August 19th, 2013. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Im matt lauer. Im Savannah Guthrie along side Natalie Morales and mike bettis is in for al this morning. This is our temporary home. How does it feel . I like it. I think its great. I like it into august and maybe september. Not sure id like it in february but i like it right now. I hope it doesnt rain. We brought an umbrella. Well show you whats happening inside studio 1a, it is a bit of a construction site today. They cleared the set out over the weekend. They work a lot faster than most contractors obviously and hopefully well have this done, as we mentioned, sometime in early september. Well get back in there but right now its fan appreciation week on the plaza. Thats right. We have a lot of news about fan appreciation week. But in the meantime we have a lot of news to get to and well start with the fires out west. Thats right. Firefighters are being stretched thin out west. Dozens of wildfires are burning right now. The biggest and probably most dangerous the socalled beaver creek fire. Its creeping closer to thousands of homes in idaho. Miguel almaguer is in hailey. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. Firefighters are rotating in and out of this fire camp 24 hours a day. Resources from all across the country pouring in right here but despite the massive and Rapid Response they have not been able to contain this blaze. Reporter swallowing forest lands, slicing across ridge tops overnight. The nations most dangerous fire is a blow torch, closing in on 5100 homes. Its scary to look out your window and see the flames coming down the hill. Reporter raging out of control for a 12th day, the beaver creek fire has decimated 150,000 square miles, more than seven times the size of manhattan. More firefighters are on the way. Hot shot crews are working to build containment lines trying to pin down a stubborn blaze still on the move. 30mileperhour gusts can carry hot embers for miles igniting new fires impossible to outrun for crews on the front lines. Winds really push the fire in one direction or another. Thats extremely hazardous for firefighters on the ground. Reporter the air attack in idaho is critical. Recardant drops over homes, another layer of protections. Properties here cost millions. Arnold schwarzenegger, tom hanks, and bruce willis among the rich and famous with homes under threat. Fires are scorching the west. 35 uncontained infernos from oregon to california, across 11 states to colorado are burning today. Though this fire is threatening billions of dollars in property, incredibly only one home here has been lost. There is some good news, this fire is 8 contained. Savannah . All right. Miguel almaguer in idaho for this. Thank you. Meantime, breaking news in the Oscar Pistorius case. The sprinter appearing in a south African Court this morning formally charged in the murder of his girlfriend. Ron is outside the courthouse with the story. Good morning to you. Reporter good morning, savannah. Yes, this morning prosecutors say Oscar Pistorius intentionally shot and killed reeva steenkamp. He admits that he shot and killed her, but he says he was firing as an intruder he thought in his home that night. Prosecutors think this is not a case that involves a mistake. They say its a case of murder. Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius arrived in court appearing somber and focused. His head was bowed through much of the proceeding. His family and friend there is to see him. Not making eye contact with steenkamps friends. Everyone was dressed in black. In the indictment, prosecutors say state witnesses heard a woman scream followed by a gunshot and then more screaming. Steenkamp died in the bathroom of pistoriuss house, shot through a locked door. The indictment also says the accused shot with the direct intention to kill a person. The charges are premeditated murder. That means it was committed intentionally. It was planned. Reporter these pictures show steenkamp arriving at pistoriuss gated home the night before she died. Pistorius said they were alone and asleep until the Early Morning hours when pistorius says he believed an intruder entered his house. I heard a noise in the bathroom and realized someone was in the bathroom. I felt a sense of terror rushing over me. Without his prosthetic legs on and limited mobility he grabbed a 9 millimeter pistol and made his way to the bathroom. I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to reeva to phone police. Only after returning to the bedroom did he realize steenkamp was not there. Since being released on bail a week after the killing, pistorius rarely has been seen in public. If pistorius is found guilty of premeditated murder the celebrity sprinter and golden boy of the london olympics could face 25 years to life in prison. The judge set the trial date for march 3rd of next year. Theres also local media reports here that pistorius might be charged in two other cases of recklessly firing his gun in public. But today prosecutors are focused solely on the murder of reeva steenkamp. All right. Ron allen, thank you. Lets turn to lisa bloom, todays legal analyst. Good morning. This is the formal charge now. We saw a bit more of the prosecutions evidence. Do you think this is a strong case for premeditated murder . Well, i think its a challenging case but im intrigued by this new allegation that there was a woman screaming before the shots were fired. If thats so, its difficult to understand how Oscar Pistorius could have thought it was an intruder in the bathroom and his not his girlfriend. Well, pistorius provided a written account and narrative of what he said happened that night. He did that as part of the bail hearing. Is that a disadvantage to him now . He is more or less wed to that version of defense . The defense lawyers never like it when their client gives a detailed account of what happened. Thats a blueprint from the prosecution to go through line by line and try to show inconsistencies and outright lies. I think one of the biggest issues in the case is going to be the ballistic evidence. Were they fired low and upwards which would support oscars story that he wasnt wearing his prosthetic legs at the time or at a higher height and straight through the door which would show he had time to put the prosthetic legs on. Its an interesting point, it was demonstrate which version of the events is likely to be true. He apparently intends to argue because of his disability and unique circumstances he felt more fear about an intruder than another person might reasonably fear. Is that a plausible argument . Well, its something that might help him. A lot of South Africans are concerned about crime so that might make sense in that community. But its hard to understand how if he felt fear, he wouldnt have first looked to his side to see if his girlfriend is there in bed. You that naturally protective instinct to protect his girlfriend before running to the bathroom. Also intruders dont usually stop to use the bathroom so its hard to understand how he would have thought a burglar was in his restroom. And in south africa they dont have a jury trial. Its a bench trial. The judge will decide. Is that a disadvantage to pistorius . Could be. There will be less emotion in this case and more focus on the forensic evidence, on the cell phones, on what the witnesses have to say. As you say, savannah, ultimately, most importantly the story that he gave. Is it consistent with all the other evidence in the case . Lisa bloom, always great to get your perspective. Thank you very much. Natalie is here now. She has new developments on the on going violence in egypt. Good morning to you. Good morning. Thats right, there is more turmoil in egypt after islamic militants ambushed two buses killing off duty policemen killing 25 of them. Richard engle joins us in cairo with more. Richard, good morning. Reporter good morning, natalie. Disturbing incidents happening here. First the one you mentioned in the Sinai Peninsula this morning. Two those minivans full of unarmed Police Officers were stopped by militants. The militants forced the Police Officers to get out of the vehicle and then executed 25 of them and overnight 36 prisoners were killed allegedly while trying to escape. They were in the back of a truck. Police fired tier gas into the truck and the prisoners died by suffocation. Their families are saying it was a massacre carried out by police. It may have started as a military crackdown, but egypt now appears to be descending into an insurgecy with both sides armed and taking causalities. Islamic extremists joined the fight backing the Muslim Brotherhood and attacking Egyptian Security forces. Around 200 police have been killed in egypt since last week. So have some 900 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of them shot unarmed while protesting against the military for ousting egypts president. The man that did that, the military leader gave a National Televised address overnight defending what some call a coup saying it was necessary to stop terrorism. The general insists the vast majority of egyptians are with him and he doesnt want to govern the country for long. The Obama Administration is weighing its response. The state department putting a hold on economic aid to the government. But no change yet to Critical Military aid, though that could come. Theres other Strategic Issues here including the safety and stability of israel. The u. S. Faces a tough choice. Stick with its longtime ali, which claims it needs support now more than ever to fight terrorism, or back away. While washington appears to be wavering, saudi arabia, kuwait, the ua and jordon have all come out strongly in support of egypts military. Richard engle, thanks so much. A team from the United Nations is in syrias capitol this morning to investigate the use of chemical weapons. They accused each other of using chemical weapons while denying it themselves. The u. N. Team is expected to be there for about two weeks. The first family is back in washington this morning after a nineday vacation on marthas vineyard. They arrived back at the white house late last night. The president spent most of his vacation out of private view. Today hell hold a private meeting with private vesters to discuss efforts on strengthening the nations economy. More fallout on the Edward Snowden nsa leaks case. They detained the partner of the reporter that first revealed the leaks. David miranda was held under schedule 7 of the terrorism act which allows security agencies to stop and question people at boarders. He was released after nine hours of questioning and was not arrested. Now to wall street and what is moving the markets on this monday morning. Jackie joins us. Good morning. Gas prices, aaa says they are down a penny from last week, but 14 cents from a month ago. The National Average for a gallon of regular, now 3. 53. One Research Firm saying internet traffic around the world dropped 40 when google experienced a brief outing on friday evening, and the will the dow rebound from the worst week of the year . Or was last weeks drop a sign of more pressure to come . Wall street is watching, natalie. Well be watching. Thank you so much. More proof this morning that being a reporter can be a dangerous job even if its covering a sporting event. This was last night at a new york giants, Indianapolis Colts preseason game, pam oliver was getting ready for an interview there when you saw she got drilled with a football right in the face. The back up quarterback threw the ball. Oliver laughed it off and said she was doing just fine. Thats got to hurt, still. Leave quite a sting. Oh my god. Its so those balls are heavy. Youre trying to do your job. A lot of that going around. Did you see the Boston Red Sox new york yankees game . No. So much controversy and drama surrounding Alex Rodriguez. He comes up, his first atbats, and dempster throws a couple pitches inside, and one even went behind him. That one went behind rodriguez. Now he comes back with another pitch a little later and hits rodriguez right in the arm and bat this created tension. The yankees manager ejected from the game but not Ryan Dempster and then later in the game, arod gets revenge in the sixth inning. He steps up, and watch. Straightaway center field, there it goes. Yankees beat the red sox, and again, a dramatic, dramatic and controversial weekend for arod. I asked you a dumb question earlier. Do we think that was on purpose . No. Ryan dempster isnt going to have to pay for a meal in boston for a long time probably. Anyway, coming up, we have got Alex Rodriguezs attorney joining us for an exclusive live interview. Well get to that in awhile. In the meantime mike bettis is here for al. What is the weather looking like . Gorgeous to be outside today. Obviously a big situation going on in the west talking about the wildfires there. We have poor conditions for so many folks dealing with conditions and firefighters on the front lines there. Talking about the hot, dry conditions persisting from california, low humidity and very gusty winds, and dry lightning could spark more fires. High pressure is dominate there. That means very high temperatures. That will not provide relief for firefighters whatsoever. Look at these numbers. From 90s to triple digit heat for so many folks here. All the dry weather in the west and the wet weather in the east cords atlanta and up to washington, d. C. Thats a look at the weather across the country. Your local forecast coming up in 30 seconds. The knowhow we need, and low prices that wont trample our budget. Then lets do some simple placing, locking. And admiring. A betterlooking floor is just a few steps away. And. Theyre affordable steps. More saving. More doing. Thats the power of the home depot. Saratoga hickory laminate is a special buy. Just 99 cents a square foot. Good morning. Im meteorologist christina loren. A live look at the San Francisco bay. We have a warm day ahead and the humidity stays with us. Actually getting showers right now. One cell over scotts valley. Red flag warning in place due to the threat of dry lightning strikes. As we head through thefl second half of the day, 82 in fremont, 90 in san jose and 96 degrees on the way to livermore. Were going to keep that chance for thunderstorms in the forecast through tuesday. And thats a look at your weather. Heres matt. Thank you very much. Now to new questions tied to the death of Princess Diana that are getting a lot of attention this morning. British Police Looking into the tragedy once again. Nbcs Michelle Kosinski is at Buckingham Palace with details. Good morning, michelle. Reporter you here that its breaking news. That police are quote scoping information, recently received assessing its relevance and credibility and you just think what could this possibly be . But now we know more. British police insist they are not reopening the investigation into Princess Dianas death back in 1997 in pairious, but are assessing new information. Surrounding the death of Princess Diana. Reporter according to reliable british news outlets like channel 4 this was sparked by a former special forces soldier, or rather his estranged inlaws that wrote a letter complaining about his erratic behavior and threats. They claimed they threatened their lives, intimidated their daughter and told her dianas death was arranged by Army Special Forces and then covered up. Now generating disbelief and disgust among many who knew diana. Theres no evidence and if Princess Diana had been wearing her seat belt she would have lived. So how can this be an assassination . The reality is that Princess Diana wasnt murdered. She was driven by a drunk driver at high speed being chased by the paparazzi. Reporter at the same time, a book is due out making similar claims to those alleged by the soldier. A movie out next month starting naomi watts who told a newspaper this weekend, there was one particular moment when i felt her permission was granted. That wont sound right in print, i know. But maybe the most powerful concrete reminder of her life are her sons. Prince harry was working with the antiland mine organization his mother champions. They continue her charity in the same ways, the same places, telling the world the value of the good works that she taught them. There was a far reaching inquest into dianas death and also an investigation that lasted years, specifically into all the conspiracy theories that came up and both concluded that there was no evidence to support them. Matt . All right. Michelle kosinski, thank you very much. Coming up, still on the subject of the royals, Prince William opens up about baby george and fatherhood in his first interview since becoming a dad. As opposed to opening up about boy george, all right. And Alex Rodriguez on and off the field surrounding his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. This morning, his attorney will speak out in an exclusive live interview, but first this is today on nbc. Nbc. Coming up, a surprising push to make salaries an open book. Our thank you to you. Fan appreciation week on the plaza after a check of your local news. Make . The push to make salaries an open book. And fans on the plaza after your local new