>> the show may be over. the conversation continues on al jazeera/considerthis or facebook or google plus pages and on twitter at aj consider this. we will see you next time. dozens are dead in ukraine, after uprising. concerns more could be killed today. video obtained by al jazeera showing the threat they pose in the unstable country. emotions run high as families are reunited for the first time for the first time since the korean war.

>> everybody has been shot at. everybody has been under fire and had to deal with the enemy in one way or the other. >> a dangerous business, pot transactions, families are hiring armed guards to make. hi there and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. good to have you with us. ukraine's political standoff has reached its bloodiest point sint since the situation began. hotels turned into makeshift hospitals. but in the last hour there has been a recent break through. ukraine's president says a deal has been reached and will be

signed on friday. nick shifrin has more. >> reporter: every army needs a supply line and for the antigovernment protesters in kiev. crudest kind of bomb, moll off the cocktails. all tonight they will stay here, stuffing rags, pouring gas. somebody has to help the fighters. even if it means deceiving and leaving their families. >> what do your parents say? >> think don't know that we're here. i have a son, one year old son and i think that i must be here because it's my city. it's my people. and i don't want that they will be killed. >> reporter: this informal

support network has created not only a physical but an emotional life line, fighting for the heart and the future of the ukraine. we have just walked half a block from those molotov cocktails. >> st. michael's cathedral became a ar rear guard base. they help younger protesters whom they consider the heroes. >> people come to this specific place to bring medicine to bring clothes to bring food. >> we met maria, she's only 19 years old. on her head a skateboard helmet. >> it's a skateboard helmet. what do you think it's actually

going to save you from? >> it's going to save me from stones maybe. i don't know. well it's not going osave me for a bullet. >> for maria and her sister, they may be defenseless and unarmed but they feel protected. >> it's cre important to -- very important to support those who are debt now. support those who are alive and those who are here. i'm not scared now. that's the most important thing for me. i come here and i feel safe, i feel safer than i were at home. >> the protesters supply line and their conviction to fight has never been more alive. >> our nick shifrin, reporting. breaking news from wh kiev. jennifer glasse joins us live.

>> this just happened a few minutes ago, they just broke up a couple of hours ago. negotiations between the president of ukraine, opposition, representative of the european imroin, poland and france -- union, poland and france. negotiated all night and have come to a deal they say to settle the crisis here. and they are expecting the president to meet with european union representatives again before that deal is signed later today and the parliament is also expected to make some sort of announcement. they will meet local time just in about an hour's time. we are just waiting to see what the details of that deal will be after the ukraine's deadliest day in its history. >> has anything been done to ease the tension now? >> as you have heard from nick's

package people have been prepared for any kind of onslaught and fear that the president may send in the military. it has been a calm night and very, very calm morning in contrast to 24 hours ago. this is the time that violence broke out yesterday. i think it will be watching and waiting, the announcement hasn't been made in independence square. the it just appeared ten or 15 minutes ago. it will be interesting to see what the reaction, they don't trust any sort of deal. we don't know what he agreed on but we know that yesterday the polish foreign minister that he might be open to early election. that's been one of the offense demands. we're going to watch and wait and see what this thing offers, a.

>> jennifer, thank you. al jazeera will continue to follow the rapidly changing situation coming up. turning to afghanistan, the country could become a save safe haven. it will cost between five and $6 billion a year to keep afghanistan establish. almost all of that money would be used to sustain afghan security forces. the report says it would take 373,000 afghan troops to keep the country safe. the coalition would leave afghanistan about 150,000 short of that mark. u.s. has recommended to send u.n. troops in. president obama is yet to make a final decision. it is an exclusive look at the taliban inside afghanistan.

outside of kabul. the video shows an attempted attack on afghan security forces but the taliban decided to retreat once they spotted fighter jets circling overhead. the trial of our al jazeera colleagues detained in egypt has been postponed until march. peter greste, baher mohamed and mohamed fahmy have been detained for 59 days. many korean were separated from each other over 60 years ago. now some koreans from the north and south are reuniting with their long lost family members. as richelle carey reports, the outpouring of emotions is

overwhelming. >> reporter: tears of joy, tears of disbelief. families torn apart, separated by the korean wash. are reunited again at a mountain resource in fleak. somnorth korea. this isth could be the last:00 these families have contact with one another. >> i'm 87, the only renal i'm still alive is that i was waiting for this chance. >> reporter: but this is the lky few. both north and south korea banning communication, many koreans have gone without any kind of contact, phone calls or e-mails from their loved ones across the border flp have been 18 events since the first in 1985 but this is the first since

2010 and it almost didn't happen. after both governments agree to hold reunions, north korea briefly threatened to back out. but south korea refused and north korea's attempt to tie the event to politics was rejectby both sides. a brief reunion. >> each reunion lasts for about three days. a second group will be reunited with their northern relatives on saturday. large parts of the midwest and south are under tornado watches. powerful storms passed through the area on wednesday. al jazeera meteorologist kevin corriveau has more on the wicked weather.

>> a lot of people have been experiencing a lot of problems especially in tornadoes. we're talking about illinois, indiana as well as down here across parts of the mississippi river valley but up to the north it has been this snow. on the back side of this area of low pressure we have seen quite a bit of snow and some locations dumping about one inch per hour. we're talking minnesota, wisconsin into iowa. next couple of days that is going to clear out. what is in front of it is some very cool temperatures. dropping down on monday to 5°. minus 11, doesn't include what the wind chill will make it feel like. over to seattle a lot of the rain is dissipating, that's going ocontinue on friday. we expect to see about 45° as we go to the end of the weekend.

we may unfortunately see a little rain, snow potential on saturday. things are going to look a lot nicer through next week. clouds off the pacific, not really seeing any snow in the higher elevations, but beautifully warm day to los angeles, 80° there. overnight lows tot mid 50s. texas, activity there with front frontal boundary we just noticed. we do expect those temperatures to rebound, to 70, go back down on monday. >> kevin, thank you. another environmental disaster being investigated by the feds, this time, coal drsh lime spill in -- coal-lime spill in

nebraska. why investigators say it was worse than they first thought. al jazeera continues to watch the situation closely in ukraine. stay with us throughout the night and into the morning for the very latest.

>> welcome back. federal prosecutors in north carolina are expanding their investigation into a massive chemical spill. arsenic, lead and other materials were dumped into a river near the virginia border. state officials of officials say the water is safe but others are not sure. al jazeera reports from eden, north carolina. >> the muddy banks, eden, north carolina. this green foam is meant to catch up the contaminants from the coal ash, which were dumped into the river on february

2nd. they said two weeks ago, it was 82,000 tons of coal ash. that figure has now been down graded to 30 to 39,000 tons. but much of that coal ash is scattered around the dan river at the bottom in various spots all the way 70 miles downstream. duke energy is the largest electricity provider in the nation and on tuesday a second pipe leaked spewing arsenic laced groundwater into the river. they said 90% of that was clean and they did not know that was faulty at the time. officials are saying don't eat the fish, they're not sure of the long term consequences. much of it is down on the river at the banks. if we go down a foot or so bring it up you can see clearly we have sediment, leaves, we'll let this out but you can see the dark coal that is here in the mud mixed together.

and just this week, federal prosecutors demanded documents and ordered nearly 20 state environmental agency employees to testify before a grand jury coming up. coal ash is currently not deemed hazardous by the epa. it's used to make cinder block drywall. the long term hazard or effects on the water system and people are just simply not known. >> robert ray following the situation in eden north carolina. two men have pleaded guilty to the 2011 beating of a fan at dodgers stadium in los angeles. louie sanchez and marvin norwood were given jail time. a lawsuit against the dodgers,

alleging lax security is pending. fast food workers in seattle want to raise their wages there. they're getting their word out by the protest, boycott mcpoverty. asking customers not to buy any food. >> supersize my salary now. >> reporter: the fight to wage the minimum wage by more than 30% in seattle heats up again, with what organizers call a day long mcpoverty boycott, a boycott of the big burger chains, wendy's mcdonald's and burgeburger king. i would immediately get off of food stamps, i wouldn't have to go to the food banks anymore

and i would have some discretionary income to go to a movie or something, maybe be able to save up and get my teeth fixed. >> we see protesters at 3 william with food workers saying it's business as usual. seattle city council members kshama salwant speaks. >> campaign continues. >> a $15 an hour struggle is not only about 15. it's capture all this anger and frustration and you know, people are coming out and saying, you know what? we got to do something. >> protesters aren't the only people making statements. paul packs his lunch at home. today he made a point to eat at

burger king. >> the only reason they want this salary is a vote, $15 an hour sounds very good doesn't it? >> it's hard to understand whether the boycott is working or not. it has been a little bit slow, perhaps it had an impact, at least here. the other restaurants told us it's business as usual and at mcdonald's where that big rally was held downtown they were very busy. >> a spokesman for seattle's owners and operators are considering raising minimum salaries at the restaurants. still ahead, armed guards eescorescorting business owners. and why they are catching reindeer to spray-paint them. ♪

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>> welcome back. the ongoing violence in kiev, the impact is felt in olympic games in neighboring russia. >> as the turmoil in korean continues to build it has now sped over to the winter olympics. several members of the ukrainian team have left. katya, thank you for joining us. what is the link between what we're seeing in kiev and the winter olympics in sochi? >> the impact is bail political. beyond sports, of course. the president is backed by vladimir putin, a lot of this political turmoil is backed by russia trying to keep it in its other. they promiseds 15 billion in aid but in exchange, they asked

vurktd yanukovych t -- veurkt o keep the people under control. a lot of violence happened in kiev and a lot of people. >> dark cloud over what putin wanted to do with the olympics in sochi? >> oh, absolutely. i think it is a striking almost surreal overlap between two events, this glamorous glorious picture that putin wanted to show. in the center of the capitol there is black smoke, fires are burning, almost 75 people got killed over the past couple of

days and over 1,000 people are injured. and in the news outlets right now, i believe ukraine is dominating unfortunately and not the olympics. >> how significant is it for some of these ukrainian athletes to leave sochi early? after the violence in kiev? >> i think it is a statement. ukrainian these are people that ukrainians generally are proud of. because they have international fame, it is something that ukrainians appreciate. and in this case they went back to their country early to show support. >> paul butka has urged koranians to stay in sochi, but the skier pulled out of her slalom event on friday. what do you think it will do to the response of the protesters?

>> honestly, i think the people that know this particular athlete will appreciate it. most people can't follow the olympics right now. we have a heavy weight boxing bg champion, vitaly klitschko, who is involved right now. to show solidarity and support and i think it's nice that she decided to support her own country. also there is one thing, athletes want ed to show something black to show their solidarity with ukraine and i think it was not allowed for rules. ukrainian athletes although it is great for them to participate, their hearts are with their home in kiev. >> the olympics will finish up this sunday in sochi.

carol mckinley reports, it is still a federal crime to make banks handle drug money which is making paying taxes a little tricky. >> when you pay taxes do you hire combat officers to protect you? you do if you are involved in marijuana sales. they are hired to transfer be tens of thousands of marijuana traffic every day. >> february 20th is the fir day state and city retail marijuana taxes are due. hundreds of pot shops are paying january's entire tax bill in many cases hundreds of thousands of dollars each all in cash. because federal laws won't allow them to have bank accounts. >> it's going to be a lot of cash that's going to be going to the state and city buildings and

that kind of thing. >> al burke is big al, a former special ops marine. when armored car companies found this too risky. >> your business has grown four fold. >> it has. >> selling pot retail, along with that comes a pile of cash and following that, more nerves. >> it is like growing tomatoes. except that the crop it yields is much more profitable than totals, currently. >> these plants are worth thousands of dollars. to protect the cash, security at night shade has no blind spot. >> you protect what you do and what you say. we have panic buttons, where we can shut the entire dispensary down like that.

>> michael hancock is nervous too. despite the mile high city is going to reap millions this in benefits,. >> i'm always concerned when large amounts of cash come into the city. >> how much are we talking about here? >> hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash walked into this building. >> loaded down with thousands in cash, lightshade asked us to not say how much. just one day's take from colorado's pot shots. carol mckinley, denver. over in finland, reindeer wandering onto roads. after a few botched attempts they've decided to spray-paint the antlers of 20 reindeer with

a glo i glow in the dark dye. if it works, they'll paint all the reindeer horns in northern finland. that's it. i'm thomas drayton, remember news at the top of every hour. thanks for watching. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in "the stream." fitness experts are taking the wearable app market by storm. is our fitness getting a boost or is it an outlet that needs instant gratification via social media? ♪