we'll see you for the next program in washington, i'm ray suarez. welcome to al jazeera america i'm del waters. these are the stories we are following for you. >> russian political isolation will only increase if it continues down its current path. the escalating crisis in ukraine. vice president biden threatening more sanctions as they officially bring crimea into the fold. day 11 of the missing airliner. angry relatives confronting

officials about the fate of their loved ones. and the big bang theory gets a big boost. what some are calling the greatest scientific discoveries in history. >> it is safe to say the whole world is watching as the next chapter of ukraine's political crisis is now underway. facing western pressure, russian president vladimir putin taking a hard line over crimea addressing a joint session of the russian parliament. that speech concluding with leaders signing a treaty making crimea an official part of russia. vice president biden going to poland to show support of allies to warn russia of more sanctions. all this unfolding just one day after the president, president obama and the european union imposed tough new sanctions all linked to

the crimea issue. we have reporters around the globe. we begin with jennifer glasse in crimea. and jennifer, i understand they were celebrating today as that treaty was signed between crimea and russia? >> that's right, del. they came out sunday. they voted in big numbers to head to russia. they have been happy about it. they were flying the russian flag. and despite international condemnation here, people are happy to be back with russia. in we sit here so cheerfully. i'm very pleased. we dreamt about this for so long. we were born in the ussr and that is why we are happy to go back home. >> most people here don't care what the rest of the world thinks. think think this did right a historical wrong, something president putin echoed.

that speech will play well. not everyone -- we talked to little minority here. they are worried about what will happen next and what their place will be in a future russian crimea. and a worrying note coming from the crimean capital earlier this afternoon. we had somebody fired gunshots at the ukranian military base. wounding one officer, ukranian officer telling al jazeera he thinks the gunmen were russian. won't wee don't have any details yet. but with sailors and soldiers still bar g'day cadeed, this isn't over yet. >> jennifer, thank you very much. we have just received word from nick shiffrin who is where the shots were fired that it may have been ukranian on ukranian violence. meanwhile, phil ittner is part of our team in kiev. how are they responding to president putin's speech earlier this morning? >> well, to be expected they

rejected vladimir putin's speech. they rejected any claims of crimea's sovereignty. but they also took great exception to vladimir putin's claim that he has no further intention in ukraine into mainland ukraine. they say that is because they have evidence and intelligence that there are still russian agent pro vanning tours particularly in the eastern country. let's hear what he had to say about that. >> law enforcement agencies have gathered convincing evidence of the participation of russia's special services in organizing unrest in the east of our country. there are saboteurs that have been arrested. there is no place for these warmongers. >> now of course moscow refutes the claims. we are seeing increasing crowds of pro-russian supporters gathering in places in cities in east of the

country. kiev saying that is not a natural occurrence, that that is indeed by design. >> phil ittner for us live in can ien. he will stand by. we want to turn to the situation in london. the u.s. and eu responding at this hour. vice president bidesen in poland warning russia the u.s. and europe will impose further sanctions on moscow because it has annexed crimea. into the vice president using harsh language to describe the unfolding events. >> really cutting to the chase on this, del. they took a look at president putin's speech in moscow and are calling his assertion that he send troops into crimea to save ethnic russians there from violence or death, putin used the word death as some kind of fiction. the vice president biden in poland seriously questioning the russian president's version of events. he characterized what happened as brazen military

intervention by russia, a land grab. the world has seen through russians actions and flawed logic of president putin and he promised isolation of russia and more sanctions and sought to reassure poland and countries on russia's borders that nato will protect them. no president obama and i view article 5 as a solemn commitment not only for our time but all time we take it deadly serious and our commitment is unwavering and unshakeable. that is why the united states has just deployed 12 f-16 fighter jets to the air base in poland. they will be carrying on more conversations in a meeting with estonia. they are trying to reassure the countrys that nato stands with them. back to you. >> i want you to stand by as well. i want you to bring phil

ittner and jennifer glasse, all three of you providing a unique perspective on what has unfolded over the last few months. jennifer, now that a treaty has been signed, what else needs to happen to for mallize crimea's secession with russia? >> well, it all happened in moscow now. the constitutional court there has to ratify this and then it goes back to the two houses of the russian parliament and they have to ratify it too. but given the raptureus applause that president putin got, everybody knows it is a done deal. he knows that 92% of the russian people wanted crimea to come back to russia. it was 97% of the people voted to become part of russia. the er ethnic russians are happy. this is considered all but signed, sealed and delivered. and now it is just the mechanics. when this part of the world turns to the russian ruble they are talking about going to moscow's time zone and there will be a lot of other things to be worked out.

not the least of which is trade and utilities. >> this is not only about the decision of crimea to leave ukraine and join russia but the way in which it went down. and that seems to be the major bone of contention between east and west. >> it is. you know, if you talk to people here, they think the russian troops that came in, we did see troops come across the border and we have seen troops from russia proper here despite president putin say they did not have additional troops. we have seen russian troops here. many of the ethnic russians say they are not occupiers, they are liberators. they came in to keep us safe and echoed what president putin was say. very much aligned. they have been watching on russian television for the past couple of weeks that when kiev fell that it was the facists would come down here and attack and that they needed to protection and that is why they had the political

changes and the self-defense forces around bases. the people here believe that the russian forces came in and liberated them and protected them. that is why there hasn't been any violence. so very much a very, very different picture than what you are hearing from for example, vice president biden and european lead worst call it a military occupation who say it was a land grab. the people were always going to go back to russia. >> jennifer glasse, and phil ittner, they are seeing things different in kiev. think see it as russia being the provacatuers. >> yes, absolutely. not only in the crimean peninsula but as we have been reporting they have in kiev's opinion sent in provavateurs into the country. crimea is just the beginning. they are starting to look at this as being on a war footing.

we have just heard from the prime minister who says it has moved from a political stage to military stage. they have mobilized parts of their army to the east of the country. they think they are on the verge of a war in kiev and it is because of provocation from moscow. of course, that is something that has been refuted by moscow, as i mentioned. but nevertheless the atmosphere here in kiev is incredibly tense and there is a feeling that moscow is going to try to push for more territory. >> phil ittner in kiev thank you. >> the united states and european union say it is about boundaries, world order and about treaties. >> they are saying it it is a sovereign nation and you have to get out of there. you to have give crimea back and back away from the eastern bore border with ukraine. there are a lot of interpreterations about how president putin's speech came across. oddly enough the markets were up. they were up initially in the

u.s. as well. and i asked a banker about that. why are they up? we didn't hear anything very clear from president putin who said we will not go into eastern ukraine but the market seemed to interpret that he did give some positive sign that he wasn't about to roll into eastern ukraine. but when you talk to government ministers or you hear even the prime minister of poland, they don't feel they got the assurances that they needed. so you will hear a lot of calls for increased sanctions now certainly going forward to the eu leaders summit in a couple of days in europe that they need to increase the sanctions which were laughed at by deputy prime minister in moscow last night, that they need to make putin understand that he has to back away from ukraine. >> dana lewis in london, phil ittner, jennifer glasse our team of reporters. as you heard dana mention, it is a mixed picture. world financial markets reacting positively to the

comments that came out of moscow this morning. here in the u.s., the dow is up 94 points, 97 points, adding to yesterday's triple digit rally in europe stocks moving higher as putin spoke. also staying put. london's 100. in france, it is higher by more than 1% and russia itself, the main moscow stock index also up 4% on trading. and oil traders appear to have shifted folk froes ukraine to the u.s. economy and tomorrow's meeting of the fed. food prices at this hour up 1% today. still to come on al jazeera america, an emotional confrontation between some relatives of those on board flight 370 and malaysian airline officials. plus righting wrongs. veterans of three wars being honored at the white house. those stories and much, much more when al jazeera america returns. >>

>> the ukraine crisis as tensions esalate >> russia for all inents and purposes showing no signs of backing down. >> crimea's vote rejected by the west... >> here in crimea, a lot of them say the west should just butt out... >> new santions looming >> mr. ambassador will those sanctions work? >> things could easily get out of control >> will crimea break away? what's russia's next move? and how will th u.s. respond? >> we're making it clear that there are consequences for their actions... >> for continuing coverage stay with al jazeera america your global news leader.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del waters. friends and relatives of the passengers on the missing malaysian airlines flight now confronting airline officials demanding more information. they are angry about how the malaysian government is handling the situation. >> you only mentioned questions regarding food, drinks and compensation. i don't need this. i need to know the whereabouts of my relatives. wasn't to know where the plane is and you can't give me an answer. >> relatives of the chinese passengers say they will go on a hunger strike if malaysian authorities don't give more accurate information. the search is now in day 11. now thai military officials say its radar detected a plane that may have been flight 370. they are describing a twisting flight path minutes after the communication systems went down. they go on to say they didn't share the information because they weren't specifically asked for it. search area now covers 2 million nautical square miles. 26 countrys are looking for flight 37 0 and 239 passengers and crew on board.

lisa stark has the latest on the investigation. >> as investigators in malaysia search the home of the plane's captain and the residents of the co-pilot, authorities say the analysis of the air traffic control recording reveals who spoke the last words from the cockpit. it was the man in the right seat. >> initial investigation indicated it was the co-pilot who last speak the last time that was 27-year-old hamid who calmly said, all right, good night when he was told to contact controllers on in vietnam. that contact never happened. investigators revised their time line saying the two communication systems that were switched off on the jet may have both been disabled in the minutes after that final radio transmission. >> it does not change our belief as stated that up until the point at which it left

military primary radar coverage it moved with a consistent and deliberate action by someone on the plane. they have refused u.s. intelligence assistance into renewed focus on the pilots. >> they do need to get f.b.i. profilers and ntsb human performance psychologists in there. and i keep hearing that they are holding people off. >> 26 countrys are now involved in the hunt for the plane, which could be anywhere between central asia to the west of australia. deep in the indian ocean. >> australian air force has conducted two sweeps over the southern search corridor and another sweep is scheduled to take place later today. we owe it to the people on this ill-fated flight and their families to do what we can to solve this tragic mystery. >> malaysian officials say they are trying to narrow down the search area. they have requested additional radar and satellite

information from all the neighboring countrys with word today that thailand has just turned over and looked at some of its military radar already 11 days after the plane disappeared. it is once again raising questions about how this vision is being conducted. that is lisa stark reporting. two people now dead following a helicopter trash crash in seattle. the news helicopter went down near the space needle there. another person in a car is injured and in critical condition. the helicopter belonging to the abc affiliate, komo tv. it was taking off for an assignment when it crashed. the president says he will honor 24 veterans today. randall pingston is in washington. who are these men being honored? snathes are men who were overlooked. righting wrongs as you said previously del. this began about 14 years ago in 2002 with the passage of an

act by congress to look at hispanic and japanese american veterans who served in world war ii. the korean war or vietnam who had been passed over. later, other soldiers not of hispanic or jewish decent were included. what review resulted in a decision to honor 24 veterans with the medal of honor for conspicuous gallantry. there are three survivors, master sergeant jose rodella, sergeant first-class melvin morris and sergeant santiago rivea. they will be in the east room along with relatives of those who have passed on when president obama will award the medal of honor. >> this is different from other ceremonies? >> this will be the first time there will be such a large

group. one single group of people being awarded the medal of honor at the same time of course, most of them posthumously. >> and different in the way the awards came about. yeah, what happened was they were looking for anomalies. for example in an earlier review involving japanese americans they noticed that the 442nd combat unit that fought in italy had been the highest decorated regiment in world war ii but none of the members received a medal of honor. the question was why. obvious answer discrimination. the pentagon acknowledged that visited throughout the u.s. military. that instance, they awarded 20 medal of honors including one who became a u.s. senator inoe from hawaii. >> and this also came about because of colin powell who

wanted to know why it was different. thank you very much. >> buyers are back on wall street for the second day. the dow as we mentioned is higher. blue chips looking to add to yesterday's 181 point rise. inflation tame unless you are shopping for food. overall, consumer prices were up just .1 of a%. but food prices jumped four times that amount. the biggest increases coming from meat, fish and eggs. new york's attorney general calling for stricter regulation of high frequency stock trading. the tools give them advantages over the general public. he wants regulators in stock exchanges to consider ways to reduce unfairness in the markets. two former executives of the company that makes the wildly popular video game candy crush missed out on a big payday. the pair cashed out their

state back in 2011 for about $3 million. but now it will go public. the stakes could be worth about a billion dollars each. it is called the big bang smoking gun. >> this is huge. this is in my opinion one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. i don't say that lightly. in how big is it? >> a massive ripple effect being felt around the world of science. $

>> welcome back to al jazeera america i'm del waters walters. here are your headlines. vladimir putin signed a treaty for mallly incorporating crimea with russia. western nations including the u.s. condemning the crimean referendum. vice president bidesen in poland discussing the rye crisis in ukraine warning russia saying the u.s. and

europe will impose further sanctions on moscow because it decided to annex crimea. relatives of the passengers aboard the missing malaysian jetliner are angry about how they are conducting the investigation. some will go on a hunger strike if they are not given more accurate information. the search now in its 11th day. i'm meteorologist dave warren. when you think things are done across the mid-atlantic states in the southeast, rain is coming back. as the storm moves out. taking a lot of the ice and sleet. now you are getting the wind coming in off the ocean. we will see the wind pick-up and the rain hang around. where it is cold enough could see the icing. temperatures are just above the freezing mark. winter weather sidesry still in effect. you could see additional ice accumulates with the temperature down right about freezing and you get the rain falling into this cold air.

another storm here across the northern plains. look what happens as this band of snow begins to intensify. watching this closely because the band will continue to have snow over the same area, one inch per hour or more. so additional snowfall from nebraska through south dakota and right through minnesota all the way through the great lakes. this is the next storm, which will impact the temperatures across the southeast and mid-atlantic for the start of spring. that happens on thursday. you see the temperatures up to 58 in tussal 4 nato omaha. here is the cold air coming back. you might feel a warm up the next day or so. it won't last long. the storm pushes east. brings all this snow. which is heaviest along the great lakes and along the band. this is just today. as the storm continues to move out. it will bring with it all this snow. high pressure has taken over in new jersey. snow on the sand. but the wind picking up. high surf advisories in effect because the wind continues to gust out of the northeast.

there is the midwest storm. in the middle is high pressure. this is where the temperatures are cold now because you are getting the northeast to east wind. as the lo moves east it brings the warm air. temperatures stay cool today but spring starts on thursday and watch what happens here as the high months out. here comes the warm air coming up across the southeast. temperatures may climb into the 50s or 60s for the start of spring. but that will come with little rain and be followed by cold air over the weekend. >> thank you very much. for centuries astronomers have been trying to understand how the universe began. they have found ripples of gravitation waves in space. how this discovery supports one you probably heard about, the big bang theory. >> if universe started with a big bang, it was quickly followed by a rapid expansion. a theory known as inflation. but until now there was no evidence to back it up. >> there was a violent burst of exponential expansion.

and in that exponential expansion the universe was stretched out there a subatomic volume, microscopic scale to cost mo logical scales and in that process, the universe gets flatter and smoother. >> john kovac heads a team of scientists. they used a telescope based at the south pole to measure light waves emanating from the birth of the cosmos. they discovered a pattern, one that supports the theory of inflation. as well as the existence of gravitational waves as predicted by albert einstein in his famous theory of relativity. >> this is huge. this is in my opinion one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. i don't say that lightly. >> sky scientists have proof in what happened in the one trillions of a one trillions of a one trillions of a second after the big bang. it doesn't work without inflation.

so with this discovery there is talk of a nobel prize for the harvard smithsonian team. >> one of the founders of the theory of inflation says the discovery shows that science has the power to explain our existents. extrapolations like that work and result of predictions that can be tested and in this instance, the predictions actually worked and i think it really does give us a lot more confidence in the power of rational thought. other scientists will check and recheck the findings. but are calling it an extraordinary breakthrough in the studry have iive of our universe. for al jazeera, cambridge, massachusetts. >> it unclear how long the inflation period lasted but scientists say in a fraction of a second the universe went from subatomic to cosmic. about that fast. thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york.

for the latest go to al jazeera.com where the news continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week. we leave you with this image of the unverse. and remember, it happened quickly. >> >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you're in "the stream." from your credit card swipes to facebook updates, data brokers are tracking you, and they know a lot more about you than you might think. my cohost, rajahad ali, is here, and he's bringing in the feedback in the conferences. raj, we're diving through the data today.