welcome to al jazeera america. i'm dell. these are the stories we are following for you. a powerful u.s. senator accusing the cia of criminal activity around a congressional investigation, and the cia is fighting back. day four of the search for that missing malaysian airliner. investigators remain baffled >> ukraine's ousted president saying he is still in charge, plus -- >> if you go through this site as you have seen today, they are

going to have additional problems. >> three years after japan's nuclear disaster, what lessons have been learned? ♪ disturbing allegations today by the powerful head of the senate intelligence committee. diane feinstein accusing the cia of criminal activity. that drew a quick response from the head of the cia. mike is behind this story? >> this has really boiled over here in washington. diane feinstein wants an apology from the cia whom she ak sueses of, of all things, spying on the u.s. senate and the senate intelligence committee. this goes back to the

interrogation program insnish -- initiated by the bush administration and made public in 2006. this committee has been involved in an investigation over that very controversial program. and there have been disputes over what documents had been made available and what documents had been destroyed. the documents were put in a separate location where senate staffers could go and look at them. and now diane -- this has been percolating a few weeks ago that the cia had searched the databases and removed some documents. now the cia according to senator feinstein this morning on the floor initially blamed outside contractors then describes what happened. >> then the cia stated that the removal of the documents was ordered by the white house.

when the committee approached the white house, the white house denied giving the cia any such order. after a series of meetings, i learned that on two occasions, cia personnel electronically removed committee access to cia documents after providing them to the committee. >> there are a number of problems that are probably obvious with this del, number one that the cia is not supposed to be engaged in domestic spying. and it's the express purpose of the senate intelligence committee to investigate the cia, oversea the cia, and make sure they are staying in line, and compiling reports like they are trying to compile now. william brennan was appearing before the council on foreign relations and the interviewer there asked him to respond to

diane feinstein's comments this morning on the senate floor. let's listen. >> as far as the allegations of the cia hacking into senate computers nothing would be further from the truth. that's beyond the scope of reason. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming there has been this tremendous spying, monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. >> charges and counter charges flying back and forth this morning. we also understand from the chair woman, that the department of justice is investigating. del. >> and cia directors have come and gone in washington but senator feinstein has seen a lot of them do just that. >> that's right. and jay rockefeller is the one who initiated this. obviously it dates back to the bush administration, and senator

feinstein says she was first made aware of these allegations, specifically that these documents had been removed from the senate investigator's computers two months ago. she tried to keep it quiet and now it has burst into public view, del. >> mike, thank you very much. there are new details coming out in connection with the missing flight 370. may la sha airlines is looking into media reports about one of the co-pilots flying the plane. a woman aledging that she and another woman were allowed inside the cockpit. >> reporter: this woman claims this hand on a flight two years ago that the co-pilot of the plain that is missing was also in the cockpit from that flight two years ago. he invited these two women passengers up to the cockpit and

they spent the entire hour in the cockpit. malaysian airlines is now saying it cannot confirm that this is true. it does say it is horrified by these allegations, shocked in fact by these allegations if they are true. >> and interpol now coming forward down playing any role that terrorism may have played in the downing of this plane. what do they say? >> well, there was a lot of questions about two of the passengers on this plane who were on stolen pass ports. who were they? why were they on the plane. they bought oneway tickets. they are both iranian citizens, one 19, the other 29, apparently they were heading to europe to seek political asylum. they do not believe the two men had any ties to terrorism. >> what is the u.s.'s role in the multinational effort in

trying to find the plane. >> there are ten different countries involved. the u.s. navy has two destroyers in the area. they have search helicopters. they have been out looking -- as have many others all through the waters trying to see if they can spot any wreckage. >> lisa stark joining us from washington. thank you very much. it was 25 years ago that pan am flight exploded over lockerbie scotland. ter rick bassny reports. >> reporter: 25 years after the lockerbie bombing, aljazz has accessed documents which points to the involvement of the iranian security service, hezbollah, and the pflpgc.

the four parties met months before the bombing of the flight to discuss israeli and u.s. targets. >> in essence they were recruiting support. we're all going to help each other. some of us may be able to do something, some may be able to do others, but we're all going to join together and have a campaign against israel and american targets. >> reporter: three months after the meeting, the u.s. navy shot down a iranian passenger plane. it was then the plan was hatched. >> the decision was made by the whole system iran and then confirmed by ayatollahco -- khomeini. the target was to copy

everything that happened to the israeli airbus. minimum 290 people dead. this was the target of the iranian decision makers. >> reporter: the theory that l palestine was involved isn't knew. what is new is now the evidence links iron's secret service to the attack. >> i have often wondered whether or not the truth about lockerbie will ever come out. so many people at such a high level have a stake in this man's guilt. talking about presidents of the united states, secretaries of state, heads of the fbi, british prime ministers. that's what makes this case so difficult. >> before i die, this is the truth -- >> reporter: the only person to have been convicted of the bombing, a libyan agent is now

dead. these new revelations will again focus attention on those who carried out the bombing, and what recourse there is for bringing them to justice. turning to ukraine another act of defiance today by the crimean parliament voting earlier to adopt an independence declaration. that coming days before the residents there decide whether they will break away from ukraine and join russia. and the ousted president speaking from russia saying he is still in charge. phil ittner is in kiev, and there are new developments about the arrest of a russian national. what can you tell us about that? >> del, this is something we have been hearing from our sources for quite sometime now, but for the very first time today, they have officially come out and said that they are now arrested what they call an agent provauk to

provauker to, a russian nationalist who was caught with bomb-making materials and a cash of staff. they say he is ties to the russian security service. and this gel with what we have been herding and reporting on al jazeera that the ukrainians are concerned about a fifth column inside their territory. >> and phil back to that independence declaration, what does that mean? >> that declaration of independence that was voted on in the crimean parliament in a vote of 78 out of 100 parliament tearians voting for it will be the document that will be used if the referendum is approved on the 16th. we have seen the russian ministry acknowledging that

declaration of independence, and saying should the rev ren dumb go in favor of joining russia, they would look at bringing them properly and officially into the russian federation. >> and viktor yanukovych again saying he is the man in charge. tell us what he had to say. >> viktor yanukovych held a press conference just over the border and said a number of things, and one of the things that he clearly stated was as far as the proposed president election that will be held in may it is not legal. >> translator: i declare the elections announced by the parties that took over party but an unconstitutional coup are illegitimate it and unlawful. >> and yanukovych believes the

people who took over power here were involved in a military coup, and that means the $1 billion promised by the united states government is illegal. but the reaction has already been one of business belief. it appears he has lost touch with reality, because it is very clear, even the russian president has said it that there is no way for him to return to power. >> phil does it look like diplomacy is gone? and also i'm curious, was -- was yanukovych speaking russian or ukrainian today? >> he was speaking russian, as he normally does, and he -- as far as the diplomatic effort, that's particularly interesting, because it seems as though both sides are not willing to give an inch. they are standing very strong. the west says that the kiev government is legitimate, the east says it is not.

and they just can't seem to find common ground. del. >> phil, thank you very much. it has now been three years since that earthquake and tsunami that devastated japan, killing 18,000 people. we'll have that story, a look back, and your top business headlines when al jazeera america returns. level had a stake in al megrahi's guilt. lockerbie: what really happened? on al jazeera america

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. three years after japan's earthquake and tsunami, nearly 270,000 people still can't go home. hairy hairy faucet is in japan. >> reporter: these streets can feel like the world's strangest business park. the business here is managing a nuclear disaster. inside the earthquake-proof building, we gear up to see what they are doing on a tour of the

plant. here we are outside of the reactors. three reactors of course melted down. this is the epistern of -- epicenter of the disaster. the lack of cooling caused three reactor meltdowns, now the control room for reactors one and two already feel like a museum. reactor five wasn't running when the wave hit. now it's a test bed for methods to check and eventually repair the inaccessible reactors. >> translator: our first priorities is the contaminated water over decommissioning the plant. if we don't do this properly the people will continue to worry. >> reporter: one option, freezing the soil around the

reactors to prevent the ground water from flowing in. in the mean tile they build more temporary tanks, 40 a month is this year's target. human error lead to a spill of 100 tons of radioactive water. >> if you go through this site as you have seen today, they are going to have additional problems. what is important is that tepco knows how to address them, communicate with the public, and make sure it is safe. >> reporter: this man helped me with my mask, and last year worked on water decontamination. >> translator: i hear the system is having problems again. when i worked on it , i was mentally fatigued. it is beyond our imagination. that's why all of the operators had such a hard time. >> reporter: we followed he and

his wife and they checked on their home inside the exclusion sewn. he admits to being exhausted. >> translator: i think he feels responsibility more strongly than others. he can't just take it easy. i wanted him to quit. but each time he found a reason not to. >> reporter: three years on the disaster is still exacting a heavy cost on a national level and on a personal one. meanwhile health officials are now predicting that that radioactive water from fukushima will hit the west coast sometime in 2014. jake ward is in california 1,000 feet offshore in a boat. and though internet now abuzz with videos showing already a possible spike in radiation in san francisco, but are they real? >> reporter: that's right. del, the problem with the fukushima disaster i don't

thinked the obvious terror is the hype. there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation on the internet about it, including this youtube footage. a guyinger counter like that cannot detect what is coming from fukushima. but there are dangers closer to home. and we're going to be talking about them all day today. this behind me is the nuclear power plant. it's a decommissioned power plant. it has 30-foot sea walls just like fukushima. and the parallels don't end there. the environment is very untable. there are faults, a tsunami zone, and we're going to be seeing a great deal of danger from this kind of plant. >> and people are always bottom line what about me? should people be worried about their health? >> well, the thing we'll be

discussing throughout the day is the amount of radiations coming to us from japan are very, very small. smaller than you would get from being on a plane for a cross country flight. that being said, the science around that level of radiation is pretty limited. and so it's not a source of concern yet, but we need to watch it. jake before you go, where is the satellite truck? is it on the boat with you? >> reporter: it is amazing isn't it? the modern technology of cellar technology allows us to be out here showing you this scene. >> jake thank you very much. virginia family launching an online campaign trying to get medication for their dying son. josh is 7-year-old fighting cancer, and now fighting a viral

infection. a north carolina based drug maker has denied the request. thousands of people can shaken to social media trying to get the company to reconsider giving the boy the drug. ♪ on wall street, stocks are fluctuating between a small gain and a loss. right now it's a loss. meanwhile the s&p

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are your headlines at this hour. the head of the international police agency, saying it finds no terrorist link with those two men who boarded a malaysian airlines flight with illegal patport -- passports. in washington, the head of the senate intelligence committee saying the cia improperly searched a computer network set up for congress. senator diane feinstein alledging the activity a few hours ago on the floor of the u.s. senate. to now there has been little evidence to suggest that animals help children with cancer. jonathan martin has more. >> he is excited. >> he is. he loves to just sit with you. you are so good to you.

>> reporter: it has been a month since bryce was diagnosed with leukemia. bryce's mom saying spending time with his pomeranian has put him an ease. >> what makes him so fun? >> he crawls on me. >> reporter: never before has there been extensive research conducted. >> we need that data to justify bringing dogs into the hospital. we don't want to bring them into the hospital if there is a risk of harming a child in some way. >> reporter: this is one of five leading children's hospital taking part in a new study. the trial looks at stress and anxiety levels and how they are affected by interacting with

animal >> we know that some children start -- they might start vomiting on their way to the hospital because they are so anxious. even before they get chemotherapy. so we're hopeful that this study will show that it decreases anxiety. >> reporter: the children enrolled are between the ages of 3 and 17 and were diagnosed with acute leukemia or lymphoma within the last month. once a week they spent 15 minutes petting, feeding, or just sitting with a dog. their blood pressure is taken before and after the session, and the children are asked 20 questions like how do you feel sad, cheerful or frightened? >> cheerful. >> excellent. >> reporter: the data will be compared to that of child cancer patients who did not interact with therapy animals.

>> it worked a little bit. >> reporter: researchers hope the study will back up their study to help children with cancer. i'm meteorologist dave warren. a little change in the national forecast. warmer temperatures so you are seeing scenes like this coming in from the midwest and southeast. everybody out enjoying the temperatures climbing into the 60s and 70s, but enjoy it now. when you talk about warmups in march, they don't last long. they are often followed by colder temperatures. that's what we have here. right in between is where you are seeing the storm develop and winter weather coming in. this is winter storm warnings all the way up to new england. here is this storm developing.

you see the rain and snow really expanding out from their area of low-pressure. cold where it's snow. warm to the south, not much in the way of rain but a big drop in temperatures that's the big impacts with this storm. 60s and 70s across the southeast, big drop in temperatures, 20 to 30 degrees temperature drop between wednesday night and early thursday. and a big change in thefrpture on wednesday with highs into the 70s and thursday morning with lows into the mid-to low 20s. here is that snow coming down, that heavy snow will lead to a lot of travel problems, but again the snow line is pushing well up into new york and new england, so the south it is just rain. >> dave, thank you very much. say good-bye to those mushers for the rest of the year. we have a winner the iditarod. he is winning the nearly 1,000

mile dog race. second time he has done it. this year's warm weather made it challenging. 69 teams started, 59 finishes. thanks for watching al jazeera america. i'm dell. "the stream" is next. hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you in "the stream." chocolate made in a 3-d printer, food innovations are everywhere. are they going to catch on? find out. ♪ i'm casey cap listen, and i'm keith ca