aljazeera.com/ajamstream. tweet us using the hashtag, #ajamstream. sangs on russia, ande russia responds with it's mu and incredible information has come to light, in relation to the search for malaysian airline. >> australia finds two

objects on satellite images are and now the seven in that area intensifies. and an army general avoideds jail time in a case that involved an extramarital affair with a fellow soldier. >> . >> now president obama warning of new sanctions against russia, and russia quick to respond. mike life in washington right now, and mike, these last sanctions were all but snubbed by russia, so are these latest enough strong enough to compel change? >> sovereignly officials are touting they have as much more significant, and hit a broader array, not only of individuals within russia, but al certain sectors of the russian economy, even a bank that is known to be

used by vladimir putin health, and some of his cronies as the officials here at the white house put it. president obama appearing on the south lawn, just before a departure for some previously scheduled events. they added this on, this is becoming a usual thing here, as this crisis unfolds. and we must say, listening to what the president said, the crisis deeping and there is a growing amount of concern. not only about crimea, but now russian exercises and their posture towards the ukraine over it's eastern border. first they talked about cronies. the founder of a commodity training company. who brothers who were buildingtal in building the sochi olympics. is a particular bank, that officials call tut

crony bank. here is more of what the president had to say. that gives us authority to impose sanctions on key sectors of the russian economy. this is not our preferred outcome. these without not only have a significant impact, but could be disruptive the global economy. the finance sector, engineering, metals and mining. now, it is clear that the white house isen canned, they are not only met as punishment for what is already transpired in crimea, but as a deterrent against any russian designs on eastern and southern ukraine. we have heard time and time again, they are very concerned that president putin may not stop, he may go into these other areas.

the first time we have heard a strong warning from him, this is meant as a determ, they think this is a serious possibility. >> as we mention sanctions promised if there were further sanctions we howled issue his own, he did that barring officials from entering the country, what has been the response so far? mocking from the russian official whose were targeted. officials here at the white house say that bluster is just that, it is bluster, and especially when you compound wit the sanctions that had been levied today. they are going to find it very difficult to do, it is not a slap on the wrist, now, as far as some of the well known officials here including two top republicans in congress, these retalalay story tit for tattle sames, john mccain and john boehner boat out with statements saying they are proud to be sanctioned by vladimir

putin, in baners case he says he is proud to stand up against his aggression. >> mike from us, mike, thank you very much. and as we indicated we learned less than an hour ago that russia responded by issuing seances of it's own. phil ittner broke the news, and he has all the details bring us up to date. >> the russian min industry did respond, as they said they would, all along, now, they put out a list of nine individuals of high ranking politicians, and those within the political structure, includes names like harry reid, and john boehner, and of course john mccain as well, who has been quite outspoken and we heard mike talking about his response. so they have responded but what they have not done, and what many expected they would do, is try to put sangs on industry coming from the west. in particular, the european union. they haven't taken that step so far. but this is their first

reaction to what the e.u. and the u.s. has been doing, we also got a statement from the foreign minister, sergei lavrov saying those are illegitimate. >> some high profile visitors to kiev today? >> yes. indeed, we had a very high profile visit from secretary of state wendy sherman. she walked along in the independent square. she said she had to fight back tears. but she also took a moment to say her impressions from the square didn't exactly jell with what is coming from the kremlin. >> let's take a listen. you know it is very interesting if i listen to the rhetoric, i would

expect to be attacked by dangerous elements. i was approached by school children with flowers. >> now, the secretary of state also saying that tomorrow she will go out to the east of the country, she will take a look around. there is word that of course the kiev government saying that there are average traitors out there. but she also said she will be meeting with members of the ethnic minorities to see if there's any truth to the claims that extremists are threatening those groups. one other quick note, dell, is al that here in kiev, we had a visit by also high ranking delegation from the united states, the congressional delegation from the intelligence committee. so as you say, a lot going on on the diplomatic front. >> phil for us, thank you very much. well, the search is over for the day, but hope is still very much alive. a possible siting of that missing airline flight. satellite imaging showing

two objects that could be two pieces of the plane debris in the southern indian ocean. the military sent planes to the area which is about 1500 miles off the coast of australia. randall pinkston is live in washington, d.c., and this australian information providing a small glimmer of hope. >> small glimmer of hope indeed it is. the satellite images were captured four days ago. took some time to analyze them, and then the planes were dispatched. four search planes as you indicated. two from australia, one from the u.s., one from new zealand. it took them four hours to even reach the area, one of them an 80-foot long object which could correspond to the wingspan of a 777. so far, they have found nothing but officials say they will keep looking. >> this is a lead. it is probably the best lead we have right now. but we need to get there, find them, see them, assess them, to know whether it's really

meaningful or not. >> right now, there are ships standing by in the area to go to the place where the planes hopefully will find the debris, if they do find the debris, of course, the ships will retrieve it, take it back for testing and analysis, to see if indeed it would be debris from the flight. >> and randall, here is the reality. there have been a lot of false starts so how are the families of the missing passengers react. >> well, obviously with a lot of frustration, anxiety, some anger. and no one understands that better than malaysian officials who try to respond to their concerns. >> is the information we just don't have. the location of m.h. 370. of course, the search continues for motorists for someone who may have been involved in what

apparently was a deliberate act, of taking the plane off course. china weighed in on that saying it has reviewed the records of it's nationals. most of the nationals on that plane were from china. and they have found no connections to terrorism or hijacking from their citizens. dell. >> randall for us in washington, d.c., randall, thank you very much. now to a very closely watched trial in north carolina. at 1 point, everiry st. clair was looking at life in prison, now it's no jail time for the army general accusing of mistreating a subordinate, who also happened to be his former misstress. in natasha joins us now by phone, natasha, what was the sentence? >> dell, as you alluded to, for this two year process, general st. clair lives with the possibility of having to register as a six offedder if he was convicted. sexual assault charges those charges were dropped this week, he pled guilty to 14 counts including adultery, and

mistreating his former misstress. and he walked out of the courtroom today with a reprimand and a $20,000 fine. he spoke to reporters briefly. >> it's been a difficult time for me and my family. the system worked. i have always been proud of my army. all i want to do now is go up north, and hug my kids and see my wife. >> this is what happens next. sinclair will have to go to a separate board. as all people who are requesting retirement, which sinclair is, and the board will determine his last status back to rank, and we are told the board could very well possibly demote him, to a lieutenant colonel that's the rank he was before these allegations surfaced, and if in fact demoted he would face a loss of $831,000 in pension. had he been lifted from the military that figure

would have been a seven figure amount. the prosecution is not commenting. this has been what some would say an embarrassing turn of event as month before this began, the prosecutor resigned he had concerns about the testimony he requested to his superiors that the sexual assault charges with dropped and then once the court marshal began, they ground the proceeding to a halt, out of concern that the prosecution due to political ramifications reject an earlier plea offer from the defense. >> natasha, joining us live by phone. thank you very much. the taliban today mounting two suicide bombings. the attack happened in eastern afghanistan. am al jazeera has more. >> seven armed suicide

attackers forced their way into this police station at damage. a car bomb plowing open a path to open. 14 were injured, police afghan army, and intelligence rapid respond units fought with the attackers for hours to end the siege. they say it was a challenge. >> it has a lot of roads coming in. and we have tried in the past, five to six months to inflict more casualties and will continue to do this. it was a fierce battle. for four hours heavy gunfire could be heard in the area. at least ten explosions were heard throughout the morning in the eastern afghan city. these central streets were concerned relatively

secure in recent months. it's an attack at the heart of the city, at a location right next to the governor's house, sending a message that deadly attacks are possible anywhere in the country. the country's deputy interior minister came from the capitol, keep to ease worries about the draw down of foreign forces. >> there was some propaganda, but they are responsible and they will be responsible for it's security and are ready to be sacrificed. >> it is a crucial step for the countries future. one the taliban refuses to recognize. they have vowed to continue attacks on election officials candidates and the security forces. destabilizing what is already a fragile environment.

jane ferguson, al jazeera, kabul afghanistan. >> coming up on al jazeera america, a toxic spill contaminated a north carolina river last month, now there are concerns it may have happened again.

search of safety rescues like these are common. 1,000 rescues from boats on thursday, more than 3,000 in total in the last three days. it is closer to north africa than it is to europe, and that's why it is attractive to those

threing their home continent. there's been a huge rise in the numbers making that journey from the likes of libya, and syria. many al come from air tray yeah, paying smugglers to get them there. two reality is many never reach europe alive. hundreds die back in october, last year, when their boats capsized on rout. divers had to retreat their bodies from the water, a state funeral was promised, in the end, that turns into a memorial service. italy's attitude towards migrants coming in, has been heavily criticized. immigration centers are way overcrowded and the policy is that migrants are not seeking asylum, they get sent straight home. an italian problem or a european one. we can see that forpress

is really tightening. their barricades and putting the lives on migrants and refugees. a federal investigation has been launched after a toxic spill contaminated a river. now there are allegations the company has illegalled harmed the water source again. and robert, what exactly is duke energy suspected of doing? >> dell, good afternoon, we are on the cape fear river. basically, here is the deal. if the photographer take as look upstream here. duke energy has a coal plant up there, last week, an environment tap group went up in the air to take pictures of the coal ash plant, what they found is folks at that plant duke energy, moving water out into a canal.

that led into the river here. knew the suspected -- the suspicion is they are moving coal ash into the river. duke energy says that's not the case, we were just performing regular maintenance, no big deal, but sit regulators are looking deeply into those photographs and what has occurred. now there are hundreds of ponds all around the country, many of them can cause big problems. the nonprofit river keeper eyes the environment, in a place where toxic coal ash sits upstream. >> we have ponds all over the country, on river and waterways and it is just -- it is contaminating and toxic material. >> on february second, a toxic coal ash spill from a duke energy plant in eden north carolina highlighted a complex problem. how to clean up tons of

coal ash, a dirty byproduct of coal power production. it is the dominant source, yet coal ash resides in a slushy landscape. >> the levels of some of the toxins like carcinogens like chromium, led, and arsenic and you know the list, it is like a quarter of the periodic table, those are all extremely toxic to humans. and so the cumulative effect in the environment is i think understudied. >> the environmental protection agency has no single federal standard requiring that ponds be lined and no common standard for pit or pond structures and monitoring. for a long time the cheapest way to dispose of it was to put it into these ashnd pros.

took energy, they have a permit. this is legal. even though there are toxic substances like arsenic flowing into the water system here. >> duke energy has pledged to fully clean up the spill. work has already started. no one from the company would sit for an interview, but in a letter to north carolina's governor, duke

pledged to convert it's active keel plants to dry ash, which can be recycled and minimized potential risk of a discharge similar to down river, by accelerating the removal of water from bonds at all retired plants. duke estimates the work could take two to three years state regulators categorize the letter as an inadequate response. >> the department expected duke incomer to provide more than an essay of potential actions. the expectation was that duke would include more details information about processing that would inform their time lines and cost estimates to execute those plants.

hoping when they do find come team nation energy companies will be forced to clean up what decades of coal power production has left behind. serious stuff here, and all around the country. now the federal investigation that is going on here in this state of north carolina. perhaps even the governor who has spent over 28 years of his career at duke energy, previous to becoming the governor of north carolina. we will see what the details reveal, though we may find out things before the grand jury and the court concludes. as we are all over this. >> robert, thank you. hi-tech, what you will soon be able to find online.

>> these are your headlines this hour. the president announcing he will expand sanctions against russia, and the executive order will blacklist wealthy individuals with ties to the government and the bank used by them. the sanctions open the door to broader measures against russian energy exports. and military court ruling against jail time for an army general charged with mistreating a female captain who also happened to be his former misstress. brigham deer genre tires he says with a reprimand, and must pay 20,000-dollars in restitution. s. ♪ . >> welcome to spring. about 30 minutes ago, the

sun passes directly over the equator, as it appears -- about 12 hours ofdy light today. doesn't mean we are getting warmer temperatures. colder weather is coming down across the great lakes and through new england. it is into the 50's now, washington, d.c. and d.c., atlanta up to 59 degrees but colder air will continue to push east. this is all with this area of snow and rain that came through last night. temperatures climb add bit, this is a front, though, that moved through, and behind it we have this gusty winds so looking at a little winter weather. but colder temperatures expected over the next few hours. into the 50's here, but dropping into the 30's in western new york and up around the great lakes. northern planes dealing with light snow around the great lakes as well. eastern montana could see a passing rain. the dry weather is in place, and that leads to a fire danger. and that's a red flag

warning or a fire weather watch in effect from the national weather service. still feeling winter like as the winter like now because we are starting spring. but not seeing the warmer temperatures yet. even taking a selfie with a couple of newly weds. now the vatican taking steps into the modern age. edwin dun, if you are in the mood for light

reading those scan documents will be available online. thank you for watching al jazeera, in new york, techno featuring mystery writer martin smith is next. check us out 24 hours a day just by going to aljazeera.com. >> i did not want to be a writer with parkinson's, i just wanted to be a writer. >> for 18 years novelist martin cruz smith did had a secret. a disease was attacking his brain, affecting his writing. >> i have wires in my head. >> with his wife emily and technology