that's it for "consider this". the show may be over but the conversation continues on the website. i'm david shuster, thank you for america. ooem i'm del walters. with a stroke of a pen crimea is set to become a part of russia. family members confront malaysia airlines officials about the fate of the airliner and the relatives. >> how new fuel efficient cars are setting to tax the motorists

depending on far they drive. >> it is a day of developments, russian president putin is signed the annexation for crimea to join russia and the ukraine president is saying they want to be a member of nato. plus, just moments ago vice president biden threatened russia with further sanctions and we have a team of reporters tracking the developments. we begin with jennifer and we understand that the people are celebrating today the treaty signing celebration and making crimea part of russia.

>> that is right. they are celebrating here and in moscow where president putin made the speech and they are righting a historical wrong and many of the places in crimea are glorious military sites and military battles and when given away like a sack of potatoes that was wrong and always wrong and now back to the mother land and back. come home, come home and the people here we have been speaking to are happy. >> we are looking at the moscow red square where president putin addressed the crowd and welcoming crimea back to the russian family and the treaty signed this morning, there are

the celebrations, but what else has to happen to formal ice the succession to russia? >> there are a couple of things, first the constitutional court in russia had to ratify it and the houses of the russian parliament and expected to be a formality and putin is saying that 92% of the russians are for it. and putin also had harsh words for the west. >> partners with the united states prefer to be guided not by international law and the right of the force. they believe in that force and exclusivity and their right to resolve the fate of the world

that they are always right. they do whatever they feel is just. they use the force. >> president putin says russian actions in crimea are in reaction to what the people want and 92% of russians favor crimea coming into the russian fold and crimeans agree. >> i have dreamt about this for so long. we are happy to go back home. >> and the people here are saying they can't wait to get their russian passports again. a lot to be done here. then you have the legislative stuff, the administrative stuff here. they are already talking about going to moscow's time zone and

that is two hours difference and adopting the russian ruble. that is a very, very big change. they have to have parallel currencies for a while. many of the people here very, very happy with the changes. we are hearing reports that things are not going to well throughout crimea. what happens to the ukrainian navy vessels and standing by the black feet there? >> del, that is a concern. what is going to happen to those men. we have heard words from the deputy prime minister and the ukrainian have to make a choice, they have to join the new

crimeaa military or leave. that could be a flash point, a sticking point for ukraine, who objects to this all together, objects to the referendum and objects to the annexation and one of the base i know of, they have taken sides, they were made to take sides and the russians are standing outside and the ukrainians are trapped inside and what is going to happen to the ship, soldiers and the bases. >> jennifer in the crimea region and thank you. phil is live in kiev, a lot of questions to be answered and how are the leaders in ukraine responding to the speech by putin and crimea is now part of russia? >> well, first and foremost, the

decision to annex the crimea area is met with protest. here there are statements saying they are refusing to recognize it. there are a lot of words coming from the capitol here today. coming out with a statement condemning that annexation and hearing from the government and the prime minister and the president. we have heard a number of issues they are taking up with putin's address and the claims that he has no further interest mainland ukraine. the ukrainian authorities are convinced that russia is going for a larger land grab and pointing to what they say is east parts of the country and the industrial russian leaning

east to the country. and just today the ukrainian acting prime minister said they had evidence that there are agents from moscow. take a listen to what he had to say. >> law enforcement agencies gathered evidence of the participation of russian special services in organizing unrest in the eastern part of the country and people are arrested. no place in the ukraine for the warmonge warmongers. >> ukrainian government is saying that the uprising is not natural and done by design by the agents coming in from moscow. we have the supporters coming out to the streets and stops those tanks coming from kiev, that kiev is sending to secure the borders. it is looking as increased tension in the eastern part of

the country. >> now that putin signed the treaty, what happens next? >> what happens next? well, a lot to be done. you are looking at entirely new structure out in the crimea peninsula and trying to dediv t dedivest -- divest and protect the border. in addition to that, a lot of infrastructure and roadways going into the peninsula and running through the eastern part of ukraine and in addition to that, an awful lot of ukraine's power and water is coming from mainland ukraine and interesting to hear throughout the press conference today with the deputy prime minister, he was asked what are we going to do about supplying water and electricity

to crimea and look, we are not talking to each other and you are at not a legitimate government. if they are not talking how are they going to get the power and water to the peninsula. >> phil, thank you very much. the united states and eu are responding and vice president biden is in poland and warning russia and saying that the u.s. and europe is imposing further sanctions on moscow and we have following all of the developments from london and the vice president using harsh language. >> it is in sharp contrast of the western reactions to the emotional speech by putin and the ties to crimea and how in a way they have been protecting

ethnic russians, in fact the west is saying that putin is land grabbing and using a lot of smoke and mirrors to justify it and vice president biden called it unbelieve set of events and characterized as what is happening as brazen military intervention and land grab & seeing through the actions and the flawed actions and promised isolation of russia and more sanctions and reassuring poland and nato countries that nato is going to protect them. >> justifying a land grab, and including what was said today. but the world has seen through, has seen through the russian actions and rejected the flawed logic behind those actions. >> del, the vice president

noting that the u.s. sent a few hundred airmen and 12, f-16's to poland and tusk called the actions a challenge to the free world and including a strategy to get the gas supplies to ukraine and he's meeting with the president of poland today and well and moving on to meet other leaders in the region. >> and william hague is saying that the uk is suspended the support to russia in light of the crisis. >> that is right. i have seen the figures on thatel 0 million pounds a year or $120, that is substantial to the uk, but look you can't cooperate with people that are not your friends and suspending the shipments and aircraft parts and joint naval exercises and a royal navy ship was supposed to

go there and that is cancelled and reacting to to speech in the house in commons and no amount of sham or democraticic process or skewed references can mask the incursion into the state and borrowed the words of being a land grab, del. >> thank you, dana. french is announcing that the remaining 7 nations calling off the preparations for the june g-8 summit many sochi and the president reinvited the remains nations to meet at the hague. and the focus is on responding to the crisis in ukraine. >> thousands of forces standing guard in venezuela on monday.

hundreds of national guard troops moving in. protests are continuing at the main plaza that is at the heart of the demonstrations there for months now. 29 people are dead. 1500 have been arrested in those protects. >> the clock is ticking toward a deal in limiting iran's nuclear program and they are meeting today for another round of talks and russia is also at the table. they hope to reach an agreement by july and cutting the nuclear activities. it is the second meeting this year and iran is saying quote this could be the toughest so far. >> still to come on al jazeera america, an emotional confrontation between some of the relatives of those on board flight 370 and the officials. >> now taxing some of the fuel

firnt si vehicles.

>> we are following breaking news coming out of ukraine. we have a team of reporters covering the crisis and the latest incident is coming from the capitol. and there is at least one incident of violence? >> o we are hearing from the ukrainian -- >> it appears that we have lost our communication with nibbing nick. meanwhile, relatives, the other story, the reallatives and fries of the missing airliner are angry about how the government is handelling the investigation.

>> you only mention the questions about the foods and drinks and composition, i don't need that. i want to know the where abouts of my relatives. >> the relatives of the chinese are going on a hunger strike if the authorities don't give out more accurate information and the search is in the 11th day and now officials are saying that was detection of a flight that could have been flight 370. they say they didn't share the information because they were not asked for it. it is covering 2 million miles now. lisa stark in washington, lisa, it seems at this hour a lot of focus on the pilots. >> absolutely, del and they are looking at everyone on the plane. el the officials are looking at

the chinese nationals on the jet and making up two-thirds of the passengers and found no ties to terrorism. but the focus is on the cockpit crew, they had the means and where with all to turn the systems off and turn the plane. as the investigators are searching the home of the captain and the residence of the co-pilot and analysis of the recording reveals who spoke the last words from the cockpit. it was the man in the right seat. >> it is indicating it was the co-pilot that spoke the last time. >> that was 27-year-old, who calmly said all right good night when told to contact the controllers and that contact never happened. they revised the time line and

saying that the two communication systems that were switched off on the jet may have been disabled in the minutes after the radio transmission. >> up to the point of leaving the radar, the movements were consistent with the actions on the plane. >> the investigators refused u.s. intelligence assistance with the focus on the pilots. >> they need the fbi profilers and psychologists in there. >> 26 countries are involved in the hunt for the plane that could be any where deep in the indian ocean. >> the australian air force conducted two sweeps over the southern search corridor. another sweep is scheduled to take place later today.

we are owing it to the people on the ill fated flight to do what we can to solve this mystery. >> the officials are trying to narrow the huge search area and requested more data from all of the neighboring countries and you can see as you said del thailand is just now turning over some of this, it really causing into question how the investigation is being conducted and the families and the investigators are so frustrated that we are in the 11th day and just getting the information we should have had an day one. >> lisa, thank you so much. we are following the breaking news out of washington state, a news helicopter going down in seattle near the space needle.

kom tv's helicopter crashed near the need e -- needle. it is a news hell continue ter there in seattle. the initial reports in police are that two people are dead. >> we want to go back to nick, we have re-established the communications with him and he's in the crimea capital. the russian sdikss coming out today to annex the crimea region into russia and nick, i understand there could be a violent incident? >> some shots were fired into the crimea military base according to an official. we don't know what happened. we are not able to confirm anything, it is completely

surrounded by the pro russian activists and militias and tried to grab the cameras and showing that the pro russian gangs or activists continue to try and silence anyone that is trying to expose what they are doing. there are reports out of kiev that the shots were fired and they hit a number of ukrainian officers and we are not sure to the extent of the injuries and we are trying to figure that out now. according to the ukrainian officer, shots were fired inside of the ukrainian military base by what are believed to be russian snipers. >> thank you, nick. we have a team of reporters around the world covering the crisis in ukraine. we will be right back.

>> at fort bragg day of the sentencing for the colonel. he could take the stand and admitted to having an affair with a subordinate officer. he's facing 21 years in prison. >> veterans of three wars are

being honored at the white house today and awarding the medal of honor. only the three are still alive and they are all from vietnam. the honors are following a congressional review on the medals being awarded. wall street building on yesterday's gain. the dow is positive territory up 102 points. oregon is getting ready to la launch a new plan and taking the motorists on the miles they drive. the aim is raising more money for potholes and the like, but the critics are saying it is violating privacy. >> america loves the cars, it is

about freedom and the open road and fuel is less expensive here. much of the gas is taxed and most of that should be paying for the roads improvements and america's roads and bridges are in a poor state and in oregon comes up with the idea of a new tax and 22% of the bridges are deficient or worse. and with more fuel efficient cars people are filling up less often and oregon is wanting to change the way that the motorists are taxed. charged for every mile that they are travelling. there will be a small device in all of the cars and detailing how far you are travelling. people are worried they are being tracked by the government. >> we don't look at it as tracking.

for one thing we have learned that the system cannot have a gps mandated box. citizens don't like that. >> the oregon experiment is starting next year with just five thousand drivers. the small sample could grow quickly and the other a states and the federal government is watching closely. >> they are looking to oregon and minnesota and other states in this area and so i think defacto is a template. >> while the charge may make perfect sense but the obstacle is convincing the people. >> i would better do it at the pump. >> with the use of the internet, we are losing our privacy and this is another right we are going to lose.

once you lose it you never get it back. >> they are confronting a problem that is only getting worse unless there is urgent action and a new approach. >> on the weather front spring two days away. it is feeling like it for a day or two. we need it here. the temperatures are down. looking at more ice coming across north carolina and virginia and low pressure is moving out. the temperatures climbed to just above freezing in richmond. the next storm over the northern plains is bringing snow into the minneapolis with a winter storm warning in effect and bringing warmer air with it as it is moving to the east. del. >> thank you, dave. thank you for watching al jazeera america.

"inside story" is next. we have a team of reporters following the crisis in ukraine. i'm del walters from new york, have a good day. . >> send in troops to occupy a disputed piece of land, and don't be too surprised bay lopsided result. the crimea referendum. what happens now. it's the inside story. >> hello, i'm ray suarez.