this morning on early "today," tragedy in west virginia, a deadly explosion rocks a coal mine in the worst u.s. mine disaster in decades. switching sides. afghan president hamid karzai threatens to join the taliban. and, kings of the court. duke just slip by america's favorite underdogs to become duke just slip by america's favorite underdogs to become ncaa top dogs. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello and good morning, i'm lynn berry. and today we begin with a devastating disaster. there are now at least 25 confirmed deaths, and four unaccounted for after an explosion ripped through a west virginia coal mine, in the worst u.s. mining disaster since 1984. a search has been halted for the four missing miners who would have enough food and water to survive for 96 hours, if they are alive and mobile. the explosion happened yesterday afternoon, about 30 miles south of charleston. the federal mine safety and health administration says miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the long shaft when the blast happened. now, the cause of the explosion is unknown. but the mine has a long history of frequent violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas. later today, president obama is expected to announce new limits on the use of u.s. nuclear weapons in a policy known as the nuclear posture review. this policy would mark the first time the u.s. is committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear countries. steering towards the president's goal of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons completely. however, countries must be in compliance with nonproliferation obligations, under international treaties. and that loophole means iran and north korea would remain on the potential nuclear target list. the policy also calls for cutting the number of weapons in the u.s. nuclear arsenal, and would emphasize nonproliferation. it precedes the signing of the nuclear arms treaty with russia and a summit next week on nonproliferation. assessment teams are inspecting the damage caused by the easter earthquake in mexico that was felt by over 20 million people, including those in three u.s. states. authorities are saying that in the hardest-hit u.s. city of calexico, california, the baja quake damaged nearly 80% of the city's historic downtown area. the magnitude 7.2 quake claimed at least two lives in mexico, and left at least 230 injured. however, scientists are saying the damage would have been much worse had the epicenter been located in a more densely populated area. afghan president hamid karzai is suggesting he will join the taliban if pressure on him to reform does not end. karzai made these comments during a private meeting with afghan lawmakers on saturday, marking the second time in less than a week he's lashed out against the west. just the day before, karzai spoke with u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton to clear the air over charges he made of quote, vast fraud by the west in last year's disputed elections. karzai accuses the u.s. of interfering in afghanistan's affairs, and says the taliban insurgency will become a legitimate resistance movement if the meddling doesn't stop. white house spokesperson robert gibbs called karzai's comment, quote genuinely troubling. in the wake of toyota's unprecedented global recall over sticky gas pedals the u.s. government has made an unprecedented move of its own, seeking the maximum penalty of punishment for the automaker's failure to act swiftly when lives were at stake. on monday transportation secretary ray lahood proposed toyota pay a record fine of nearly $16.4 million, after it, quote, knowingly hid a dangerous defect. documents show toyota knew about the defect back in september of last year, but waited until late january to issue a recall. toyota still faces private lawsuits, which could cost the automaker untold millions more in damages. and now, here's a look at some other stories making news "early today" in america. in vermont, authorities just released surveillance video of a police officer firing a pepper gun at a man in a holding cell. the 26-year-old man, who was handcuffed at the time, can also be seen laying on the ground as the officer puts a bag over his head. the officer resigned following an internal investigation of the incident. in arizona, a 9-year-old girl is recovering from a freak accident after her leg became impaled on an environment fence post. look at that. the girl was standing on the fence and reaching for a ball when she slipped. doctors say she's lucky that post missed all of her major arteries and nerves and that she should make a full recovery. a texas woman is celebrating quite a milestone after turning 110 years old yesterday. lavinia posey was important in texas in the year 1900. the super centenarian has lived to see 20 u.s. presidents and says she did it by living a clear life. she looks young there. and in colorado, one cat is thankful for having nine lives after spending four long days on top of a telephone pole. mary jane the cat climbed up the pole last thursday. she finally worked her way down to safety yesterday with the help of some local rescue workers. and now for a look at your national and regional weather here's nbc meteorologist bill karins with the weather channel forecast. bill, good morning to you. >> good morning, lynn. and active weather out there today on this tuesday. we've had the incredible warmth and now we're getting severe storms. it is april and it is tornado season. we only had one yesterday but we had a lot of reports of damaging winds and hail from kansas city right through northern illinois, especially chicago saw it pretty bad and then yesterday, even through virginia. here's what we're dealing with this morning. we still have strong storms in iowa, southern michigan and some of those are starting to spread towards areas of southern new york and northern pennsylvania. we have incredible warmth pumping up from the southeast. summerlike warmth and cool air colliding with it. here's those storms in iowa right over the top of des moines this morning headed towards cedar rapids and eventually towards waterloo. the stormy weather today is on the northern fringe of all of our warmth. look at the southeast today, 80s widespread up to new york city today. strong storms from the southern great lakes and also later today some strong storms from kansas city back up to chicago. that's a quick look at your tuesday forecast. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. chicago, more chances of storms later on today. temperatures will be warm, though. that going to rain all day in chicago but for later on this afternoon, watch out for those strong storms. look at the warmth. tennessee, oklahoma, arizona, everywhere is warm. we'll talk more about the severe weather threat for this afternoon and tonight when i come back, lynn. >> all right, bill, thank you. growing data on the health of the economy pushes wall street to higher heights. the early morning business headlines are straight ahead. plus, he may have done her wrong, but before you feel too bad for her, wait. it turns out, she was fully prepared. opening day, tiger talk and duke is on top of the college basketball world. you're watching "early today." good morning, and welcome back to "early today," i'm lynn berry, and here are some of your top headlines this morning. senior u.s. officials have confirmed that a disturbing war video that made its way onto the internet is, in fact, authentic. the footage shows u.s. troops firing on a group of men walking down a baghdad street, including some of whom were unarmed but were shot back in july of 2007. u.s. officials in iraq are working to identify the source of the video. in what's become a violent easter tradition in new york city, four people were shot and dozens arrested in what police believe to be gang-related chaos. new york's mayor michael bloom birg called the annual night of mayhem a case of "wilding." while local news reports speculate it may have something to do with gang initiations. a recent scandal at the republican national committee involving bills from a risque republican night club has prompted rnc chief of staff to step down. michael steele accepted the resignation while maintaining he, himself, has no intention of stepping aside. and michael jackson's family was in an l.a. courtroom yesterday as a judge appointed in the case against the late pop star's former physician dr. conrad murray. meanwhile according to tmz.com, murray's attorney planned to argue that it was jackson who gave himself a fatal dose of propofol. and now here's an early look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 10,973 after gaining 46 points on monday. the s&p added 9 points. the nasdaq rose 26 points. taking a look at overseas trading this morning. in tokyo the nikkei fell 56 points. while in hong kong the hang seng jumped 2997 points. on the first day of trade since the government announced our largest job gain in three years, more positive economic data poured in. the nation's service sector grew in march at its fastest pace in nearly four years. a rise in back orders, meaning businesses aren't keeping up with demand. pending home sales rose a whopping 8.2% in february. the yield on the benchmark u.s. ten-year treasury note briefly hit 4%. a level not seen since june 2009. all that led the dow to within just 12 points of 11,000. at its highest close in 18 months. the broader s&p 500 also closed at an 18-month high. home sale data pushed builder stocks up almost 3%, and nasco up over 2%. the jobs news and the optimism that came with it pushed oil well over $86 a barrel to its highest close since october 2008. that made energy stocks big gainers with southwestern energy up 3%, pioneer natural resources up almost 4%, chevron and exxon mobile also posted solid gains. the tech dominated nasdaq also had a good day closing at a 19-month closing high. semiconductor shares stood out with cree jumping 10% after a broker raised its rating on the stock to buy. apple jumped more than 1%, hitting another all-time high after announcing it sold more than 300,000 ipads the first day out. harley-davidson roared to its highest level in almost 2 1/2 years up 10.5% after an analyst raised his tries target on the motorcyclemaker. and finally a turkish pop singer has become the world's fastest unaccompanied blind driver reaching a top speed in a ferrari of 181 miles an hour. and just in case you're wondering, he did it at an airport and was guided by a radio. well, tiger faces the media, a little early season razz razzle-dazzle in base bail. and the president takes the mound. plus the only perennial giant that the underdogs missed, the blue devils of duke are the last team standing at the conclusion of march madness, your early morning sports headlines are straight ahead. our incredible streak of warm weather continues on this tuesday. but we also have to watch severe storms. your regional forecast is coming up. you're watching "early today." good morning, if you're just waking up, this is "early today," and in sports it was a storybook season for the bulldogs of butler but they just couldn't squeeze past the blue devils of duke, who last night took home their fourth ncaa title. here's nbc's mario solis with an early look at all your sports headlines. >> it was the kind of monday sports fans dream about. we begin with college basketball's national title game between duke and butler. it was a seasaw battle that came down to the final minute. duke hanging onto a three-point lead. howard gets the layup to fail, bulldogs trail 59-60. moments later butler with a chance to take the lead but haywood's jumper was off the mark. brian zubik intentionally misses the second free throw. haywood with one last chance for the win. duke holds on to win their fourth national championship 61-59. >> this was a classic. this was the toughest and the best one. >> the toughest game we played all year. i can't imagine what those guys are feeling like. they gave everything they had, just like we did. so it's hard that one of these teams had to feel that way. >> for the first time since revelations of his infidelity tiger woods sat down in front of the media and took question after question about golf, and about his personal life. tiger sounded like a new man during the press conference, saying that everything, even his game, has to take a back seat to becoming a better person. >> it's not about championships, it's about how you live your life. and i hadn't done that the right way for awhile. and i need to change that. >> if you thought that was it for sports yesterday, you'd be mistaken. it was also opening day in the major leagues. to our nation's capital where the president threw out the first pitch before the nats/phillies game. a bit high and outside. he could have used help from roy hal day. palanco providing the offense with the first grand slam of the season. phillies win 11-1. and the play of the year may have happened yesterday only a day into the season. white sox and indians, the comebacker after mark buehrle's foot. he hustles to make the play. scoops the ball between his lays to get the out at first. what a play. white sox would go on to win 6-0 thanks in part to an unbelievable effort by buehrle. that's your look at sports on "early today," i'm mario solis. brad and angelina are on the road for another social cause. your early morning entertainm et headlines are straight ahead. plus after giving their all for their country, these heroes get to enjoy a little r&r with our nation's winter olympians. "early today" travel weather is brought to you by odor eaters insoles, powders and sprays. welcome back on this tuesday. severe weather outbreak likely once again this afternoon. we're going to go from this area of yellow. that means you have a slight risk of severe storms up through kansas city, tulsa. the worst of it could be here near iowa, chicago, southern michigan and even a few strong storms in southern portions of new york state and areas of pennsylvania. the forecast, stormy weather, kansas city late today, chicago, too. and look at the incredible warmth on the eastern seaboard. enjoy the 80s. well if you're watching us on kark 4 news in little rock, arkansas, meet nini the not so ferocious dragon that guards the room to grow exhibit where your little ones can let their imagination run wild at the museum of discovery. that's your "early today" event of the day. >> thank you, bill. now here's an early look at this morning's headlines in entertainment. nicollette sheridan, formerly of "desperate housewives" is shoeing the show's creator and producer. she is alleging that she was wrongfully terminated. but she's also charging assault. sheridan claims producer mark cherry hit her in the face on the wisteria lane set back in september 2008. brad pitt and angelina jolie are visiting bosnia, trying to attract the world's focus on that nation's homeless while trying to stay out of the spotlight themselves. jolie who has been a united nations ambassador since 2001 wants to help bosnians who still can't go home 15 years after the war there. either because their homes haven't been rebuilt or the infrastructure in the villages hasn't been repaired. and finally, radar online reports sandra bullock has an ironclad prenuptial agreement that specifically says her husband jesse james gets no money from her in a split if he cheats on her during their marriage. oops. either she knew something, she has really good lawyers, or maybe both. that's hollywood. and this comes to us from snow mount, colorado, where the powdery slopes of the rocky mountains hosted a gathering of american heroes. nearly 400 disabled veterans and winter olympians came together at the national disabled veterans winter sports clinic, olympians like bode miller and andy fin much came out to support the vets as they carved through the slopes. it is the 24th anniversary of this event which is known as miracles on the mountainside. i'm lynn berry and this is "early today." just your first stop of the day, today, on your nbc station. >> good morning. i am tony pann. the weather is fairly quiet this tuesday morning. let's take a look at hd doppler. a couple of range of restricting through. mostly in the mountains right now. 30% chance of running into a light shower today. into this afternoon, the temperatures will be around the a's. currently around 60 degrees. -- around the 80's. currently around 60 degrees. a high temperature of 85 degrees. and look at the seven-day forecast in a few minutes. >> 61 degrees on tv hill. here's a look ahead to 11 news today. dozens are killed in a mine explosion. the efforts to find those missing. >> some unfinished business in annapolis. details are next. >> we are tracking and early morning multi-vehicle crashed near the airport on aviation boulevard. [captioning made possible by constellation energy group] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> good morning. >> thanks for joining us for 11 news today. >> tony pann has a check on the forecast. how hot didn't get yesterday? >> 83. -- how hot did it get yesterday? >> 83. >> 83.