on the listening post today. >> thank you for having me. next week we have another special with three stories on how new technologies are changing what you see in the news. we'll see you then here at the listening post. good afternoon to you, and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york city. these are the stories right now. investigators have discovered new clues in the disappearance of that malaysian airliner. plus, taking sides in crimea. a standoff between pro and anti-russian forces. riding high on a new wave of homes in amsterdam.

new details into that missing malaysian jetliner that vanished over the south china sea. according to reuters a vietnamese navy plane may have found objects from the aircraft. radar indicates that the missing jet may have turned back before it vanished. based on that, teams looking for the plane widened their search on the coast of vietnam. now authorities say two people were able to get on board using stolen passports. two others weren't even listed on the flight but they did get on the plane anyway. we're in kuala lumpur with the latest. >> interpol has said and confirmed that those two names were indeed stolen passports, and they were on that -- the passengers used those stolen passports to board the flight. no it says it's of political concern there are no checks made since those passports were reported stolen.

there were no checks made by any countries in the database that the interpol keeps. this database contains some 14 million names from 167 countries. so interpol says the fact none of the countries have made checks on nethese names means they're unable to find out if these people traveling on forged documents had made other travels into other countries and crossed borders. the malaysian authorities said that they have not ruled out any possibility of what might have happened. the fact that the passports were stolen and that they were used as travel documents now is also confirmed by the italian nation nationalist who says he doesn't think there was much done after he reported the loss to the police. >> maybe some people stole my passport, and i see my passport

taish can they use it again? when i come back to italy, i talk with the police, italian police for a lock on my last passport so nobody could use it. >> investigators are checking surveillance video of two men believed to have boarded using the stolen identification. we'll continue to bring you the latest on this developing story as soon as we get it right here on al jazeera america. for up to the minute information 24/7, log onto aljazeera.com. tensions are escalating on the ground in crimea where pro-ukrainian activists were attacked by pro-russian groups in a rally in the city of sevastopol. secretary of state john kerry has warned russia that any moves whatsoever to annex ukraine's crimean peninsula close the door to diplomacy. jennifer glasse joins us right

now. putin says russia and ukraine won't go to war, but 16,000 pro-russian troops occupy the region. is russia gaining ground? >> reporter: yeah, russia actually already has most of the ground, morgan. we saw it surround another base today. that's a border base. very lightly armed men in there. they retreated inside the base. this is the 11th base that russia has taken across the crimean peninsula. they have the navy blockaded in artillery bay behind me as well as all of the bays around this very, very strategic naval peninsula home to the russian and ukrainian black sea fleets. hundreds of ukrainian sailors are trapped. the russians call on them to surrender or change sides, and the ukrainians refusing to back down. the standoff continues athe this intense time. putin is telling the german

chancellor that the referendum, that what's happening here is according to international law, of course. kiev is not recognizing that. the united states is not recognizing that. very little diplomatic talking going on, so a very, very tense situation here, morgan. >> jennifer, you mentioned that russia has now taken the 11th base inside the country, but what does that mean in terms of demonstrators? how are people reacting on the ground? >> reporter: well, it's a sunday here, and so the demonstrators come out in full force. we saw them in the crimean capital of sevastopol. these are pro-russian demonstrators. several thousand came out. we had a small demonstration here, pro-russian and pro-ukrainian. the fringes here in sevastopol, we scuffling between the protesters. it really reflects the high emotional attachment people have here to what's going on.

this is very, very personal. this is about their identity. you have people who are ethnic russians and who look towards moscow. you have people who are ethnic ukrainians who were born in crimea and lived in crimea and their children are crimean and believe this peninsula should remain a part of ukraine. in kiev thousands of peechl people came out on sunday to demonstrate for ukraine yan immunity. everybody is coming out and shows their allegiances. so far just one scuffle, and it's been broadly peaceful, but certainly emotions running very, very high on this subject. >> jennifer, you mentioned personality identity and kiev. the interim government calls the upcoming march 16th referendum illegal. can they do anything at this point to block it? >> reporter: you know, they really don't have a lot of authority down here.

the local officials are in charge. they've already started to print the ballots. the government in kiev did do one thing it could do. they froze the electoral records for the people here, so i don't know that that's going to affect the voters list here across the peninsula as people go to the polls on the 16th of the march. we know that the crimean said that 13% of the population plan to boycott that election, but there's not much -- not much control kiev on the ground. russia has made this very much clear that they are in control of everything. you've got russian forces, russian mief -- russian-backed militia and officials have went to moscow and got the blessing. things are under way here, and it looks like russia is going to use this referendum to rubber-stamp what's a fact on the ground, that russia is in control in crimea. >> jennifer glasse is reporting from ukraine.

thank you so much for being with us today. diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis seem to be as a standstill. now ukraine's prime minister is coming to the u.s. randall pinkston joins us from washington, d.c. do we have any details yet of the prime minister's visit? >> reporter: yes, morgan. the administration made it a point to spell out exactly the fact that the obama administration is supporting the new government of ukraine. it is symbolically significant that the president will welcome the new prime minister into the white house saying to russia the u.s. does not accept russia's contention that the old leader of ukraine is still the legitimate leader. meanwhile, however, russia is creating some facts on the ground of its own with their military forces. in fact, the former u.s. defense secretary roberts gates who served president obama and president bush says russia for all practical purposes has

control of ukraine, and it's only the beginning. >> i think it's part of a long-term strategy on putin's part to re-create a russian sphere of influence and russian bloc. i don't think that he will stop in ukraine until there is a government in ukraine, in kiev that is essentially pro-russian. >> reporter: and the first step towards making that happen takes place next saturday with a russian-backed referendum in crimea to split off crimea from ukraine and return it to russia. morgan. >> let's go back for a minute. assuming gates is right what are the consequences? >> reporter: already the administration is warning russia faces increasing ilags, specifically economic sanctions. one of the national security officials on the obama administration today says that russia is already suffering. investors will be more hesitant to put money into their economy

going forward. of course, the u.s. and its european allies have been working to tighten the screws, as it were. they haven't imposed the sanctions yet but tell putin if you proceed with your move in crimea, that is exactly what is going to happen. still, as jennifer pointed out, with the referendum just a week away, there really isn't too much the u.s. can do to stop it, and then what? here's what the administration said. >> if there is a referendum and it votes to move crimea out of ukraine and to russia, we won't recognize it and most of the world won't either. russia had a government in ukraine that it supported and that started to take very aggressive action against it's own people. that government is gone. the government more oriented towards the rest of the world and towards the west is in place, and so what you see is, i think, putin acting from a position of weakness. >> reporter: also, what you are

seeing is the world's superpowers, the two most important superpowers in the world facing off over a contested region, and obviously that does not bode well for cooperation on so many issues such as nuclear weapons and iran getting a mid east peace deal, other flash points in the world where russia has in the past cooperated to some extent. we expect les russian cooperation going forward. >> randall pinkston reporting from washington, d.c. always a pleasure to have you on. join us tonight for the week ahead. we expect the growing crisis in ukraine and ask what it means for international security. respects word order is the topic and that's tonight with jonathan betz at 8:30 p.m. eastern and 5:30 pacific on "the week ahead" right here on jz america. it's been a year since a roman catholic conclave introduced pope francis. we'll survey the powerful and

sometimes surprising impact the pontiff has had on the catholic church. >> he learns how difficult working ther can be. >> how do you say..."get out the way"? >> shoro >> can this brittish man find common ground with his local host? >> "must really take it out of mr. loteef"... >> toughest place to be a ferryman on al jazeera america

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anywhere else. >> talk to al jazeera. >> only on al jazeera america. >> oh my! today marks seven years since an american working for the cia mysteriously went missing in iran. robert levinson will turn 66 on monday, and an investigation by the associated press last year suggests the former fbi agent vanished while spying on the iranian government. in a statement released today, secretary of state john kerry says the united states remains committed to the safe return of mr. levinson to his family and added, we respectfully ask the government of iran to work cooperatively with us on the investigation into his disappearance so that we can ensure his safe return. humble, open-minded and, yes, different. these are some of the words that many have used to describe pope francis who this week marks his one-year anniversary as leader the catholic church.

joining me live from rome is a correspondent for the national catholic reporter. good afternoon, joshua. pop francis has achieved a certain rock star status this year, not only rocking the cover of "rolling stone" but being named "time" magazine's person of the year. what's so special about this pope, and why haven't we seen a reaction to a pope like this before? >> reporter: well, morgan, i think you can see it in just the way he talks to people. he was saying the address on sunday. he does it every sunday at noontime, and he talks directly to people. it seems like he's touching their hearts and talking right to them. he has a way of talking over everyone's head to get to you, and he talks in very personal terms talking about his own life, searching for mercy, and he uses very simple images. you know, pope benedict used to go back and talk about medieval people like augustine but he

talks about basic stories that connect on a level. you can see how quickly he spread around the world. >> speaking of personal terms, the pope suggested in an interview that the church should examine civil unions, but he didn't affirm gay marriage or support civil unions soshgs what -- so what did he mean? >> reporter: if you go back, he gave an interview to an italian paper. it's basically the paper of record here in italy. the statement is kind of ambiguous. the interviewer asks him what he thinks about gay marriage and civil unions. he clearly states that marriage is between a man and a woman. so that's very clear. he then goes on to say that to recognize that many different countries around the world have started to grant civil unions, but he doesn't exactly say that's okay or he agree with it. he just says he doesn't have the facts at hand, and he wants to look at those cases in their

variety. some people take it to mean he supports civil unions, while others say it's a pretty am business with us statement and hard to say what it means. >> another big issue facing the church, what did he say about sexual abuse? >> reporter: yeah. he was asked by the interviewer his thoughts on the sexual abuse by clergy of children around the world. the pope responded pretty frankly. he said he wanted to say two things. first was that he knows that sexual abuse causes profound pain and deep wounds. then he went on to say that the church has done a lot on this matter, and he thinks that they've been transparent and open and responded well. he compares the church to other institutions saying that the church has responded. other institutions haven't. the church is the only one that gets attacked. now, in the united states there's many people looking for the pope to touch upon this issue, and immediately many survivor fwrgroups said it soun

like a response pope benedict would have made and it's not what they hoped for from pope francis. they hope he might meet with abuse victims or recognize that's a response that has been heard before, and it doesn't really answer the pain and the suffering of those who have suffered from abuse by priests and clergy. >> just briefly, joshua, is there anything we should look forward to seeing from the pope this year? >> reporter: well, the pope has called for a re-evaluation of the church's teachings towards family practices. that includes things like the church teaching contraception or same-sex marriage or divorce and remarriage. we're coming up on the year-long anniversary here on thursday of his election, and into october he's hosting a worldwide meeting of bishops called a sinad. where they all come to rome and discuss this issue. many look at this time to see what's going to happen in october? are they going to touch upon real issues?

the pope has said a lot of things, but is it concrete. is there a change in doctrine or teaching or style of the church? i think many people are looking at that time in october to know just what goes from here. >> correspondent for the national catholic reporter, thank you for being with us this afternoon. protests are expected again today in venezuela where more than 20 people have tied as police and antigovernment crowds continue to clash. the advocacy group human rights watch accused the maduro government of using brutal force. we have more from the town of valencia. >> reporter: clashes like this one have been common as venezuelans take to the streets to protest against rising crime and police corruption. the opposition says their marches are peaceful, while the government accuses them of enciting the violence. there have been victims and

accusations on both sides. >> reporter: here we continue to follow or commander in chief's orders, which are keep internal order, guard public order, give citizens necessary security, and if it is necessary for us to lay down our lives, we will. our order must be restored. enough already with these facist groups and enough of this violence that unjustly hurts the population. >> reporter: he says he was arrested during a protest three weeks ago. while in custody, he says he was raped with a rifle by the national guard. he's not allowed to speak publicly while his case is being processed, but off-camera he told me he's angry and frustrated. his mother, rebecca, can speak on his behalf. >> translator: there are no words to describe how we feel. we're all stuck in the apartment because we can't leave him alone. i don't believe anymore in this country's justice system. i don't believe. >> reporter: his case like those of other protesters killed and

beaten by the security forces has become nationally known. they're martyrs to the opposition cause. with one of the highest crime rates in the world, very few criminals are ever captured never mind being prosecuted in places like this. with the political element of these cases things are unlikely to be any different. while the families mourn, the fight is waged to ensure basic human rights are maintained. >> translato she's putting pressure on the authorities. >> translator: they've not been respecting the minimum standards in the prevention of torture. that's evident in all the cases we've seen presented. those detained did not have immediate access to their lawyers or their families. they've taken away their telephones and erased photos that could compromise the authorities. >> reporter: the government maintains that it's upholding the rule of law, and that it's battling against undemocratic

forces that are trying to remove it from power. there's been a sway in society that becomes polarized, to maintain human rights are more concentrated. al jazeera, venezuela. now for a quick look at our national forecast with our meteorologist gentleman lee la ahmed. >> yesterday saw a quick taste of spring. is it going to be snatched away early? >> it's going to be. it's coming back. it will be beautiful early this week. a little cooler today because we have a weaker alberta clipper across the region. out west the heavy rainstorm across oregon today right along the coast where the winds gust quite a bit out there. we could see an additional 1 to 4 inches of rain through the day. the heaviest of the rain across oregon and northern portions of california. we see some weak showers right now around the seattle area, and a little bit of mountain snow in the highest elevations right

across north and western portions of washington state. we could see anywhere from 6 to 12 inches in the northern portions of the washington cascades, but overall it's going to be a beautiful couple of days coming up as we push into the new week. a couple of lingering showers on monday, but by tuesday and wednesday temperatures in the mid-50s and also pushing 60. pushing into the north-central plains, temperatures have certainly increased over the last 24 hours. in minneapolis we've gained 10 degrees between yesterday and today. in fargo, 24 degrees warmer than yesterday. look at the daytime highs for sunday. fargo will be 41, and most happy about minneapolis because yesterday they were at 25. so we've nearly doubled by the end of the day. it's a little cooler across southern portions of texas. we have moisture pushing in across the mountains of mexico, and i think we will see a couple of showers down towards corpus christi and brownsville. further towards the east, it's nice and warm and comfortable across southern portions -- across the southeast and i-10

corridor where later on today we could see a couple more showers across southern portions of louisiana and also into mississippi. generally speaking, it's going to be a kweet, beautiful day across the carolinas into georgia. back to you, morgan. >> thanks so much. coming up, is it the next wave of architecture? homes with built-in water views no matter where you look.

good afternoon, and welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford. now for a recap of today's top stories. the search for the missing malaysian jetliner continues. reuters is reports that the vietnamese navy may have actually spotted debris that looks like belongings from the missing plane, but still no confirmation on the exact whereabouts. twro passengers boarded the flight using stolen passports. no one checked database before the plane departed. rising ocean level threaten the future of the world's coastal cities causing architects to look for ways to get them to coexist. we go to a floating village in

amsterdam that may pave the way for aqua architecture. >> this is the heaviest object in the house. >> reporter: from the basement bathroom of her east amsterdam home she explains that her house was built around her bathtub. >> there's the water right there. >> yes, you can see the water and sometimes i see people swims or with a canoe here. >> reporter: it takes one peek out of the bathroom window to understand why the weighty fixture makes her house tilt a little to one side. her house floats on water. >> sometimes you can really shake, and because of that, it will shake not like this but sometimes like this because it can move further. sometimes it can be funny. this is the kitchen. we spend a lot of time here, obviously. >> reporter: do you get dizzy? i see the water go like this. does it make you feel seasick?

>> no, not at all. i like the water. this is the dining room, and here we got the family most of the time and in the summer we open the windows and barbecue. also, the can you beiducks are around. >> reporter: it's one of of 75 similar structures built along the city just outside the center of the capital city. it's a kind of floating village that might be a model for low lying communities everywhere increasingly threatened by volatile weather, storm surges or rising sea levels. the netherlands is one of the most densely populated places in the world. about 60% of the population lives below sea level. space has always been scarce, so more than 10 years ago a group of architects and engineers began brainstorming a way to utilize the water that surrounds them. that's when they came up with this.

march lease is the architect that designed what is now an entire community of floating houses. it took about seven years of research, engineering and designing. they're loosely anchored to shallow water to a pair of poles driven deep into the grounds. >> these rings there go up and down, so it can move 60, 70 meters in this case. >> reporter: she says that the design has been an inspiration to other countries, including the united states, but making a neighborhood like this one work requires creative thinking. >> you have to think about where you park the car, if you don't have streets, for example. where do you make enough storage? it's also an urban question, so you have to make a good urban plan. >> she's excited about fwroeing her family in this innovative neighborhood and anxious to see which other waterside communities might eventually hop on board. al jazeera, amsterdam.

thanks so much for watching al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york. ""the stream"" next. remember, for news updates throughout the day head to our website, aljazeera.com. >> hi i'm leem lmp an lisa fletcher and you're in the stream. is there a trend towards poverty in the nation's armed forces? >> our digital producer, wajahat ali is here. he's bringing in allr