>> welcome to welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live from new york city. >> crimea is part of ukraine today. it will be part of ukraine tomorrow. it will be part of ukraine next week. >> powerful words from the united nations on the referendum of crimea. >> this movement are consistent with deliberate action by someone.

>> that's the prime minister of malaysia confirming what many have already been speculating about the missing malaysian airliner. and three years of fighting in a devastated syria. we look back on a very grim anniversary. >> the count counsel in ukraine has begun and tomorrow crimeans will cast their votes on whether they want to rejoin russia. there have been clashes in the east. the ukrainian president saying the russian kremlin is to blame as rallies of protest before and against the action in crimea. the focus is on the united nations where john terrett joins us live. they have just voted a referendum upholding the ukraine

sovereignty, and what is the affect and will it have an affect on the referendum tomorrow. >> reporter: nuclear weapontheyg to get the you niece to abstain. on--they were seeking to get the chinese to abstain. 13 members of the council voting in favor of the strongly-worded resolution, the chinese abstaining and leaving russia isolated on the international stage wielding their veto as expected they will do. after the vote was over u.n. ambassadors came to where they address reporters, and they were

giving a variety of opinions. this first sound bite comes from the security chamber itself. this is samantha power. u.s. ambassador to the united nations, she's making the point that this situation could get very dangerous. and for russia this was the wrong time to wield it's security council veto. >> russia has used its veto as an accomplice to unlawful military incursion, the very veto given nearly 70 years ago to countries that had led an epic fight against aggression. but in so doing russia cannot change the fact that moving forward in blatant defiance of the international rules of the road will have consequences. >> reporter: now russia's point of view is that there could be further violence spreading throughout ukraine, and it is only doing what it is doing in crimea to protect the majority who are either russian speaking

or hold russian passports. now the ukrainian ambassador to the united nations has just within the past few seconds been addressing journalists to the point that they speak to the media right outside of the security council chamber. this is what he had to say. >> we have said with what th the delegation again, it is nothing. it is just words. this is cynicism of what is going on. so their' coming from crimea to the southern area. now we have a different situation than before the security council. the aggression is expanding. >> so morgan, less than 4 hours from the referendum in crimea, very powerful words, very

powerful signals going forward from this chamber. the body responsible security. the security council, the resolution failing because of that russian veto. but the importance and significance is not lost on anybody. russia isolated on the international stage regarding what it's doing in crimea, and what it may wish in the rest of ukraine in the future. >> live from the united nations right here in new york, john, thanks so much for being with us. jennifer glass is live in sevestopol that has already declared itself part of russia. what is going on on the ground so close to the referendum. >> people feel that it's a done deal. posters have been springing up across town. there have been a lot of campaigning. today was supposed to be the day of no campaigning, but we've seen flags given out and people giving out flyers ahead of that

referendum. i want to reference what was said about what happened earlier this morning new york time. russian forces went from a little strip of land northeast of crimea and tried to advance into ukraine proper. up into the region of h erson. the russians said they were going to protect the pumping station that belongs to the plaque sea, a company that crimean authorities say is going to belong to crimea because it's offices are on crimea soil. ukrainian forces repelled that attack, and we understand it was the ukrainian air forces and ground forces repelling russian pair practice troopers and their helicopters. the concern is that this is a dangerous escalation. we're hearing very dangerous words from moscow as well that

russian foreign minister saying it is getting requests from people inside ukraine for, quote, protection. russia saying that it's hearing crimea to protect russians in there. and it sent troops in two weeks ago because people wanted protection here. we haven't had proof that there have been any attacks against russians but leading up to this referendum there is very much a campaign of intimidation against anyone who opposes the move towards russia that we think that the referendum will result in tomorrow. ethnic russians make up the majority of the population here. 47% of the population is crimean tata r and ethnic ukrainian. there have been ethnic ukrainians who received

threatening phone calls. she said she would like to leave but they can't get a spot on the train. many of her friends are left. many don't know about the new crimea that is with russia. >> let's turn to kiev, home of the ukrainian government. we're live from independent square where this all began. phil, as jennifer just mentioned we're hearing attempts of russian troops trying to move into the mainland. what is the reaction about that in kiev? >> reporter: morgan, that incursion is exactly what kiev has been deeply concerned about for quite some time now. no one is happy about the russian troops annexing crimea.

many saying that it's a done deal and crimea only has been a part of ukraine since 1954. no one said they're happy about it being gone but they're concerned about russian designs on main land ukraine. we've been speaking to ukrain un intelligence officers who say there are russian provocateurs on mainland territory, and they have no doubt they will plan destruction stoking up animosity between those who are pro western and pro eastern. and that will provide a pre-text for moscow to then take a larger chunk of this country. this is exactly what they say they were afraid of. they're deeply concerned in kiev tonight that crimea was just the start of thing, and russians may have grander designs. >> you mentioned the concern,

but what is ukraine doing to respond? >> well, now here is another disturbing development. they said they want to deal with crimea in terms of diplomatic, it's an illegal referendum and all this type of language. when it comes to mainland ukraine the language is very different. the ukrain ukrainians saying thl not accept this. they will fight. they have called up the national guard within two days they have 40,000. and already today the defense ministry has initiated a message where you can contribute money to the ukrainian military. not a lot, $0.50 per text but it sends a clear message to the population in ukraine, they're all on the war footing. this is the equivalent of a war bond. they're trying to beef up their

military. they say as much as they don't want to do it, it does look as though this country is moving forward a conflict where russia. >> a war bond, wow, phil ittner from independent square. thank you for being with us this afternoon. one of the ethnic groups being caught between the russians and ukraine are the tatars. this sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. al jazeera america explores their story in "return to exile." again that's sunday at 10:00 a.m. flight 370 has begin way to a criminal investigation in its disappearance. >> we can say with a high degree of certainty that the aircraft communications addressing and

reflecting system fo was disabl. >> al jazeera easily is a stark is live with us from washington, d.c. with more on what this latest twist could mean? >> morgan, the prime minister this morning refused to call this a hijacking, but let's be clear. either both of the pie lots or one of the pilots or someone else on this plane in the cockpit took command of this plane and took it thousands of miles off course. this morning now it is a criminal investigation they are searching the home in malaysia of the 53-year-old pilot. he was a veteran of the airline. they're looking to see if they can find any clues. it's unclear yet if they will searched or will be searching of the home of the 27-year-old co-pilot. this morning the prime minister said it was the military radar

analysis that did show, in fact, that someone was at the controls when this plane went off course. >> up until the point at which it left military radar coverage this movement are consistent with deliberate action by someone on the plane. >> so here's what we know. both communication systems on the plane were deliberately turned off. you heard the prime minister say earlier one of the systems that sends information back from engines and how the plane is performing, that was turned off. another system, the transponder system was turned off. that sends back the plane's altitude and location. it's almost like a seattl stealh aircraft flying. civilian radar will not pick it

up. but satellites started picking up pings from this airplane because it was still accepting out electronic pulses although no data. here's what they determined based on those satellite pings. they mapped out two possible courses that this airplane could have taken. it could have gone to the north. that would be through thailand over india, pakistan and up to kazakhstan. or perhaps a southern route from indonesia over the indian ocean. my sources tell me the southern route much more likely simply because if the plane did go north it would have been likely to have that picked up by radar, by radar in india, pakistan and some of those other countries. right now the physical search of the plane is moving. they're shutting down the search in the gulf of thailand and the gulf, and moving everything west ward as they try to figure out what happened to this plane. a chilling scenario.

still a lot of unanswered questions, but clearly it appears that this was a criminal act of some kind, morgan? >> even with these questions one of those unanswered question is why would they keep flying the plane for some seven or eight hours? >> it's a chilling thought to be honest with you. think about it, this plane was still in the air if the information is correct, for another seven hours or so. that was after the search for the missing plane had been launched. when they knew that plane was missing. they would keep it in that air potentially to run out of fuel. that might have been long enough to exhaust all of the fuel on board. >> a mystery continues. lisa stark from washington, d.c. thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. >> thank you. >> still ahead the war in sir gentlemadishin syria three year. calls call for bashar al-assad to step down. you're watching al jazeera america.

>> now to syria where three years today the up rising against bashar al-assad first began. the violence has leveled cities and completely uproot the 9 million people, that's according to the united nations. the fighting doesn't seem to be letting up. assad forces have made a huge strategic victory capturing the town of yabroud just north of damascus. this shows syrian soldiers on the outscoresser skirts and yabroud, which was an important weapons supply route for the opposition. turkey houses over 600,000 syrians while egypt and iraq has taken in 100,000 syrians each. these are the numbers of those who have officially registered, and lebanon has the highest number at 1 million.

we visited a camp there where many syrians are worried they will never be able to go back home. >> reporter: a syrian refugee woman never thought they would give birth to her youngest child in lebanon. her parents and siblings became refugees here but she was brought into this world as one. >> i feel sorry for her because whatever she'll have it will be less than what her siblings have. she'll be deprived of warm heat, clothes, and healthcare. >> those who have been in exile the longest are the most pessimistic. they've been living in a kented community for over a year and a half.

>> we have no hope for the future. >> his son tells him he wants to return to syria because he's unhappy here. but they say they can't return because syria is too dangerous. over 2.5 million syrians have been registered in neighboring countries. the majority are here in lebanon. the future looks more uncertain for these people. syrians could make up the largest refugee population in the world. the war had devastated children the most have been affected. syrians are still fleeing, choose a life of hardship over death. a family that recently fled and

had been here for ten days. all they feel is fear and uncertainty. >> we're afraid we'll never be able to go back. we're afraid that our house will be destroyed and things will get so much worse than they already are. we'll never be able to go back. >> reporter: the war is causing a humanitarian catastrophe. it's one that continues to grow. if the world fails to act they will feel abandoned. >> filing a lawsuit against 16 of the world's biggest banks accused of determining interest rates on everything from home loans to corporate edit and set rates through collusion rather than competition. this has forced big banks to pay more than $5 billion in settlements, and that's all just since 2008.

in our top stories and the latest national forecast is right here on al jazeera ameri america. >> paleontologists in texas have found a new species of dinosaurs. we'll tell you how they came upon it and figured it out 70 million years later.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live from new york city. and here are today's headlines. russian forces try to move north into mainland ukraine. now for the second day in a row the,this comes after the russias the u.n. resolution that would declare the referendum invalid. the malaysian plane was clearly diverted by someone on board. and it's been three years since the syrian war began.

the u.n. said there are more than 2.5 million registered syrian refugees. talk about fossil finds. scientists in texas think they di coverediscovered a new type f dinosaur. one that roamed the earth 70 million years ago. >> paleontologists spend much of his day chipping rockaway from fossils in the dallas lab. every once in achillea finds a big surprise. >> we thought this belongs to an already known species. based on the age of the material what are the odds you find something new. not very good. >> fellow paleontologists went looking for fossils in alaska back in 2006. they found what they were looking for. and some other remains they put

off to the side. almost an after thought they started looking at them a year ago. it looked like a t-rex, but what they're now calling a nuk saw russ it was about 1,000 pounds and roamed 2,000 years earlier. >> any time you can find something new like this, it helps to fill in the blank and paint a fuller picture of life in the past of how things changed, how it evolved, and who was it like in the distant past. any additional pi bit of information makes that picture all that more clear to us. >> reporter: they found brain casing and lower jaw and snout. >> it was doing what tyrannosaurus did everywhere

else, it ate everybody. >> reporter: he continues to take chunks out of thousands of pounds of 70 million-year-old rock out of that quarry expecting to find more pieces. he said he and his colleagues did everything they could to disprove new dinosaurs and he knows other scientist also try. >> we have to go down and show why they're wrong. after do you that a bunch of times you try to do that a bunch of times, if you can't prove your idea wrong, maybe it's right. >> casts of these bones will go on public display next month as the museum in dallas. mark snyder, al jazeera, dallas. >> and now let's get a look at the national forecast and what we can expect to see across the country with our meteorologist. >> reporter: you'll be happy when you get off worker. it will feel good here in the big apple enjoy it today.

because we are we're in to nasty weather. we have a steady stream of moisture pushing off the pacific and the gulf of mexico. we have the culmination of two air masses with a chance of severe air weather to break out. that's what we'll see this afternoon and across eastern portions of texas, louisiana, arkansas, certainly on into portions of georgia as we track into tomorrow afternoon. we're looking at the threat of damaging winds, hail, and even the chance for a few isolated tornadoes. winter is ending. this is the last weekend of weather. spring is officially here. and with spring comes severe weather season. we're looking at march 18th. that was the deadliest tornado that ever struck the united states, and killed 695 people back in 1925. the most recent catastrophic tornado that we saw was in joplin, missouri, in 2011, and that killed 158 people.

as we enter severe weather season we have to be aware of these storms and take the watchings and warnings very seriously. take a look at temperatures across the country. houston will climb to a high of 71. temperatures are really rising quite a bit here in new york city where it's 57. washington, d.c. at 62 degrees. sunny skies with clouds moving to the northeast and so is that colder air diving southward. as we head into tomorrow temperatures will plummet back towards toronto you can see cold air pushing in with their high at 37. the cold air will continue to push to the southeast and an area will continue to track from the east coast from the ohio valley to the mid-atlantic. we're looking for an icy mixture to ungold across i-95 tomorrow morning. >> thank you. a man who made history by marking the end of the world war ii with a kiss had died.

glen mcduffy in this passionate embrace with a nurse on d-day. he died in his home in texas, and he was 86 years old. thank you very much for watching al jazeera america. 101 east is coming up next. stay tune on al jazeera with more. >> the wonder of the world's force is often found in the creatures that live in them. but the rare and precious of animals are increasingly falling prey t to poachers. equal only in scale to the illegal drug trade. so vast and lucrative is this black market under world its driving more species than ever into extinction. while there have been seizures