trading and selling off the world's most endangered creatures at will. >> >> steered off course. malaysia's prime minister says the evidence indicates a deliberate act on board the missing plane. >> the authorities have refocussed their investigation into the crew and passengers on board. >> hello, this is al jazeera america, live from doha. also ahead - three years after the first anti-government protest in syria the calls continue for president bashar

al-assad to be removed. international observers arrive in crimea ahead of a vote on whether crimea stays in russia or spain. >> mongolia now battling air pollution. >> first, pager developers in the search for the missing malaysian airliner. the prime minister says hijacking is not ruled out. he held a news conference a week after the jets, carrying 239 people, disappeared. he said the plane had been deliberately steered off course. this happened after the plane's communications systems were cut on purpose. he then turned around and travelled for up to seven hours in a northerly direction towards khazakhstan, or towards the indian ocean. it that means the search in the

south china sea will end. >> it then flew in a westerly direction back over peninsula malaysia before turning north-west. up until the point at which it left military primary radar coverage. this movement consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. >> scott heidler is with us from kuala lumpur with the latest. what scenario is being painted here now, with what we have heard from the prime minister? >> well there are a couple of different scenarios. he's not confirming hijacking but is not ruling it out. obviously the investigation now is going to go into who was on

the aircraft when it happened. who had the skills, the know how to turn off the transponders so it disappeared from the sky in the middle of the night last saturday. they were looking at who was on the aircraft, who might want to hijack it. what was the state of the flight deck crew. all these possibilities are out there of maybe who and how and why it was commandeered. as to where it is now, that is the big question, that's why they are shifting the focus of the search. shutting down what was going on in the south china sea, focussing on the area where there are the satellite bread crumbs, if you will. >> we talk about satellite breadcrumbs, but the two new corridors now, the north and the south, we are talking about huge pieces of territory that need to be come through. >> absolutely.

the highways in the sky for commercial aircraft. intercontinental travel. they are very big, as you said. you can imagine how big they need to be. what they will do, again, we were talking about narrowing the church. it was such a big area. we are able to narrow that. along the corridors, that's the radar system within the corridors is where you focus on. that will open up the need for communication and cooperation with the nations where the air corridors are. they know the paths, although they are big, and know where the nations are. hopefully where the radar positions are, where they need to review the data from the satellite signals. the first big break in the story, in the investigation came from the sky, not the water. that is probably where they'll focus again, satellite and radar

industry. >> refocussing attention on to the crew and passengers - what are they looking for there? >> well, they are looking for any anomaly in anyone's background. if it's psychological, involvement with groups that want to carry out hijacking. the captain of the flight - his house was searched moments after we heard from the prime minister here during the press conference. they searched his house. we contacted police. they have not told us detail of what they were looking for or found in the captain's house. that will probably happen with other flight crew and cabin crew members and the copilot on the aircraft. the focus is on the people who were on board in the two flight corridors, two distinct challenges. it's a little more focussed than

before. where we didn't know it was revealed what happened to the aircraft. >> scott heidler there in kuala lumpur. >> gunmen opened fire on an army checkpoint. the attack happened on the outskirts of cairo. five military policemen were shot dead. two bombs found near the scene from diffused. three al jazeera journalists have been held in an egyptian prison for 77 days. mohamed fadel fahmy, mohammed badr and peter greste have been accused of having links with a terrorist organization and spreading false news. al jazeera rejects all charges against its staff, and continues to demand their immediate release. their next court appearance is on march the 24th. abdullah al-shami from al jazeera's arabic channel. this week his detention was extended for 45 days. he's been held for more than

six months. he's been on hunger strike since january the 23rd. >> still a crisis in ukraine. you are looking at live pictures of moscow, where supporters of vladimir putin are backing up the sale towards ukraine. >> in the coming hours, oint war activists are holding a peace rally to express their stance on the rally. more on that later. >> the rallies are taking place as international observers are arriving in crimea. 70 european monitors were invited to the capital in pro-russian authorities in the region. the vote is described as unconstitutional by the government in ukraine and its western supporters. the u.s. secretary of state and russia foreign minister failed to make a breakthrough. john kerry says the west won't

recognise the result of sunday's referendum. sergei lavrov says russia will report the referendum result but isn't planning on invading the region. the focus will shift to the un-security council, which is planning to vote on saturday. the 15 members are asked to back a resolution backing ut rrched um. >> ban ki-moon was asked for his message for the people of crimea. should they go to vote? >> i'm concerned there should be no such hasty decisions, which may impact the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of ukraine. that has been my consistent message with the charter

positions. >> unsurprisingly not a clear answer. the security council is the servant of all world nations and this is an issue on which the permanent members of the security council are in dispute. that will be open for all the world to see in the coming hours. the security council met six times in ukraine when it meets again on saturday. western nations will push it to a vote. russia will veto. the idea is to show that moscow is alone. ukrainian diplomats will make every effort to show that the russians were in the wrong. they invited the chief rabbi to a news conference. there has been attacks against juice, but they have been suspiciously well organised. unbelievable information and propaganda waged against ukraine, and we, the jewish community will be used or

abused. the russians are coming to protect us. and it's hard for us to tell them "we don't want your application." documents have been going about their normal work. in the corridors. the lavrov meeting was seen as a lot of changes to stop the crimean referendum. failed. some things are clear. there'll be two votes in the next two days, one here at the security council , which russia will veto, the other is hastily convened referendum. western sanctions will follow. the question is how russia will respond to that. this crisis could escalate. james bays, al jazeera, of the united nation resist. >> the monk owlian capital is known as the world's coldest capital city. many use cold and wood for fuel, and it's among the most

polluted. we have this report. >> mongolia is known as the land of the eternal blue sky. when temperatures drop. the sky is heavy with smog. unlike industrial places it is not caused by factories or power lants. >> they are no longer using a traditional stove. the government subsidised the new one to cut down on the pollution. >> it's cheaper and it's more fuel efficient. >> this is one of over 700,000 people that live in the district. named after the traditional monk owlian home. these are populated by migrants. they could afford little else, there's no running water. half of the city's population lives in the districts, and the

coal and wood they use in the homes is responsible for 60 to 70% of the city's pollution. on a cold day the smell of burning coal is so strong. the smoke sings the eyes. the government is concerned about long-term effect and has been working to decrease it. getting everyone to use the clean stoves is expected to cut pollution. it is not a solution. >> we are doing affordable housing study, and greening projects. >> it's a battle between progress and tradition. with the economy and the rise more migrants are expected to come to the city. >> with nowhere to live, it means more smoke stacks. >> still ahead - three years after the syrian conflict began,

we take a look at millions of refugees struggling to survive. we take a closer look at the warring factions that keep the war going on on the ground. ♪

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>> welcome back. let's recap the headlines on al jazeera. the militia parties have refocused the investigation into the crew. and passengers on board. malaysia's prime minister says

it was deliberately steered off course and hijacking isn't being ruled out. a search in the south china sea will end. european observers invited by russia are arriving in crimea for sunday's referendum. it will decide whether the region will split from the ukraine. saturday the u.n. security council is expected to vote. >> syrian forces take one of the the last rebel-held areas. the army entered the area. a syrian activist groups said lebanon's hezbollah is spear heading the fight. fighting is taking place in northern hama province. >> the number two leader in al nusra has been killed in fighting. he was the armed group's negotiator in talks to release a group of nuns. he was the commander.

>> it was three years ago that a peaceful protest in southern syria triggered a conflict. it reduced much of the conflict to rubble. the conflict started in march 2011. anti-government protesters took to the streets. dozens were killed in the start of a brutalal bragg down. the free syrian army was formed. made up of army defectors and volunteers. more armed groups continued the fight. al nusra began to operate in syria, and al qaeda-linked groups. >> the world seemed poised for a war when u.s. president barack obama threatened to strike syria over the use of chemical weapons. that didn't happen. syria agreed to give up its chemical arsenal. representatives from the syrian

government and the opposition were able to sit in the same room for talks in wiswitzerland that, too, led to nothing. three years on, had 145,000 lives lost, millions displaced. still no end to the war. there's no alternative to political dialogue. >> there is no prospect. military operations cannot give any answer. we have seen during the last three years that the parties have been resorting on military solution, and these parties may seem to have an illusion that they can win over the other by military means. i have been warned, and scannedly warned that there is no military solution, just one

that is a bit call dialogue. >> the syrian national coalition, the grouping recognised by the west, said the piece protest had failed, and is calling for the renewal of the fighting. >> the u.n. has doesn't given up, sending lakhdar brahimi to visit. >> the fighting against syrian government is a mass of troops. some say there are as many as 100,000 fighters belonging to as many as 100,000 organizations funded overseas. some are syrian, some foreign and sometimes they battle each other. the campaign against the government had successors and failures. they became embroiled in divisions and infighting.

>> syrian rebels shelling army positions in the mountains. if they lose the area, they lose vital supply routes link the the suburbs to lebanon. >> in the north, the position controls large areas of land. short of tactical weapons, they are unable to capture cities. their only significance military gain so far is the capture of a province. groups with religious agendas remained powerful in syria. a major setback for western and regional backers of the opposition. they spent hundreds of millions to create a moderate secular army to lead the fight and

control the country. now the free syrian army is more divided than ever. hundreds of its fighters were killed in fighting a group affiliated with al qaeda, called the islamic state of iraq and levant. the opposition sacked the chief of the f.s.a., and ordered a revamp of the rebel army. many groups rejected that decision, and threatened to walk away from the syrian national coalition. >> weak and divided. the rebels are on the defensive. fighting seems to be shifting in assad's favour. over the last few months the rebels lost many villages in the north-west and the suburbs of damascus. opposition fighters insist that if they cannot get advance weapons.

then they won't be able to defeat a syrian army backed by thousands of militias. >> syria's ambassador insists they are calling on terrorism. >> i need the other side to acknowledge the presence of terrorism. this is a point. it's not that we are trying to avoid dealing with the transition of the government. on the contrary. we agreed on that, we said okay. let us first deal with the priority of the priorities. >> the statistics and the stories that sheds light on the reality of war. this resident of aleppo sheds his hope to the future. >> i am from azar city. i was an ambulance driver, i was

injured on the job. i'm fine now and will return to work in my ambulance. we targeted the revolution spontaneously. so the people stood up to help their brothers in after ors. we started it as a peaceful resolution. the machine used machinery. we started and wanted to stop it peacefully. the regime does not want to stop it peacefully. the revolution started three years ago, and was suffering. shortages of everything, medicine, water, electricity. all the infrastructure is destroyed. we hope everything will be fine once bashar al-assad goes. >> syria has become the world's

leading source of refugees, with nine million of the rev zees uprooted. more than 2.5 million have left syria. most have gone to five countries. iraq is hosting more than 200 thous. camps in jordan have half a million. a million are living in lebanon. now, these are the officially registered refugees. what is becoming of people three years on now. >> the people here, after three years, and today on the commemoration of the war want to remind the world of how they are living. they have been living in makeshift shelters.

informal communicatities. they are living in shelt erls that they -- shelters that they build themselves. this wood is provided by the humanitarian agencies as a basic frame that needs to hold up the tent. a lot of other things have to be held themselves. large amount of sheeting, carpet and heaters. they are not provides with heat. they have to - the lebanese h d handholder connects rent. this crisis is having a huge impact on the refugees and lebanon. now they have to deal with a 25%

increase. the infrastructure is already weak. lebanon was having trouble providing electricity and water. now it has to do it for an additional million people. lebanon had to spend up to 7 billion in extra expenditure. whatever is coming in from the humanitarian organizations and other agencies and what the government is playing is not enough when you think of the figure. 10,000 new arrivals. that is a massive number, there are 10,000 more syrians. it's not the crisis that agencies can keep up with. >> territory along the border of lebanon, where you are falling into the hands of the refugees. does that encourage or discourage them from returning home. >> well, it depresses the

refugees when they feel they have to stay here longer. we are talking to someone who feels they'll be here for the next 10 years. people want to go back, unlike the iraqi licence. the iraqis wanted to get out of iraq and the region and move to other western countries much the syrians want to go back to their country as soon as possible. what frightens them is they won't be able to go back, and a lot of territory going to fighters. who have changed the reality on the ground and how syrians live. >> thank you so much. one of the largest impacts of such a prolonged conflict has been on civilians. this is the u.n. humanitarian

coordinator. he says the crisis in syria is the worst in 25 years of service. >> we have not been able to reach homs, but when we did and spend a day there, coming out i described it as it was a day from hell. this is what the people in such situations go through every day. every day. not just one day. every day. it is terrible. it is terrible. there is nothing happening there except destruction. there is actually no possibility to survive in a human or humane way because supplies of basic needs are disrupted. if at all, they can come. hospital - the field hospital we visited in - in the old city of homs, i also described it as a place not to get treated. it's a place to go and die at, because of the limited supply of medical supplies and equipment.

and the needs are huge. with a medical team that is trying everything possible to save lives. this is just one example, and if you want to look at the map of areas where access has not been possible, it's unfortunately so many places, so many places throughout syria, in areas controlled by the government, so many places in areas controlled by the opposition. so this is what we need to unblock. that everyone - everybody - irrespective of the political discipline, everyone needs to agree that delivering aid to children or to women or to elderly people or human beings, irrespective of howl old they may be it should not be seen as a political manoeuvre. >> while we are talking about fighting, the peaceful protest movement is active in syria.

this anti-government demonstration, said to be from damascus was posted on a social media website. we cannot independently verify the authenticity of the pictures. more on the website aljazeera.com. >> more americans are moving from the suburbs to the city. it's a trend that will effect your life no matter where you live. and general motors in crisis mode. what the company must do for americans to trust the brand again. plus witches for hire. the search for a precious commodity. i'm ali velshi and this is "real money."