can tell you all about that. big bumper planes at jfk. we begin in japan where officials have declared the crisis at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant a major accident. the threat level has been raised from a category 5 to a 7. the maximum on the international scale. that's on par with the chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. the accident at pennsylvania's three mile island in 1979, it was a level 5. meantime there's been a new round of aftershocks in japan. cnn's paula hancocks is live in tokyo. this continues to be just nerve shattering for people who are there in the country and now the latest news about the nuclear crisis and the level there. what's the latest? >> christine, certainly have been a bit of a shock for many people in japan hearing that change in number. this tuesday morning, they were on a level five and then all of a sud then skipped a level. there was no 6, they went to the highest level there could be, the level 7 which constitutes a major accident. it constitutes a major release of radiation with widespread health and environment effects, that's according to the iaea, the nuclear watchdog. that's what they call it. this doesn't mean there has been a sudden deterioration in the situation. it basically means that the government has caught up to what is happening and they've realized this could be on the level of chernobyl. of course that's going to panic people. it's going to make the concern that this is as bad as cherno l chernobyl, the worst nuclear disaster from a plant point of view that we have seen in the past. from that logistical point of view, it doesn't make a difference to those on the ground. there sayss still an evacuation zone. the people within the 12 mile evacuation zone are still living in emergency shelters. we understand from the government that further out to 18 miles, people are being encouraged more forcefully now, to move within the next few weeks or so because they're worried about the longer term radiation effects. certainly it is a concern, but it doesn't constitute an immediate and a sudden deterioration in the situation. >> okay. paula hancocks in tokyo, thank you. in just a few minutes we'll talk more about japan's nuclear alert, with michael freedlander. >> a runway collision involving the world's biggest passenger jet. the air bus a 380 and a commuter plane. it happened last night, captured on tape. look at this. amateur video posted on the wnbc new york website shows the air france, wow, hitting a delta connection flight as it taxied for takeoff. that delta plane is a crj 700, about a 70 seater, not a tiny plane, but compared to the a 380 it is. jim bittermann was on board the paris bound flight. >> pull away from the gate and was going five, seven miles an hour, something like that, made the turn away from the gate and slight rumble and felt to me like, you know, maybe they hit a rough patch of pavement or something. the pilot immediately stopped the plane and within i would say a minute or two, the fire trucks started arriving around the plane. >> no one was injured in the accident. both planes are now being inspected for damage. another horrifying discovery on the beaches of long island, new york. this time a human skull found by police yesterday. the ninth set of remains, the ninth possible victim of a suspected serial killer. jason carroll with the latest developments this morning. >> yeah. what they've done is basically called off temporarily suspended the search this morning so they can focus on making identifications. again, investigators did find more remains late yesterday afternoon near a bird sanctuary in a remote beach area. police found the remains after spending the day searching the brush along a parkway for more victims of a possible serial killer. it's all been very startling. all of it has been. i don't have a reaction because it's just amazing that we're finding these things. so, obviously, we have a lot of work to do. >> the discovery comes on the first day authorities expanded their search. since december, police have found the remains of eight people, all eight in the same area. that area located just a few miles from where police found yesterday's remains. so far, four victims have been identified, all worked as prostitutes who advertised on craigslist. police suspect a single person may be responsible for the murders. >> collectively, we want to bring to justice this animal that has, obviously, taken the lives of a number of people. >> well, the missing persons case that prompted the investigation involves shannan gilbert. gilbert was an escort and last may she was seen in the area when a witness says she banged on his door, begging for help, saying someone was trying to kill her. called 911, gilbert ran away and has not been seen since. an update on the search, police did find another set of remains, but they could not confirm if that set of remains are human, so what they're going to do is continue doing their testing and if that next set of remains also proves to be human, that would bring the total to ten. >> you know, if you live in this area, you've seen a lot of coverage of this in the newspapers, but there's some sense that police have been saying they're wondering who this serial killer might be and whether it might be somebody in law enforcement. >> what they need is more evidence at this point. we've heard some of those reports out there. they've got to collect their evidence and it's difficult when you're dealing with a lot of these remains. >> bird sanctuary where you've got sandy dunes, who knows how long the remains have been there. >> right. >> they were killed some place and dumped there, how far. >> still trying to -- still trying to confirm if it is one person they're dealing with. >> some sense that the remains are not all from a timeline. >> correct. >> over a long period of time we're talking about. that also adds to the challenges they have, to identify the remains. >> we're on top of it. thank you. new details coming in this morning about the last-minute budget deal that stopped a government shutdown. it cut spending by more than $38 billion. now we know what's actually going as a result of those cuts. the bill trims $10 million from the food safety and inspection. the epa's budget, environmental protection agency's budget cut by about $1.6 billion, also for the first time, the amount of money going to the department of homeland security will be going down. the bill eliminates about $2.9 billion for high-peed rail. the house is scheduled to vote on the bill tomorrow. as of now, looks like it's going to pass. in libya no deal, a cease-fire proposal offered to opposition leaders has been rejected. under the african union plan gadhafi would have agreed to stop all hostilities and allow international forces to enter libya to keep the peace. rebel leaders say that any plan that does not include the removal of gadhafi is unacceptable. the u.s. military believes a long, drawn out stalemate may be emerging in libya according to a a u.s. official, who says one third of gadhafi's ground armor has been destroyed and most air defenses. the military officials say the rebels or gadhafi's forces have the man power or resources to make significant advances from the positions they happen to be in right now. this is pretty incredible. the national weather service confirms ten tornadoes touched down in wisconsin during a severe storm on sunday. we were talking about the tornadoes and the weather in the upper midwest. >> that's right. >> the town of merrill took the brunt, about 200 miles northwest of milwaukee, trees uprooted everywhere, the governor is considering asking for federal help, that would mean declaring a state of emergency. more than 20,000 people in central alabama lost power during a violent storm overnight. a lot of destruction is being reported in jefferson and shelby counties where dozens of homes and cars have been flattened by uprooted trees. >> jacqui is in the extreme weather center and knows extreme midwestern weather quite well. has the system moved on through or are there still more dangers today? >> they're done in the midwest. for the most part, the major severe weather is over with. we'll be watching places like the delmarva, across places like virginia and north carolina. we think later today, for that threat. but it's very much reduced compared to what we saw yesterday and over the weekend. the squall line that caused that damage in alabama, has run its course too. you can see it fizzling out against georgia and south carolina. things will be better and spotty showers. watch out for lightning this morning. you're definitely going to need to leave early if you live in nashville towards louisville and cincinnati and columbus, ohio, because the rain is going to be heavy and we might see some urban flooding. the roadways especially some of the intersections could get covered in water. you see that red area, that's the spot we're going to be watching for severe weather. i think wind damage is going to be our primary concern. we'll also be watching the threat of those wildfires continuing to grow across parts of texas and oklahoma that orange area, highlighted because the winds will really be gusting. new storm system on the horizon. looks like thursday and friday could be rather brutal across the plains and east once again. we'll talk about that and your temperatures, you know, you mentioned the midwest, they hate to mention the "s" word, might see a little bit of that this week. >> not the "s" word that usually doesn't happen after winter, not that "s" word. >> that's the "s" word we're talking about. >> oh, man. i know you folks, both of you, from the upper midwest are hearty, but that's -- i'm canadian, used to cold weather and the "s" word, but this is crazy. >> hard when you warm up and go back down. >> doesn't mean we can't complain. >> thank you. coming up next on "american morning," while this one almost surprised me coming a month after the nuclear -- the earthquake in japan, but the severity of japan's nuclear crisis is on par with the meltdo meltdown? chernobyl. we're going to talk to a nuclear expert about what does that mean, what does that maximum threat level mean at the fukushima daiichi plant. >> in ivory coast, strong man out. after weeks of bloody fighting another civil war comes to an end after the world steps in. >> back here again, d.c.'s mayor, arrested, protesting outside the capital. he says the new federal budget has handcuffed his city. we'll tell you why. 11 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] nature valley sweet & salty nut bars... they're made from whole roasted nuts and dipped in creamy peanut butter, making your craving for a sweet & salty bar irresistible, by nature valley. the death toll this morning rising after a rush hour subway blast in the nation of belarus. officials say 12 people were killed in this explosion after another victim died at the hospital. more than 120 people were also injured. russia's president is calling it a terrorist attack and has offered help in the investigation. >> some celebrations of liberation in the ivory coast. the african nation's president calling for calm after the arrest of strong man laurent gbagbo. gbagbo's refusal to step down after losing an election last year plunged that nation into civil war. an assault last week by french and u.n. war planes was the beginning of the end for him. he surrendered yesterday after french troops stormed his compound. >> he held out for an awful long time. >> he stayed in that bunker, surrounded several times. he is the definition of a strong man, but out now and the duly elected president is in. d.c. mayor gray released from jail overnight after arrested on capitol hill yesterday. he was one of about 40 people protesting a part of the budget deal that congress struck over the weekend. protesting in particular banning the district from spending its money to provide abortions for low income women. under federal law the city's local budget needs approval from congress. >> something we were discussing last week with their dele gait eleanor holmes norton who says this is a frustrating matter for d.c. japan's nuclear crisis have gone from bad to worse officially. government officials are raising the threat level at the fukushima daiichi nuclear plant from a 5 where it was, to a category 7. now that indicates a major incident, the highest level on the international scale for nuclear accidents. on par with the chernobyl disasser. >> what does the shift really mean? michael friedlander a operator at three plants. we're told the amount of radiation emitted from this plant is not as much as chernobyl, but it reaches this level, i guess, because of the long-term implications of how serious this disaster is. to you what does a 7 mean going forward? >> well, it's a very good question and i think probably the question that people are most worried about are -- is this a signal or somehow a sign that things have dramatically taken a turn for the worse or could potentially get worse? i think that, you know, of course it's difficult to predict the future. as much as we can say, the power plants are in a stable configuration right now and what this really represents is the authorities having gone back and looked at data that was -- that what they thought was going on several weeks ago, when the releases were going on, they have probably it should have been categorized as a 7 back then and now they're coming to the realization. >> it's playing catch-up with the events we know and the deterioration of the events we know. i'll tell you, ali and i both, the day after this earthquake and the tsunami, right away there were assurances from the iaea and others that all four reactors had been shut safely down. from the beginning they've been behind the crisis a little bit. >> yeah. there's absolutely no doubt. it's been one of my frustrations as well. you know, sitting here from a distance trying to piece together information like a jigsaw puzzle where the piece is missing, i've been as frustrated as you are. so i understand it. >> michael, when we think about chernobyl, we think about miles and miles, tens of thousands of miles, uninhabitable for a long time. what is happening to this? as we go to a 7, we've concurrently increased the amount of space around nuclear plant where they don't want people to live or evacuating. is this going to be habitable again? >> yeah. we should separate the two c topics. the issue in terms of the amount of radiation that's gone into the air a good news/bass nude. -- bad news. we've had meters on the ground and people walking around. it's not a theoretical issue any more. we have a sense of what's on the ground. from the standpoint of a public health matter or public health policy, we're actually in a pretty good position to make some recommendations for the long-term health of the public. now in terms of the evacuation order that has been issued, i've heard a lot of dialog going on in terms of maybe we should have evacuated earlier. when the protective active recommendations are made you take a look at the circumstances that you're presented with in the moment and trying to make a judgment call in terms of are people going to be better served or better protected by staying put in shelter as opposed to evacuating. it has -- takes into consideration the passage of a radioactive cloud and things like that. what the pars don't address and and where we sit what do you do afterwards. after the radiation has deposited on the ground what do you do now? >> what do you do you now? that's the big question here. they're trying to contain the crisis, but what's next? >> it's a great question. and again, if we can make a bit of a leap of faith and i believe that there's substantial justification for it, that the crisis at the power plant proper is not going to degrade materially any further. in other words there's not going to be any more major releases of radioactivity, the operative question becomes to your point, exactly, what do we do with these thousands and thousands of square miles of contaminated ground. and the reality is, is that there's only one solution and we have too get heavy equipment in there, we have to remove topsoil, remove the tons of debris because remember we had a tsunami as well as an earthquake, houses that are collapsed, cars all of that is connam nated with low level contamination and has to be disposed of properly. >> let's assume it's not going to degrade further. yesterday we heard of more aftershocks, more problems at the plant. what is -- what could make it worse? is it the continued aftershocks, another earthquake with another tsunami? >> it is exactly that. you know, the power plant was severely damaged. we don't exactly know what the condition it's been in, but one data point, the fact that we're sitting here a month after the event, we're still not on a long-term situation of core cooling, still don't have a backup emergency power supply, and we're still injecting off of water that was brought in by the u.s. navy several weeks ago, is a disturbing situation. and so what that indicates is that the power plant has been severely damaged. how you characterize another earthquake or another tsunami, could absolutely put us back where we were a month ago. >> michael frooedslander, thank you for joining us, appreciate your perspective. >> thank you for having me. >> a script to a horror movie but wouldn't be believable. >> the horror movie would end. >> right. >> it's sad to see how this continues. just ahead on "american morning," you've seen their commercials, you know their jingles, but is the credit score these websites selling the real deal. a lot of people have been asking about this. >> if you're paying money to monitor your credit score you have to see this. if you thought kfc's double down was a beast, it's the newest creation from burger king. wait until you hear what's in it. 21 minutes after the hour. anyone who grows things for a living will tell ya... a plant is only as good as the soil you put it in. look, both these potted plants got the same sun. same water. only difference? this. miracle-gro potting mix. rich organic ingredients with miracle-gro plant food mixed right in. it even feeds plants for six straight months. want this result? gotta start with this soil. miracle-gro potting mix. success starts with the soil. by giving me huge discounts on rooms hotels can't always fill. with unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. where you book matters. expedia. okay. >> awful early in the morning for the next story. >> two of us like fast food, we're not scared of unhealthy things. this one intimidates me a little bit. meat lovers dream come true, burger king's meat monster. >> what is in there? >> two burger patties, chicken breast, topped with bacon and cheese. this edible heart attack is only available in japan, by the way, where it will cost you a little less than ten bucks. certainly get your mind off of other issues in japan. no calorie count. if you do the math comes to about 1,160 calories, 24 grams of saturated fat and a little less than 2300 milligrams of sodium. >> any chance that thing is going to come here. that looks so american to me. nothing more big in american than that. >> the japanese enjoying that. i think it's on its way here soon. >> you've no doubt seen the commercials for a free credit score. i mean yeah, you've seen them. exactly what score are they selling you and do you even need it? carmen wong ullrich minding your business. >> you don't need it. >> i don't think you do either. >> here's what we're talking about. a lawsuit in california, regarding experience selling their plus credit score. this is a attached to those ads that you see and i won't even repeat the nam