a half after declaring that the 9/11 trials would be held in new york at the scene of the crime for attack mastermind khalid sheikh mohammed and four others accused of helping him, attorney general eric holder says they will now be tried before a mill trar tribunal at a navy base at guantanamo bay where they've been held since 2006. >> we simply cannot allow a trial to be delayed any longer for the victims of the 9/11 attacks or for their family members who have waited for nearly a decade for justice. >> reporter: relatives of some 9/11 victims say it's the right decision. >> we don't need these people, the

>> pete williams, thank you very much. it's 7:11. here's david. >> donald trump isn't backing down from controversial comments he made with meredith but how accurate were the things he said? lisa miers did some fact checking. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. donald trump built his large persona by being bold, entert n entertaining and outrageous. now that he's running for president we thought his words deserved a closer look. trump says everything with certainty. take this about the 9/11 terrorists. >> the terrorists, almost every single one of them sent their families back a day early. you know they all went to saudi arabia. >> reporter: there is no evidence that families of the 9/11 hijackers were in the united states. some bin laden family members were flown out after the attack, after being screen bid the fbi. in his exclusive interview with meredith on "today" trump spent time questioning whether president obama was born in the u.s., demanding that the presidents produce his actual birth certificate. >> he doesn't have a

pete williams is at reagan national airport with details. good morning to you. >> reporter: meredith, this is one of the most sensitive issues the tsa faces, how to screen young children who often don't understand what's happening. it's upset some parents as well. now the tsa says there may be more changes coming. the latest example of the sensitivity comes from this video, now making the rounds on the internet. it was recorded by parents at that time airport in new orleans and shows a girl said to be 6 by the parents, at the checkpoint. the mother is heard if the child can't be screened again instead of patted down. the female screener used the back of her hand part of the time and runs a hand around the inside top of the girl's waistband explaining every step in advance as the child's mother watches. when the mother posted the video she called the process groping. after tsa began screening last fall with more use of full body scanning and more intrusive pat-downs, tsa said it would use a modified version of the pat-down for children under

pete williams has more on the complaint filed with the city of chicago's commission on human relations. good morning. >> reporter: a lawyer for jesse jackson and the rainbow push coalition says the man was fired as part of a general round of layoffs and denies discrimination. although the complaint was filed nearly a year ago it's just now coming to light. the allegations are made by a chicago man, tommy bennett who worked for jesse jackson and the rainbow push coalition for two and a half years. some complaints allege overt anti-gay comments and actions. bennett claims another employee refused to work under his supervision. in the complaint bennett said the woman led a prayer and said get these homosexuals out of here and do it in jesus' name. bennett complained to jackson and notes the woman left rainbow push a short time later. he said other employees took his responsibilities because they didn't like his sexual orientation. bennett makes claims against jackson himself, some in graphic detail. he says in 2008 in a hotel at the chicago airport jackson made gestures and comments that

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins us with the latest on this.ning. >> reporter: ann, police are following new leads they hope will be productive. they still don't know what happened to felicia barnes or how she spent her final days. the long and frustrating search for felicia barnes ended in the icy waters in maryland when her body was found near a dam 40 miles northeast offal baltimore nearly four months after she disappeared around christmas time. >> all of us since that day in december have been praying and hopeful for a different outcome. >> reporter: a high school honor student she was last seen visiting family in december 28th. her picture was flashed on electronic highway billboards and though it became a national story. >> tell us when the last time you spoke with your daughter. >> reporter: some say it may have drawn more attention if she had been white. as for how she died police say there were no obvious signs of trauma but said there could be a connection to another man whose body was found in the river at about the same time hers wa