>> welcome to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. and she's are the stories we're following. >> we urged russian government to pull back its military. >> a political showdown over crimea becoming part of russia. and as diplomats try to talk it out and find a peaceful solution to the crisis in ukraine. a breakthrough with hiv. we'll tell you about babies, leading the hopes for a cure.

>> dividing the east and the west. crimea an parliament has voted to become part of russia, and ukraine leaders are trying to solve the crisis. russia and the u.s. are moving farther apart as u.s. has decided to impose sanctions. it won't be official until the people approve the referendum, but what does today's move mean? >> . >> yeah, del, today's vote was pretty much symbolic, but in ten days, every single citizen on the peninsula will be able to place his ballot to go back to the russian federation and be tied to them. there was a reaction from kiev.

and the supreme court saying that any referendum would be illegal. >> this so-called referendum has none at all. those who claim separatism in ukraine. crimea was, is, and will be an integral part of ukraine. >> now, dell, it's important to take this into consideration. what is being asked of the people of crimea is to make a referendum on deciding to join russia or staying with ukraine. with russia now under threat of being increasingly isolated from the west. and basically, what they're asking crimeaians to do is decide between their ethnicity and between being part of a larger community. >> if those people don't vote

yes in the referendum, what does that mean for kiev? >> for kiev, that means that they lose a chunk of their territory. it is a very large part of ukraine. and this will be putting a whole peninsula off. and there are obviously naval resources there. but it will also be a damaging blow to a national identity. ukrainians will obviously feel very angry that russia has orchestrated an entire section of their country to be torn away, and what's also troubling to many in kiev, this may not be the end of it. this may just be the start. there are fears that russia has not only designs on crimea, but large sections of the east. we saw very troubling developments in the eastern part of the country, where russian supporterser stormed government buildings, and people are

keeping an eye on this, but that could be a domino affect and there could be more territory that they will lose. >> phil foreorter in ki he. and john kerry met today with lavrov, and the two are trying to find a diplomatic solution, but so far they can't reach anagram. talks are scheduled to continue today. and meanwhile, the white house is accused of interfering. and another call for russia to withdraw its troops. mike vicara is there, and what do these sanctions entail? >> i to the get to one thing real quick because this is breaking news as we come on the air. you mentioned secretary carey.

sec carry kerry impressed the importance of international monitors, to assess the situation on the ground. and two points from yesterday in the meeting in paris when lavrov and the foreign minute steer didn't meet at all. it has been a black mark between the secretary and the treasury deposit. it comes in two steps, denying visa from russia and the ukraine, and allowing the government to sanction russian and ukrainian officials who they deem responsible for the crisis. they are holding it out there as the stick as opposed to the carrot, del. and basically, the bullet points, those would undermine

democratic policy that applies to them, those who undermine the internet of the ukraine and the state assets. again, they haven't named any names or sanctions yet. but they're impressing that this is very flexible. they want to use it as an inducement to not only get the troops back in the barracks in crimea, the troops, but also to discourage anything that russia has. >> what can you tell us about the aid? >> for all of the criticism that we have heard, and there has been a lot of loud and vocal criticism from the republicans leading us to this point, vladimir putin duping the white house in the words of some. but it's true that republican leaders are putting forth the bill that republicans want to do, an aid package for ukraine.

an aid package, authorizing money that's there are there to the imf to spend in ukraine, and because it goes to the imf it has a multiplier effect that makes other countries eligible that want to get behind ukraine, whose economy is in the tank, del. >> mike viqueira in water water, and thank you very much. a new phonecall is raising questions about who shot whom last month, and the qua call isr the former minister of estonia, and he said he did not implicate the opposition. here's a portion of that call. >> it was quite disturbing, it shows the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and people from the streets.

>> and that of course a new conversation about kiev, but also crimea. nick schifrin documenting an incident in an un envoy of armed men. >> reporter: for nearly an hour inside of this cafe, they barricaded you knew envoy,

robert serren, they came to gain his attention. and whether at the cafe or at the airport, they control all access. seri was driven against his will on a flight to is stan bull. same activists blocked the door and ran seri out of the country. they feel empowered by the arrival of 16,000 russian troops. they're expanding their presence, but not answering any questions. with my producer, we asked of a dozen questions, and got the same silence. >> can i ask you a question? can you just tell me where you are from? >> he tells me to step away from the car. and then they drove off. a local journalist filmed on her cellphone. the russian soldiers demanded ukrainian soldiers surrender their weapons. they're under orders not to

shoot, so instead they blocked the front gate, anything they could to resist a much larger and better armed russian force. they successfully set the russian troops packing, but then that night, a pro russian mob showed up outside of the gates and demanded the russian soldiers be let in. russian forces, with the support of their nationalistic radical supporters, are stepping up their aggression. scared and under siege, they hunkered down and sat in the dark, illuminated only by a tv. they told us we couldn't film, so we tried using an iphone. >> it has been tense out, but just a few minutes ago, ukrainian soldiers allowed half a dozen russian soldiers into the base. >> the soldiers told us it was time to go, and that's when things got really bad. >> the road was blocked with

literally two cars, and we stepped out of the car, and tried to ask these people to move the cars away. the demand was that we show them what's on the camera. >> reporter: the mob that tried to climb over the bases turned their attention to us, and we had to negotiate. >> they threatened to flip the car over and started counting down from ten, and that's when we showed them the video. >> reporter: do you think their threats were serious. >> to comply with the demands, we have had our tires slashed and i believe that they would have torn the car apart and it could have gotten very ugly. >> ugly because outside of the cafe, the police were unable or unwilling to impose any authority. >> why didn't you do anything? are you going to answer? is it not your job nim to defend u.n. common? >> reporter: if they could do

this to a sea or diplomat, they could do it to anyone. >> what you don't know about vladimir putin. why he is worth billions and his work in the kgb. we're going to look at his long rise to power. that's tonight at 11:30 eastern time. one of moammar gadhafi's sons, he is now in prison in tripoli. one of seven sons, best-known as the head of the football federation! >> thousands of republicans are meeting today for the annual conservative political action conference, otherwise known as cpac. it features some of the most prominent runners for the republican party, who may be

running in 2006. and what's the hot topic this year in >> reporter: the most applause when senator ted cruz, a republican, called for a repeal of obamacare, from abolishing the irs, to protecting gun rights, and hearing those things reiterated by speakers. senator cruz is immerging as a rising star, and a lot of support for him in this room. he came to state in the fall when his all night talk on the senate floor led to the chain reaction for the government shutdown, but senator cruz today said that if they talk about issues that are important toe republicans and conservatives at cpac, they should follow their principles, and not what consultants tell them. >> we can either choose to keep our med down and not rock the boat and not stand for anything,

or we can stand for principle. they say if you stand for principle, you lose elections. the smart way, the washington way, don't stand against obamacare, don't stand against the debt ceiling, don't stand against nothing. i want to tell you something. that's a false dichotomy. >> reporter: and ted cruz went after guys like john mccain and mitt romney, nice guys, but didn't stand for their principles. >> who else is showing up at cpac? okay, we seem to have lost our signal with aljazeera's libby casey, but as fate would have it that signal is back. and libby, who else is at cpac. >> i can, del. it's really a who's who members of the senate, paul ryan, and also governors like bobby jindal of louisiana, and rick perry of

texas, and we'll also hear from sarah palin on saturday. there are people who could use more love, mitch mcconnell, he's facing a battle with tea party conservatives in kentucky. and mitch mcconnell got warm applause, but then he held up a rifle over his head. and then he got a big standing ovation, so we see some republicans trying to get the republicans behind them this weekend. >> libby casey, thank you very much. the dalai lama delivering the opening prayer at the u.s. senate this morning. the first time he has made such an appearance. but he's no stranger to state legislatures. in 2009, he gave the opening prayer at the senate. meeting with president obama, for the third time, that's a move that china has criticized each and every time. coming up on aljazeera, the

protests continue in venezuela, the longer they last, the more you pay at the pump.

>> president obama in his efforts to boost the latino enrollment in the affordable care act. 8 out of 10 are eligible for medicaid or lower premiums, but they have yet to sign up. they are rushing to raise enrollments before the deadline. >> wall street seems to have regained their footing. also getting a boost after encouraging information. declining 7% last month.

in february, since the year 2000, the numbers are compiled. all of this coming out ahead of the monthly jobs report, and we'll have a live report on that when the numbers are released tomorrow right here on aljazeera america. staples is closing 225 locations by the end of next year. it now makes half of its sales online. and staples also posting lower than expected profits for 2013, and it's earnings for the current quarter will be below wall street estimates. in venezuela, thousands have been celebrating the death of the late president, hugo chavez. but despite the legacy of mutual distrust between his government and the u.s., it has been based on oil. reporting from crac caracas.

venezuela is the largest crude oil producerrer for the united states, and because it doesn't have enough domestic refineries, an unlikely partnership has developed between the united states and this nation, which rise on exports and imports to keep it's economy humming. >> years ago, even under hugo chavez, when he talked about our president being the devil or some of these rhetorical positions, the bottom line is, the united states is the closest largest market for venezuelan oil. >> despite a recent energy boom t. still imports, and places like texas and illinois, adding american jobs before sending the refined product, or gasoline, back to venezuela. but some venezuelan officials

say their country could pump more ever the oil business back into their own economy, by investing more in refineries, by using expertise to build out the infrastructure. >> the government has neglected infrastructure and left our national oil company in a difficult situation because they have they seem to have abandoned the investment that we need to keep growing. >> protesters here often point to the stagnating economy, rampant inflation, as chief reasons for taking to the streets. for years, the government tried to placate those concerns, by heavily subsidizing the price of gas. this is one of the few places in the world where believe iter on, this bottle of water costs more than the gasoline. the government keeps it that way especially in poor neighborhoods, but this pack of

gum actually costs more than filling up this entire suv. but reporters say that it eases the financial burdens of the nation's poor. but as protesters continue to square off with authorities across the nation, all eyes are focused on whether the destruction of government can drust venezuela's all important economy. >> and that is david arius reporting, up next on aljazeera america, a baby born with hiv virus may have been cured right after birth, and it's not the first time that it it happened. and it's a unique exhibit in the uk. ♪

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. >> welcome bang to all aljazeea america. i'm del walters. and here are the headlines at this hour. in the south ukraine, the parliament voting to to become part of russia. it's symbolic, and later today, the u.s. introducing sanctions

against russia and talks end up without resolution. the house committee hearing testimony about the crisis in ukraine, and it's going to vote today on an aid package from washington. and president obama will be hosting a town hall meeting for the latino community for the affordable care act. the deadline is march 31st. one in four hispanics are not enrolled. doctors are reported that a california baby born with a virus causing aids may have been cured by early treatment. as erica explains, this is the second time it has happened. >> this time last year, we learned doctors in mississippi essentially cured a baby infected by hiv by giving the newborn high doses of aids medication. that child is now three years old and hiv three. that same case inspired doctors in california to treat another

infant the same way, and now we're learning that the treatment may have cured this baby girl too. one month after the news broke that a mississippi baby born with hiv was cured with early treatment, a california baby was born with the virus, and the doctors started treating the infected infant just four hours after she was born. >> we were aware of the mississippi baby, and we had participated in a study before where they gave babies one, two, or three medications, and they were born in high-risk situations, and three medications were better than one, and that's how we decided to start therapy. >> nine months later, researchers believe that the high doses of widely used aids medications is the reason why the baby now shows no signs of the virus. the cdc characterizes the baby as functionally cured. ask as for the mississippi baby, now three years old, the child

is still hiv three. at first, the doctors thought there was a mistake. >> i thought, my goodness, i've been treating a child that's not actually infected. >> doctors may be onto something, but they won't call it a cure just yet. while the california baby appears to be very healthy, she's still taking the drugs as a precaution. >> we're not going to stop the medications until at least three years of age or when new information is available. and so at that time, we'll see what happens. >> researchers say there could be five more similar cases in canada and three in south africa. and meanwhile, a clinical trial is going to begin soon following three babies born with hiv who will be given the treatment within 48 hours of their birth.

>> i'm meteorologist, dave warren. another coastal storm, and heavy rain across the southeast. that will be moving north. and high pressure is keeping cold air in place though. and that will be the problem because you get the rainfalling into the air, which is below freezing, and that will lead to sleet and freezing rain. big area here in north carolina and west virginia. this is the heavy rain falling in the air, which is below freezing, high pressure keeping that cold air in place. eventual, the temperatures will climb barely above freezing but we still have the rain coming down, and the wind will be out of the northeast with the nor' easter here, and this will be from delaware to new jersey and all the way up to new york and new england. here comes the rain. the area of this freezing rain will be north carolina, virginia, and overnight and thursday, you'll be waking up to that, and on friday, eventually climbing above freezing, but not

until 1:00. this is icing and you'll get the accumulation in north carolina and virginia. another shot of cold air coming into the plains in chicago, but warm air returns from texas, oklahoma, kansas, nebraska, denver, up to 67°. it's dry there, and we could see snow in the northern plains, and another storm in the pacific northwest causing problems with very heavy rain and snow in washington and northern california. the waves of rain moving in. we have flood warnings and avalanche warnings in effect because of the heavy snow in the mountains. del. >> a biking exhibit opening for the first time in decades, debunking some of the myths about vikings. they were not the bearded warriors in helmets, instead they collected this, beautiful art. and they were engineers.

the centerpiece is this. a 40-yard ship. it is the longest ship that has ever been excavated. i'm del walters in new york, and "inside story" is next. >> if you want to put the economic squeeze on another country in an international dispute, what are the tools of the trade or lack of trade? u.s., russia and you were union on this "inside story." >> hello, i'm ray suarez.