morning, including some breaking news out of afghanistan. >> that's right. we begin there where afghan president hamid karzai's half brother was found shot to death at his home. ahmed wali karzai was the provençal council chief of kandahar. he suffered gunshot wounds to his head and chest according to hospital officials. a spokesman for kandahar's government said a guard killed karzai. the taliban says -- >> we've seen the worst so far. excessive heat warnings and advisories posted in 23 states. the heat in many areas could reach 115 degrees. the heat wave is being blamed for one death in madison county, illinois. in oklahoma it was so hot, that part of a highway buckled. look at that. motorist was hospitalized after his bike hit the buckled pavement. in arkansas several communities have opened cooling centers. good rule of thumb in tis heat whatever you're doing don't overdo it. >> if you're going to go outside in heat like this better be drinking a lot of water before you come out. make sure you have some substance in your stomach or you might be going to the hospital. >> it was hard to stay focused because it was so hot out. >> dehydrated, exhausted, just tired. >> right now nearly 400,000 people in the chicago area are still without power following the worst storm in a decade. utility officials say it could be several days before many of those customers are back on-line. the video we're looking at here, i think you saw an airplane there, i'm not sure, which video we're dealing with, this one is capturing the sheer force of the storm as it blew through rockford, illinois. left debris on the road making for stretch russ driving conditions. cnn's rob marciano is extracting this extreme weather for us at the cnn weather center in atlanta. boy, for people who have to work outside today especially it is going to be tough. >> here's the thing with this heat, guys, like you're dying for a thunderstorm. something just to cool you off. but with this kind of heat and humidity buildup you can get thunderstorms like in chicago where we still have almost a half million people without power. tremendous amount of wind energy. tremendous amount of real estate under a heat advisories and excessive heat warnings and we haven't seen a ton of record-breaking heat. that's because the humidity is so high, it's kind of keeping some of the high temperatures down. but it's making it feel more miserable and dangerous and more important to stay hydrated. heat indices maybe reaching as high as 115 today and the heat warnings and watches extend now all the way up into the northeast. so, places like d.c. and new york, will easily see temperatures that will be over 90 and heat indices over 100 degrees in some spots. today and tomorrow, little rock seeing 104, expected to see 104 degrees for a heat index in memphis, 107 expected in montgomery and through thursday, not looking for a whole lot of relief from this and some of these areas we've seen temperatures over 100 degrees for over a week. here's your cold front, which this time of year, doesn't make a whole lot of progress to the south. we're in the thick of it as far as the steaminess goes. in the northeast, may see a little cool off, but not today. temperatures up and over 90 degrees. i wouldn't be surprised if d.c. in some spots touches 100 degrees today. try to stay cool. back up to you. >> thanks. an explosive new development in britain's tabloid hacking scandal leaving rupert murdoch's media empire reeling. according to published reports murdoch's reporter illegally accessed the bank accounts of former prime minister gordon brown and also the medical records of his seriously ill son. brown is now accusing murdoch's newspapers of having links with criminals, these on the heels of a phone hacking scandal that forced murdoch to shut down "news of the world" sunday and his plans to take over british sky broadcasting have been disrupted with news corps's market value taking a multibillion dollar hit. let's go to dan rivers, live in london with the growing scandal. what is the latest, dan? >> well, this war of words is escalating involving gordon brown. gordon brown has given an interview this morning in which he talked about his complete revulsion and shock at having his personal details accessed by newspapers, not the "news of the world" this time, but other international newspapers, "the sun" and "the sunday times" and what particularly has angered and shocked him, the suggestion that his son's medical records were obtained by "the sun" newspaper in which they went with a story talking about cystic fibrosis his son had. he said this is completely unacceptab unacceptable. he never wanted his son to be put in the public eye in any way. it was completely private. "the sun" says it managed to get the records without breaking the law legitimately and decided to run with the story. this story is not dying down, this rout. this morning some of the police involved in the past and now with this story are going to be questioned by a powerful committee of politicians and we're expecting that may produce some new information on all this, particularly john yates, the man that initially investigated all these claims of phone hacking and said look, there's just a handful of people who have been targeted, it's basically not a big deal, now he's realized what a catastrophic error of judgment that was because the woman that's replaced him on this inquiry, sue acres, is saying up to 4,000 people could have been targeted by the newspapers. >> what about the implications that this is not just the now defunct "news of the world," but other papers? >> yeah. i think this is really significant and really bad news for news international. it's no longer just confined to "news of the world," the paper that they closed down, realizing it had become toxic as a brand. it's now spread to "the sun" and "sunday times." both so far have not been shown to have used phone hacking, but they have been shown to use what, at best, slightly underhand techniques, at worst illegal activities to get information. "the sun" is maintaining it got the medical records without breaking the law. "the sunday times" saying there was a legitimate public interest in looking into gordon brown's bank details and so on on a tip, but there was some sort of corruption there or something which was all proved to be untrue. but i think this is spreading now and that's really, really bad news for news international and rupert murdoch. >> dan rivers in london, thanks so much. happening now in london, wikileaks founder julian assange in court and appealing his extradition to swede wherein he's wanted on sexual misconduct allegations. assange remains in the u.k. under house arrest. the warrant is not related to the release of confidential u.s. documents. and tensions between the syrian regime and the u.s. reaching a new high this morning. mobs have attacked the u.s. embassy in damascus. yesterday crowds surrounded the building, breaking windows and using spray paint. no one was hurt. the violence comes as secretary of state hillary clinton unleashed her strongest criticisms of bashar al assad. >> president assad is not indispensable and we have absolutely nothing invested in him remaining in power. our goal is to see that the will of the syrian people, for a democratic transformation occurs. >> clinton went on to say assad has lost his legitimacy and trying to reflect attention on his crackdown of peaceful protesters. the obama administration moving forward on a plan for gun dealers in four border states in mexico to do extra work. they have to report the sales of high-powered rifles under certain conditions. it's part of an effort to stem the flow of drugs to mexican drug cartels. the national rifle association says it will sue to stop the new requirements. and a crowd of protesters get rowdy and shut down a san francisco subway station. it hapned last night. the group calling itself no justice no bart was upset after transit police shot and killed a drunk man waving a knife at the same station last week. so far no officers have been charged in that shooting. bart is the metro, the subway system there. >> bay area rapid transit. or known as bart. the massive cheating scandal involving several public schools in atlanta has cost four superintendents and a principal their jobs. these firings come less than a week after dozens of educators were accused of changing grades and falsifying standardized test scores. also this morning, a new suburban dallas school superintendent has been put on paid leave because she used to be a deputy superintendent in the atlanta school system. this morning, the crew of the space shuttle "atlantis" woke up to the sound of matthew west and his single "more." ♪ shine you are mine and you shine for me too ♪ >> good tunes to wake up to. today will be the last spacewalk conducted with a visiting shuttle crew present. nasa is extending the shuttle's mission an extra day. "atlantis" and its crew are scheduled to return next thursday at 5:56 eastern. the spacewalk is due to start at about a quarter to 9:00 eastern today. yesterday we were like wow, that yankee fan who returned derek jeter's ball, what a great thing. didn't ask for a dime. but the irs may come after christian lopez the one who caught jeter's 3,000 hit. a home run into the leftfield on saturday. "new york times" had a chance to talk to tax lawyers who say the 23-year-old fan who owes more than $100,000 in student loans may owe taxes on gifts from the yankees. remember they gave him the seats. maybe more than $14,000 worth of taxes. the team moved him to $1500 seats on saturday and they also gave him luxury box tickets for the rest of the year. so it's our question of the day. do you think that christian lopez may have been better off not catching jeter's home run? let us know what you think. send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook and we'll your thoughts later in the hour. still to come on "american morning," about to get harder to indulge in the double bacon cheeseburger and fries without feeling guilty. we'll tell you why. rupert murdoch's media empire taking a financial hit as a phone hacking scandal spreads way beyond the tabloids. and after that phone hacking scandal forced murdoch to shut down "news of the world," how vulnerable is your phone? brian todd shows us three easy ways that hackers can break into your voice mail. you're watching "american morning." 12 minutes past the hour. [ male announcer ] introducing the ultimate business phone -- t the motorola expert from sprint. its powerful tools help you work faster and smarter so you can get back to playing "angry birds." it lets you access business forms on the go, fire off e-mails with the qwerty keypad, and work securely around the world so you can get back to playing "angry birds." it's the android-powered phone that mixes business with pleasure. so let's get our work done, america, so we can all get back to playing "angry birds." the motorola expert from sprint. trouble hearing on the phone? visit sprintrelay.com. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve. welcome back to "american morning." they're deadlocked in d.c. and it's hitting you. stocks dropped yesterday in part because the talks to cut the deficit and raise the nation's debt ceiling went nowhere again. that's part of the problem. the other part of the problem is that europe's debt crisis continues its bleeding into italy now. the dow lost 152 points at the closing bell, the nasdaq was down 57 points, the s&p 500 down 24. the dow was down about 1.2%. all around the world, markets are tumbling, the nikkei, hang sang and hong kong, london's ftse, all are down. you like the pair ras cac, it's down as well. >> the italy thing is troublesome. we talk about pigs, portugal, ireland, greece and spain, but italy is the third largest economy in europe and their percentage of debt to gdp or however that goes is pretty troubling. >> they just need somebody to start moving out of this thing and we're not seeing that. we're seeing more countries getting into it and that affects us here. one key player in all of this discussion, world markets and, of course, our debt and deficit talks here at home, timothy geithner, the treasury secretary. the treasury pulled off a few financial tricks i guess you could say to keep us from hitting the debt limit back in may. geithner is expected to speak today in a little over two hours from now. we'll see if he has anything to say about the ongoing crisis this morning. >> the partisan sdifds is getting only deeper with each talks. the president and hill leaders have agreed to meet today, with only 22 days until the nation is unable to make its payments because of the debt ceiling. the president says it's more like eight days really because the way things move in washington they need the time to put in the legislation to make sure everything goes smoothly. no one knows for sure what could happen to the global economy if these talks fail. republicans are still saying no deal if it includes tax hikes and some democrats are saying don't touch medicare in the negotiations. the president repeatedly saying it is time to get serious. >> we might as well do it now. now is the time to do it. now is the time to deal with these issues. if not now, when? what i've said to them is, let's go. >> go ahead. >> live at the white house for us this morning, so the president, you know, was -- came out with strong language yesterday saying look i'm willing to take heat from my own party, i hope the gop is willing to do the same. >> that's right. that's why he called them back to the white house. this will be the third meeting now this week, but no significant progress made yesterday. the point, though, that the president continued to point to that he wants the biggest deal possible, the most comprehensive deal. as you pointed out he told republicans he's willing to take some heat from his party so he's urging them to do the same. on this issue of raising taxes during a difficult economic period, the president making the case that any of this would not take place until 2013. the bottom line, though, is that the president is not willing to accept any temporary agreement because this, he says, would only push the problem down the road. >> i will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension. that is just not an acceptable approach. if we think it's going to be hard -- hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season when they're all up. it's not going to get easier. it's going to get harder. so we might as well do it now. pull off the band-aid. eat our peas. >> reporter: house speaker john boehner says this big gap, the divide, is about policy, not about process. he points out that republicans have been very honest in their discussions. he says that they, too, want to see a deal, but in his words, he says, it takes, quote, two to tango. kiran? >> dan lothian, thanks. house speaker john boehner isn't budging under pressure from both sides and the tea party wing of the gop and insisting no tax hikes in any deal. >> the american people will not accept and the house cannot pass a bill that raises taxes on job creators. the house can only pass a debt limit bill that includes spending cuts, larger than the hike in the debt limit, as well as real restraints on future spending. >> all right. 7:10 eastern we're going to talk it to former treasury under secretary jay powell about what's at stake if the federal government can't cover the bills. he says hundreds of thousands of paychecks may be on the line if they're signed by uncle sam. thinking about buying a car, you might want to jump on it. also had it with screaming and crying kids while you eat. no kids allowed anymore. parents are saying, how rude. >> and our question of the day. do you think christian lopez would have been better off not catching derek jeter's home run. he may be on the hook for $14,000 in taxes even though he gave the ball back. send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook. we'll read some of your comments at the end of the hour. the rar. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real from we who believe we know just how you feel. haagen-dazs. you know, the ones who do such a super job, from we who believe we know just how you feel. they're backed by the superguarantee®? 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"american morning" will be right back after the break. verizon claims its 4g lte is twice as fast as at&t. we're putting them to the test against the speed of a rescue unit. go ! they're downloading a music album. the first network to finish gets rescued. does your phone know that we're racing ? done ! verizon's done ! i've got seven left ! the fastest network in america. verizon. built so you can rule the air. now powering the lg revolution. right now, go to priceline for a sneak peek at recent winning and better than ever! hotel bids to find where you n save up to 60% on hotels. * we'll even email you other people's winning bids, so you'll know what price to name. *á with new hotel bid alerts, from priceline. scorcher. the triple digit heat spreading from new england all the way to oklahoma and from the deep south to the ohio valley on this "american morn