welcome to al jazeera america. i'm dell waters. these are the stories we're following for you. russian forces taking over a ukrainian naval base. these heart-wrenching scenes from malaiysia as family member wait for news. the justice department telling toyota to pay up for misleading the public about a safety recall.

it has been another day of fast-moving developments in ukraine. the u.n. secretary-general now headed to russia. he plans to meet with russian president vladimir putin about the crisis there. it comes as pro-russian forces stormed the naval headquarters in crimea. phil has the latest. let's start off with crimea. tell us about that standoff at the ukrainian naval base. >> reporter: well, del, it appears as though the standoff is over, and the russians have occupied that facility. what we know about how that transpired is that apparently today the russians came to that ukrainian naval facility because there had been an edict from kiev allowing their military personnel to start to use their weaponry with live ammunition in their own self-defense. the russians came to that base with that pretext saying that

they wanted to secure the military facility. they had an exchange of fire. they crashed through the fences and the entranceway into the facility. they took the head of ukraine's naval forces on the peninsula, took him away, and are now currently holding him under detention. we do know, however, that they were not just russian soldiers but also those self-defense units, those guys that are out there in russian uniforms but without any insignia. kiev is very disturbed about this. they tried to send a delegation to talk about it. they are basically incensed at this incident. there was a truce that was supposed to be in place until the 21st that had been arranged between the ukrainians and the russians. here in kiev they're saying that the russians clearly have violated that truce. del. >> phil, as we see those images

and hear that anger in the voices of so many people there, this is what russian president vladimir putin yesterday said he was trying to prevent. how are they reacting right now in kiev and the rest of ukraine concerning what we are seeing in crimea? >> reporter: well, they're reacting angrily, very angrily, as a matter of fact. there have been a couple of incidents, actually. this is not the first such incident. there was a shooting a couple of -- not -- lass night there was a shooting in which a ukrainian officer was shot and killed. today in an emergency cabinet meeting there was a moment of silence for him, and then following that, the acting prime minister sent a delegation out to crimea consisting of a vice prime minister and the defense minister himself. the intention was to de-escalate things. of course, the crimean

authorities don't recognize the government here in kiev. so they refused to let that plan -- that plane land. that delegation then returned. they went behind closed doors. they're trying to negotiate the release of that admiral in charge of the ukrainian naval forces in the peninsula. we are also hearing that they are drawing up plans here in kiev for an evacuation of the peninsula of those who -- they are already calling them refugees and also families of military members, but the government in kiev says they have no plans to remove their military personnel. so it looks as though, as we move towards the end of that truce, which is planned to end on the 21st, this friday, that tensions are growing. kiev says the truce has been broken, and they are authorizing their personnel to defend themselves. tensions are very high out in the peninsula. anger is very high in the ukrainian capital. del. >> phil et ner for us live in

kiev. the european union is offering ukraine $1.4 billion in an effort to help to stabilize the country. the eu's vice president unveiled the details in brussels a short while ago. he said that the loan will help to improve the overall management of ukraine's finances and help ramp up the battle there against corruption. it has been 12 days since flight 370 disappeared, and this day tensions boiled over. here's the latest. malaysian officials are trying to recover files from the pilot's flight simulator found inside his home, but some of those files have been deleted. meanwhile, 26 countries now joining the search for that missing flight. this as chinese relatives of the missing lash out at authorities they say over their lack of progress. the woman you are seeing there traveled from china to the press

briefing in malaysia. she had to be dragged from the room. others now say there should be hunger strikes. most of those passengers are chinese, malaysian officials say they plan to send a representative to beijing to brief relatives there. lisa stark in washington, d.c. right now. lisa, as far as the investigation, where do we stand with that today? >> reporter: well, they continue to search the waters, of course, for any sign of this aircraft. so far they have turned up nothing. they also say they still have no information that any passengers on the jet at this point have any ties to terrorism. they're still waiting to hear from a few countries about their nationals on the plane. again, the focus remains on the pilots, and they do really want to know what that missing data is from the simulator, and there are multiple reports now that the fbi has been called in to help in that effort. 12 days into the disappearance of malaysia flight 370, investigators remain focused on the actions of the pilot. tuesday the airline was asked

about a "new york times" report that the flight computer was reprogrammed to take the plane off course. >> as far as we are concerned, the aircraft was programmed to fly to beijing. it could be speculation. it is -- once you're in the aircraft, anything is possible. >> reporter: now new reports give that theory an exact time line saying the plane's sharp u-turn may have been programs by someone 12 minutes before the co-pilot's last words of "all right. good night." that suggests it was premeditates and not done manually at the controls. a maneuver takes expertise, meaning pilots will fall under a greater microscope. >> they will examine the pilot's flight simulator. some data has been deleted from the simulator, and forensic work to achieve this data and it's ongoing.

>> reporter: families of the missing remain devastated at the conflicting information from malaysian investigators, who now may have missed another piece of information. this time from thailand, which now says its military radar may have detected the jetliner and its initial turns off course. thailand said it did not share the information because it wasn't specifically asked for it and it was never a threat to its air space. the search for the missing jet covers a massive area including 2.24 million square nautical miles, roughly two-thirds of the size of the continental u.s. the u.s. has two military aircraft up and looking, including a u.s. navy p-8 in australia to help search in the south. >> those are really, really treacherous, deep seas. winter is coming. the rescue effort continues to get difficult by the day. it's not even a needle in a haysta haystack. it's a needle in thousands of fields of haystacks.

>> reporter: and australia leads that search effort in the southern area, the area where officials believe it's most likely the plane went down. they say it will take weeks, weeks to search just that area. again, they have found nothing so far. >> lisa, attorney general eric holder now commenting on the situation with that missing malaysian airlines flight. what did he have to say today? >> reporter: he was asked about it in a news conference on a different topic, and as you can imagine, he was circumspect. didn't offer any theories about what happened, but said they're in close contact with the malaysians and continue to have conversations. they're offering any help they can give. the fbi is offering any help it can give and will offer any kind of expertise that the malaysians want and need. >> lisa stark in washington, d.c. thank you very much. a reminder for the latest details on that missing malaysian airlines flights and the events out of ukraine, follow us on twitter.

our handle is @ajam. it's the largest criminal penalty slapped on a car company by the u.s. toyota told to pay more than $1 billion. it follows a four-year criminal investigation into whether toy toyota misled the government and the public. what did they find as a result fortunate investigation? >> reporter: they found that toyota knew they had a problem with sticky accelerators and floor mats in 2007, but the company did not reveal the problem when the problem was revealed by some motorists. they didn't tell the truth about the extent of the problem and didn't make enough recalls until 2010. by then people died. that led to the criminal investigation, a culmination of which was announced today by u.s. attorney general eric holder. >> put simply, toyota's conduct was shameful. it showed a blatant disregard for systems and laws designed to look after the safety of

consumers. but the company's own admissions its protected its brand ahead of its own customers. this constitutes a clear and reprehensible abuse of the public trust. >> reporter: toyota released a statement acknowledging today's announcement by the u.s. attorney general. toyota saying that they're trying to regain the public's trust and they promise to abide by the terms of the agreement. del. >> the question has to be asked. with all of these findings, will toyota face criminal charges? >> reporter: toyota does face criminal charges. wire fraud in particular. u.s. attorney general holder announcing that those -- the prosecution will be deferred for three years as long as toyota carries out its payments and also allows the appointment of an independent monitor to make sure that the company going forward does not conceal anything else that may go wrong with its vehicles. >> randall pinkston live at the white house. thank you very much today. iran and six world powers ending that latest round of

nuclear talks under way in vienna. they're trying to scale back tehr tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for easing of sanctions. they're focuses on a heavy water reactor the group of six wants shut down. earlier iran's foreign minister talked about the progress being made. >> translator: over the last two days of talks, we have had very contentful and very serious talks and useful talks in relation to a series of issues that included enrichment of the reactor and peaceful cooperation, nuclear cooperation and the sanctions. >> katherine ashton, the eu's foreign policy chief called that meeting useful. another round of talks is scheduled for april 7th. a video posted online by syrian opposition forces shows what they say is the release of hundreds of inmates from a prison near the border with

jordan. the video is released as that country's bloody civil war is in year three. al jazeera reports. >> reporter: the campaign to take control of the central prison took a week, according to opposition sources. rebels targeted the jail because it was believed to hold political prisoners and was an army base. both rebels and syrian army were killed in the battle. several videos were released by a fighting group calling itself the brigade of the sunni lions. outside the jail they acknowledged they worked with the brigade. opposition sources said up to 400 prisoners were freed including women, but videos showed only men. the central prison is the main jail in the region with separate areas for men, women, and young people. al jazeera understands the fighting groups are trying to sort the political prisoners

from the other inmates. they've told the prisoners with criminal convictions that they'll be judged again in a rebel sharia court. as word spread of the celebratory gunfire broke out again, one family came to the jail for an emotional reunion. the brigade has promised a fair process and asked other inmates to be patient. it's the second major jail to be captured to be captured by opposition fighters, and the last one was in january 2012. anita mcnaught, al jazeera. coming up on al jazeera america, thousands of students once again filling the streets of egypt. a fresh wave of protests against the government there. and more problems for the affordable care act. hear why some of the top cancer centers may be off-limits under obamacare.

in egypt at least one person

is dead following violent clashes between police and protesters. those demonstrations on the anniversary of the first constitutional referendum. >> reporter: this is a student protest in egypt, the secondest largest city of alexandria. similar protests took place across the country on wednesday to make the third anniversary on the announcement of egypt's first post-mubarak constitution. they came out to show their rejection of the coup of the government of former president morsi. in june 2012 morsi became the first democratically elected president in egypt. morsi was always skeptical of the army. he sacked one of the top generals and scrapped the interim declaration. this is the man appointed by morsi as the new defense minister, but the army's power was never undermined.

in july 2013, the general deposed president morsi and suspended the constitution. the army was back in power. today it is as if egypt has returned to square one after the fall of mubarak. a top general is practically in control and is expected to run for the highest office. anti-military youths are back in the streets, and once again, the future of egypt is far from certain. it could be another setback for the affordable care act. some of the country's best cancer hospitals could be out of reach. some of those centers aren't included in state insurance exchanges. now there's concern that some patients won't get the most advanced treatment. cost is a major factor and some insurers say they're trying to keep down costs and limited the number of hospitals and doctors in those plans.

no big rally on wall street today. the dow is flat all session. right now the dow is down a little more than a point. the blue chips on a two-day winning streak but that could end. investigators in a wait and see mode ahead of the historic federal reserve announcement, the first statement since yellen took over as chair. they expect them to pull back on bond-buying stimulus programs. the focus is on what they say about the future of interest rates, and fed watchers aren't expecting any fireworks. >> she wants to instill confidence and not throw markets for a loop unnecessarily. there's always a risk during these things, one little offhand remar remarks sends stocks up or down or the currency markets this way or that. she'd rather not do that. she'd rather send a message that steady as she goes at the federal reserve right now. >> the news conference is straights ahead in a couple of hours. we'll have the details on al jazeera america. the nasty weather being blamed for financial woes at two major companies. fedex reporting profits in the

last quarter below wall street forecast. fedex is saying that shipping volume dropped and cost rose because of the weather. then there's general mills, the food maker saying quarterly sales declined 1.2% and adjusted profits falling as well. the company notes the entire food industry was hurt by the ice and the snow. fishermen from pakistan and india often find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time in territorial waters. hundreds of arrests are made each yore because they're found trespassi trespassing. long-running tensions between the two countries make their release difficult. >> reporter: ever since he was a boy, he has been fishing in these waters. he says he knows the sea off of the southeastern coast like the back of his hand, but in late 2010 a day of work turned into a nearly three-year ordeal.

>> translator: we're putting out nets out in the area. we had fished it in many times before. the indian coast guard came and arrested us. everyone on the boat was put in jail. we don't know where we were held, but the conditions was terrible. it was so bad a friend arrested with me died there. >> reporter: sulman was released last year after politicians in islamabad and new delhi agreed to a rare prisoner exchange. not everyone is as lucky as sulman. according to advocacy groups about 200 pakistani fishinger maen are held by india and more than 230 indian fishermen are in pakistani jails. her husband was held in an indian prison for 11 years. their son was just 1-month-old when he was arrested fortress passing in indian waters while fishing. earlier this year his body was returned to his family for burial. he was 41 years old.

>> translator: now we have nothing, and i appealed to the government of india and pakistan not to arrest any more fishermen. if they're found on the wrong side of the water, it's by mistake. they're only doing their jobs. let they return to their families. >> reporter: in a show of solidarity, fishermen in pakistan have appealed to the supreme court to release all imprisoned indian fishermen. advocacy groups in india are lobbying the front-runner for prime minister in this year's parliamentary elections. people want him to include a ban on arresting fishermen in his party's platform, but the long-standing tensions between the two countries, which have fought three wars and any kind of shift in policy by early fwovt is unlikely. that leaves people like her with little hope that others will be spared the same suffering. still ahead on al jazeera america, restrictions on buying new cars in cuba have been

lifted, but a new sed of wheels comes with a rather steep price. the president fills out his brackets. we'll tell you which teams made the presidential final four.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here's are the headlines at this hour. one day after crimea officially breaks away from ukraine and joins russia, the ukrainian naval base is seized by armed forces. the russian flag flying high over the compound. the latest on missing malaysian airlines flight 370. investigators are trying to recover files from the pilot's film simulator. it was rovrped at his home, bullet some files were deleted. toyota settling claims with the federal government to pay $1.2 billion. it is the largest criminal penalty imposed on a car company in u.s. history. the justice department found toyota misled authorities and the public concerning the safety recall. for the first time in more

than 50 years, cubans can buy new cars. the government lifting restrictions on car ownership, but as adam rainy reports, the island has a bad case of sticker shock. >> reporter: cubans will do anything to keep their beloved cars on the road. since the revolution, car ownership has been restricted. so cubans have to be resourceful to keep their old cars chugging along. starting this year restrictions on car ownership have been lifted. many hoped to get a new set of wheels, but prices seen here have shocked cubans. this is listed at $262,000. that's roughly 10 times what it costs in most countries. every day people are visiting dealerships to see the unbelievable prices for themselves. these two men were afraid to speak on camera, but they said it would take a lifetime for cubans who earn an average of $20 a month to buy a car at such prices. many are angered with the

government. >> translator: i think it is enormously disrespectful, because our salaries aren't enough to cover the personal needs. we've done the numbers and it is so expensive. >> reporter: for foreigners driving a small car like this in cuba, it's no big deal but for most cubans it's an unattainable dream. the move is the latest in a series of economic reforms to get more cubans off the state payroll. with prices so high, most cars will set unsold on car lots. despite the new freedom, cubans will likely be getting around as they have been for decades with a lot of patience. al jazeera, ha vaughn -- havana. i said spring is one day away, and then i put on my heavy overcoat. >> you sure did. you have to do it later this week as well. we will see a brief warm-up, but overall winter will stick around for quite a bit of time, del. look at these temperatures

across the north-central plains. it's a chilly morning across fargo. temperatures at 29 degrees and bismarck around 32 degrees. once you go to minneapolis, also staying in the upper 20s, but it's very chilly. i'll tell you why. we have cold air pushing in out of canada, and that will continue to be a trend tracking towards early next week as well. the first full week of spring. we have a storm pushing across the midwest bringing a bit of snow across the u.p. of michigan. once you push further south, temperatures are milder across the northern tier of indiana and north and eastern tip of illinois. that is where we're looking at the rain. the storm will may its way into the northeast and produce a bit of snow across the new york state throughway and also across the green and white mountains here of portions of new hampshire back towards vermont, also into maine. mostly to the west of the i-95 corridor, but if you travel tomorrow, keep at that in mind. that's why we have a winter weather advisory in effect, and most areas pick up 3 to 6 inches of snow beginning early tomorrow

morning through the afternoon hours. overall for the most part it feels comfortable across the northeast. temperatures are still slightly below where they should be at this time of year. toronto right at 42 degrees. in new york city we're at 44. it feels comfortable overall. tomorrow is the first official day of spring. it really beginning here at 12:57 when the sun crosses over the equator, and that's when we see temperatures begin to fluctuate and we're going to make that transition towards spring. now on the southern hemisphere, they're preparing for fall, and it's going to be a lot colder across the southern hemisphere into the next couple of months. first official day of spring overall is a quiet day. we have a system across the northwest looking to bring rain across seattle into portland and across the cascades. if you travel along i-90 in snoqualmie pass, be careful in the areas. back to you, del. he may be the president, but that doesn't mean he's too busy to fill out his brackets.

president obama did with espn's andy capps. he has florida and arizona going to the final four. he said michigan state is going to beat louisville for the championship game. a confidence boost for teams knowing he's behind them. thanks for watching. i'm del walters. "the stream" is next. you're in "the stream." one of america's largest college fraternities is ending it's practice of hazing recruits. the fraternity was reportedly with the most reported hazing deaths. and others are following suit. the decades long practice.