at it'll peak timbucktu had the greatest libraries in africa.n rors are paying to restore, as timbucktu lost and then rediscovered is lowly being reborn. richard engel, nbc news, timbucktu. >>> that's "nbc nightly news" for this 10th day of 1th month of 2010. "football night in america" is next followed bysunday night football." the eagles and the 49ers. brian williams will be here tomorrow. from all of us here at nbc news, good night. -- captions by vitac -- w.vitac.com

richard engel's remarkable journey from here to timbucktu. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good evening, tonight there is a light at the end of the tunnel for those 33 trapped miners in chile who after more than two months could be hoisted to freedom by the middle of this week. following a day of high emotion as a drill boring a res crew sthaft finally broke through to the miners, today preparations are under way to lift them to the surface. if drilling a hole to reach them was tough, actually bringing them out safely is potentially more risky. kerry sanders is above the mine tonight. >> reporter: today alicia penned what she hopes is the last letter to her son daniel. she wants to see him, hug him, kiss him. on saturday teams here took a huge step in this rescue effort, one of three drills racing to the 33 men down below punched through 622 meters, that's 2,040 feet of some of the hardest rock on earth. at the drill's controls american jefl hart who you can barely here come on, baby, come on baby. >> we came here with a goa

ahead on our special series "today's" journey to secret kingdoms, we're going to travel to the real timbucktut duke university, a joke between girlfriends just sparked a national debate about men, women and sex. >> i had the best time of my life last night, twice and once this morning. >> reporter: men have been getting away with it for years, bragging about their sexual conquests. the ladds can play that game too. karen was a student at duke, just graduated and wrote this 42-page december siration about -- no secrets here, karen used their names and shirtless pictures. we're hiding their identities. karen ranked the men by physical attractiveness, talents, creativity and aggressiveness. >> at first i was pretty excited when i saw it. i was like, good for her, this is awesome. >> reporter: karen wrote this about a duke lacrosse player, experience was on his side and he used it. and another man, he was terrible, don't even bother to kiss me more than a few seconds. karen meant the sex list only for her friends, but it made the rounds. this girl gets a fist pump and then some from me, one woman

ahead on our special series "today's" journey to secret kingdoms, we're going to travel to the real timbucktu. >>> we'll begin with more fallout over the duke graduate's list of sexual encounters she said she had with athletes on campus. here is jeff rossen. >> reporter: at duke university, a joke between girlfriends just sparked a national debate about men, women and sex. >> i had the best time of my life last night, twice and once this morning. >> reporter: men have been getting away with it for years, bragging about their sexual conquests. now karen owen is proving the ladies with play that game, too. karen was a student at duke, just graduated and wrote this 42-page presentation about her sex life on campus, going into graphic detail about 13 duke athletes, most of them lacrosse players she said she slept with. no secrets here. karen used their names and shirtless pictures. we're hiding their identities. karen ranked the men by physical attractiveness, talents, creativity and aggressiveness. posting results on a bar graph. >> i guess the inner feminist in me was like, good for her, this i