people will disappear. >> this british firefighter joins a group of brave men. >> the most surprising thing for me is the size of the fires that come through. absolutely brutal. >> toughest place to be a firefighter. sunday at 9 eastern, on al jazeera america. an act of aggression but russia's military, three navy ships seized in the port city of estoppel and searching for the flight 370 is no easy task and facing conditions on the indian ocean few of us would see. no more tweeting and it is blocked and mass protests taking place in the past year. >> carcinogens like chromium and

lead and you know the list, like a quarter of the periodic table. >> reporter: the push to get one company to cleanup its act after contaminating 70 miles of a river. ♪ good morning and welcome to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy, russia's military making an aggression move in effort to take over crimea. the troops seized three ukrainian navy vessel in sevastopol and quickly changed the flag over the flag to russia colors and president obama is warning russia not to go further ni in, ukraine and they have close ties to russian president putin and he signs an agreement for

closer ties with the eu and we have team coverage this morning and phil is in kiev but let's begin with jennifer glasse in sevastopol where the navy ships were seizeed and you have been following the take over of the vessel and what do we know at this point? >> reporter: well, you know, we noticed a lot of activity with ukraine navy yesterday, activity with the ships and blocked in the port for nearly three weeks but that is one of the gun ships and russian navy on board and raised the russian flag, the blue and white flag you see with the ukraine colors on it and moved it from its regular port where it has been in port for three weeks once it was taken over and it may have happened overnight. in the darkness of night last night a number of navy ships were taken over but the big command ships this morning still flying the ukrainian colors. nobody was on decks of the ship when we saw it this morning and think the crew may have locked themselves inside.

president obama has called what is happening here in crimea a land grab by russia but what is happening right now i think you can call a sea grab and may be a referendum in the vast majority of crimeas voted under coming russia control, the ukraine navy has not been happy about this at all and registered objections on wednesday and headquarters were visibly taken over and over run and taken over by the force and a hood over his head and kidnapped and ejected from crimea itself and the crimea officers i'm talking to say there is no military honor in this and no way for one navy to treat another and it's created an rift in the two militarys of the country. >> what about the three ships taken over by the russians, were there sailors on board those ships? >> reporter: the sailors on board from what we understand they just basically throw the

sailors off and leave with what belongings they have and going home to their bases and to their homes here. this is a naval port and a lot of obviously naval personnel and a concern and what is next? there is a plan apparently to evacuate the families, ukraine said yesterday it would try to keep its military on the in crimea and that now doesn't seem at all feasible here and the question is where will they go and how will they get out and given safe passage? >> what does it look like the next move is? this is happening quickly in the last couple of days a complete russian take over of the peninsula. >> reporter: well, they are clearly consolidating what they have. the military was really the last power or authority ukraine had in crimea and little by little they are pushing everybody out and heard there were ten armored personnel to the base and that is the air field half an hour

drive from here between sevastopol and the capitol of crimea. and that had been taken over and still military officers there and russia consolidating gains here and has troops on the eastern border of ukraine as well and reserves the right to protect ethnic russians living in ukraine but vladimir putin will not go further in ukraine proper. >> latest on the ground and let's turn to phil in kiev so let's begin with the big developments in moscow and brussels, what has been happening today? good morning. >> reporter: good morning, stephanie. well, first let's touch on what is happening in moscow and the upper house of the russian parliament, the duma, did vote to accept crimea into the russian federation with the lower house having voted for that yesterday, all it takes now is vladimir putin's signature to

make that law, that is a law that probably will only be recognized in russia. over in brussels, a lot of meetings. the heads of all the 28 member states getting together with the ukrainian prime minister and signing a political agreement. the so called european association agreement. keep in mine stephanie that is actually the document that started all of this. when viktor yanukovich, the ousted president refused to sign it under pressure from moscow, that's when people took to the streets. so today they signed that agreement in brussels, not the economic side, the political side, that will draw ukraine closer into europe's influence, something russia will not take lightly, stephanie. >> president obama signed off on new sanctions against russia yesterday and russia answered with tit for tatt sanctions of its own and what impact has the sanctions the u.s. levied on

russia had if at all so far? >> reporter: well, not a lot. it's going to take some time for those sanctions to really bite into the russian economy and to effect those individuals that the sanctions had targeted. but we have seen some response in the immediate term when it comes to things like their ratings. now the international ratings group standards and poor did down grade russia from stable to negative. we did see a reaction in the russian market. it taking a dip, single-digit dip but nevertheless a dip. but the europeans say that they reserve the right, like the white house, to expand their sanctions program. so if russia doesn't step -- take a step back, the europeans are in lock step with the white house saying more could come down the line, stephanie. >> reporter: u.n. secretary

moon will be in kiev where you are and visited moscow yesterday and do we know what message he will deliver to ukraine's new government? >> reporter: well, first and foremost, stephanie, moon says he wants to open up the lines of dialog, the lines of communication between moscow and kiev. that is his primary mission he says because those two governments are not talking right now. moscow doesn't even recognize the new government in kiev. they call it an fascist-coup and they will have concerns expressed by vladimir putin and sergei fedorov yesterday and said he understood concerns and will bring you his message here to talk about the extremist elements within the government and concerns that russia has about the ethnic russia community in ukraine but he wants to get people talking and what he will try to do today in kiev. stephanie.

>> in the ukraine capitol and thank you and before ukraine there was georgia, russia invaded the southern neighbor back in 2008 over the region of south osechia with russia now controls, coming up, in the 8:00 hour we will speak with the former president of the republic of georgia who will share his experience of having his country invaded by russia at 8:00. two weeks since flight 370 vanished and no closer to finding the plane at this hour and the search has expands to a remote area in the southern indian ocean and u.s., australia and china are leading the effort and scouring miles of ocean for two objects spotted on satellite images. officials say containers often fall off of cargo ships in the area and may complicate the effort. meanwhile family members of the missing passengers and crew grow more anxious waiting for news and randall is in washington

with more on this story, randall, the search still coming up, empty despite the massive international effort, good morning. >> good morning, so many nations and military units trying to find the plane and as you indicate no success. five search planes involved in the second day's effort in the new search area about 1500 miles southwest of perth and some flying as low as 1,000 feet above the surface of the ocean looking for very small object in one of the most isolated areas of the planet. the international hunt for malaysia air flight 370 now in the 14th day resumed this morning after satellite images revealed possible debris from the missing plane floating on the surface of a deep area of the indian ocean 1500 miles off australia coast and it was spoke about one day after the

satellite image. >> most inaccessible spot you can imagine on the face of the earth, but if there is anything down there we will fine it. >> reporter: while the search zone focus has been significantly reduced, finding any of those objects, one measuring almost 80 feet, won't be easy. the satellite images taken days ago and meaning strong currents could have caused debris to drift hundreds of miles but search crews have been dropping bueys and thick clouds and fog over the ocean surface. >> the condition as you experienced on the flight are able to locate any wreckage or debris but other aircraft are continuing to search up to last night. >> reporter: with a flight time of four hours to reach the new search zone time is critical, giving crews only about a two-hour window before needing to head back to refuel. >> probably about 1500 nautical

miles and a large area to search. >> reporter: they caution about the potential discovery, it's the first glimmer of hope for families and loved ones for the 239 on board flight 370. >> three hours to the families and the friends and the loved ones of the almost 240 people on flight mh 370 to do everything we can to try to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary riddle. >> reporter: but with that hope may also come the realization of the worst or even another false lead in a case riddled with miscommunication. >> i'm prepared to find him and i'm prepared to find that he is not with us any more and i'm a little less prepared to not know. i think the risk of not knowing is what frightens me the most. >> reporter: and a footnote about those two objects, it has

been days since they were spotted by the satellite and it's possible, say officials, that they may have sunk. >> reporter: randall with the latest from washington and thank you and stay with al jazeera america, as the search for missing malaysia flight 370 continues. coming up, in the half hour a closer look at conditions facing crews searching for the plane and why the area is called the roaring 40s. 9 are dead after a shooting in the afghan capitol of kabul and gunmen opened up with fire and people were killed in the attack and all four shooters were also killed and the hotel is normally considered a save haven for u.s. staff and foreign delegations and comes a little over two weeks before afghanistan's presidential election. mr paralysis in thailand and they declared parliamentary elections held in february invalid and said they were unconstitutional

because they did not take place on the same day in the country and the prime minister called for the polls and massive protests in bangkok. and party was expected to win but opposition protesters disrupted the voting and at least 23 people have died in the antigovernment protests that began in november. turkey has blocked access to twitter. when users tried logging on the site they were redirected to a telecommunications regulator saying there is a court order to shut down access to twitter and the order is in response to complaints of citizens that the social networking sites was breaching privacy and the prime minister promised to shut down access to the site on thursday. >> translator: can you imagine the international conspiracies, twitter, we have a court order now, we will wipe out all of these. the community can say this, and that, i don't care at all, everyone will see how powerful the republic of turkey is.

>> reporter: the prime minister's fight intensified and he was instructed his son how to dispose large amounts of cash and he insists the recordings were fake. and riot police in venezuela clashed with protesters angered of the arrest of opposition leaders. [gunfire] hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the capitol of caracas and this is a day after to opposition mayors were arrested in a government crack down and 31 people have died in near daily protests aimed at nicholas maduro the president and over crime and shortages of basic goods. half of syria's chemical weapons removed and the latest stockpile was loaded up on vessels on thursday and the prohibition of chemical weapons said it shipped a total of 11 consignments so far and the government approved

the initiative last year after a chemical weapons attack outside of damascus left hundreds dead and they will destroy or remove the entire arsenal by the end of june. spring snowstorm leading to a cool down across the country and more on the national forecast let's bring in nicole mitchell and good morning. >> it's our first full day of spring and of course mother nature doesn't always go exactly by that timing clock as to what we get in the weather. so as we get to the broad picture out here today still pretty quiet across the country and the southern half is dry for the most part and could have changes with the next front coming through. as we head to the northern tier and yesterday we had disturbance in the northeast and a couple isolated areas of snow but northern new england got significant amounts and problems in the midwest and this is the next weather system moving in for us and bringing some areas of rain, snow and freezing precipitation this morning.

and this one could cause unlike the last one that didn't have a lot of cold air a big cool down for a large chunk of the country. as this continues to move across the area what we are watching for is areas highlighted in pink by the border and areas that could see 3-6" of snow and some places could go 6-12" so that is going to be a problem getting out this morning. then this is on the move. so through the great lakes later today, slight chances for moisture heading to tomorrow northeast tomorrow but it's the front and the cold air behind this that is really going to drop temperatures and in some cases 20 or 30 degrees over the next couple of days. so if you had the mild stuff and you enjoyed it, well, enjoy it while you can because ahead of this we still have a lot of 60s and 70s so if you are still in that take it. behind this we are seeing temperatures like today 31 degrees in billing and temperatures will fall through the day in minneapolis. closer look at the temperatures and what that means for the weekend of spring coming up, in a few minutes and back to you.

>> reporter: the punishment for a high ranking army general that some are calling a slap on the risk and brig dare sinclair will have to pay for the deal in the military sex assault case and rough seas and strong current and part of the indian ocean and roaring 40s and what crews are up against in finding flight 370. >> i think it's just an egg factor it really is. >> reporter: from toilet to tap and one california region is recycling flush water into drinking water. >> join us on consider this... >> president jimmy carter joins antonio mora >> my administartion has a very strong human rights element. >> his perspective on the conflicts facing the world in the state of america. on al jazeera america

♪ good morning and welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy, up next, questions about the punishment for a high ranking general accused of sexual assault and it may be spring but winter does not want to let go and nicole mitchell is back. >> not typical we could see snow in march but definitely the temperatures and we have been enjoying a little warm up and not too happy that is starting to rebound and cooler this morning and places like denver versus a couple days ago and 26

this morning and the thick jacket back on and through the day 46 on the backside of the front, very different from the 60s and 70s we saw a couple days ago and a lot of 60s and watch as cool air spreads and chicago around 60 degrees, tomorrow already at 39. and as we head up and down the east coast well a lot of 60s and 70s. this is going to be a real lovely saturday. a chance for some moisture northward but if you want the warm weather this is the day to go out on the east coast because it's already by sunday we start to see some of the cooler air sink in and 40s in the forecast and a little cooler getting into monday. so a lot of the country and half the weekend is looking okay and back to you. >> reporter: thank you, the dispute between the senate and cia is heading in a new stage, majority leader harry reid has an investigation of breach of computers used by staffers and his move is a week after committee chair diane feinstein

accused cia of searching the computers and saying they illegally copied cia files. jeffrey sinclair is the highest general to face accusations of sex assault and the case wrapped up yesterday with being punished for less charges and say the case proved the arms forces has a long way to go and erica joins us now and some are saying the sentence is lenient. >> they worry it could have a chilling effect on other victims of sexual abuse and the case started two years ago with sexual assault charges involving three junior officers and yesterday ended with a reprimand and a fine. as the highest ranking military officer ever court marshalled on sex charges and sinclair looked relieve as he left the ft. bragg fourth house yesterday and avoided jail time. >> the system worked and proud of my army and all i want to do

now is go up north and hug my kids and see my wife. >> reporter: the charges were dropped when he plead guilty to adultry and he has a fine paid in monthly installment and his salary is $12000 a month and repay $4,000 in government credit card expenses to pay for trips with mistress but keep rank and retirement benefits. >> i believe part of what the sentence reflects is general sinclair has been unfairly labeled as a sex offender for the past two years and suffered under labeling and false accusations and a terrible punishment he never deserved. >> reporter: congress was confronting what has been called an epidemic of sexual misconduct in the military and the senator of new york called the case a strong argument for her resent unsuccessful effort to strip

commanders of authority to prosecute cases and give power to military lawyers. in a statement she said this case has illustrated a military justice system in dire need of independence from the chain of command. it's not only the right thing to do for men and women in uniform but would also mitigate issues of undue command influence we have seen in many trials over the last year. >> no sense can this be seen as justice. >> reporter: speaking on america tonight retired admiral jamie barnett said the sinclair verdict is proof congress must have laws to create a culture changes in the military. >> they persistent a lot of people in the military and out and within the military think this was a consensual relationship but a commanding general and officer doing this it's sexual abuse from the beginning. >> reporter: barnett who is a lawyer for the female captain at the center of the case called the sentence a travesty and

thinking it will happen again and victims less likely to come forward. >> reporter: thank you for the report. gm-ceo heads to capitol hill for the recall and they will testify at a hearing on april 1st and gm is facing multiple investigation aimed at determining why it took so long to initiate a recall for a dangerous ignition problem that has been linked to at least a dozen deaths. earlier this week they apologized on how the company handled that recall and named a new head of global safety. wall street will build on yesterday's gain and futures are higher at this hour and dow starting the day at 16331, s&p 500 stands at 1872, nasdaq is 4319. overseas asian markets bouncing back on a high note and it was closed for a public holiday and europe markets in the plus column but russia stock market

took a hit today after the agencies and fitch and standard and pores are risk of down grade due to impact on sanctions on russia's economic. bitcoin discovery, bankrupt has found 200,000 bitcoins they previously thought were stolen and said it discovered the missing bitcoins in a virtual wallet that is no longer in use. the bitcoins are worth about $120 million. another 650,000 bitcoins are still unaccounted for. the search for missing flight 370 made difficult by rough seas as the search continues and families of passengers on board meet with malaysia officials but walk away frustrated. >> looking for opportunity up here. >> reporter: out of work veterans are flocking to north dakota, the booming oil industry is providing jobs but they come with some drawbacks. >> coal is just a filthy, dirty business and a filthy dirty energy source. >> reporter: and toxins pumped out of coal plants and into

nearby rivers and the effort to make one company cleanup its act. >> i'm john henry smith and in search of the perfect bracket, it was a day of upsets on day one of the big dance. ♪

♪ welcome back, i'm stephanie sy and these are our top stories at this hour, russia is raising its military flag on board three ukrainian navel ships in crimea, some of the sailors on other navy ships are locking themselves inside trying to hold on to control. meanwhile ukraine's prime minister is in brussels and signed an agreement for closer ties with the eu. turkey blocked access to twitter, when users tried logging on the site they were redirected from the telecommunications regular later

saying they are shutting down access to twitter and the order is in response from complaints from citizens that the social networking site was breaching privacy. search for the missing airlines plane expanded to the southern indian ocean, five planes now scouring a minnesota sized area on friday. officials describe it as one of the most isolated in the world. they are looking for two objects spotted on satellite images. 154 passengers on the missing plane are from china and some of the relatives are frustrated with the slow search effort and want answers. today malaysia officials briefed them in a beijing hotel and margaret was there. what do we know? >> well, so far it seems that the relatives are getting not much more information than they already were being given over the last two weeks. they are saying it's a lot more of nothing. basically this one concrete lead that officials are saying they have had with these australian

findings is still leading to not much more in terms of closure for these relatives and now they are being told that this lead could basically develop into nothing more than potentially a container from a ship that might have been passing that area. one thing malaysia officials said concretely to them is they are not ruling out the possibility of a hijacking here or act of terrorism. this led to more anger and frustration from relatives and have been told there is still no new information with regards to what might have happened to all the relatives that were on board that plane. >> reporter: all right, we are joined from beijing where relatives of the missing are extremely frustrated. as we mentioned, the search effort has been hampered by rough seas and strong currents and wanted to take a moment to look at the area and focus with this map. now, this box shows the search area that we are talking about. it's become the focus of attention and this box, this is where the objects were spotted

by satellite. this is approximately 1500 miles west of perth, australia and part of the ocean known as the roaring 40s and i will tell you why it's called that, looking at lines of latitude the search site is 40-50 degrees and much further south you have the so called screaming 60s known for high winds and rough seas and waves about 8 foot and reaching 20 at times and on top of the high winds you have fast-moving currents to move any possible debris around on the surface of the water and beneath as well. now we will show you the arc that shows the path which mh 370 might have taken after it was lost and the search is within the arc. the satellite images have been described as credible but no debris spotted by the eye and as we have been reporting a search is continuing with five aircraft including a u.s. navy posidon

involved and a pilot's perspective and we have an author and written extensively about pilot errors and investigations and joins us from louisville, kentucky this morning and thanks for being with us, based on what we know at this point is there any doubt in your mind this was anything but the result of deliberate action? >> there is still doubt in my mind. you really have to have a lot more evidence to be able to draw that conclusion. you know, in the ntsb starts looking for information to determine causes of mysteries and accidents like this, there is three buckets the information falls in to and the first is wreckage and you have to have pieces of the plane to get good, solid information. the second bucket is flight data and that is not only the track of the airplane, what the airplane did but maintenance information, anything related to the flight path of the airplane and the third bucket of information investigators would be looking for is eyewitness

information and that can be also maintenance information, anybody who saw something before the flight, you know, not just spotting the aircraft in flight or afterwards. >> reporter: and those buckets. >> we don't know. >> reporter: the information buckets, all three of them that you list are basically empty right now, all we know is that there were these satellite handshakes and pings coming in that suggests at least the engines were running for several hours after the last civilian contact was made. even if there were no malicious motives at play, do you believe this may have been the result of pilot error at this point? >> the most interesting piece of information for me right now and for the other pilots i have a lot of friends who are commercial pilots is that left turn, that mysterious left turn is compelling and the most interest piece of flight data that is available. so what the left turn indicates is a couple different

possibilities and there are three, they made the turn either deliberately or perhaps under duress or a third-party made the left turn and not part of the original flight plan, the third-party would have to be very familiar with a 777 and flight operations, the flight director system. and the third possibility which is pretty farfetched but anything can happen is that this was accidental, it was perhaps programmed in at the ground by flight operations that something accidental happened. >> reporter: you are saying it's possible, i'm not sure i understand what you're saying, in the last scenario you say there was some sort of auto pilot that had been preprogrammed that might have taken the plane on a different route? >> as i say this is pretty farfetched but anything is possible, what happens is flight operations programs in the course on the ground before the plane takes off and the information is programmed in the cockpit and theoretically the

pilots would follow along and over see that and make changes as required and it's possible that some accident happened along the way that was programmed in incorrectly. it's very unlikely that happened but still within the realm of possibility. >> reporter: let's go back to talking about these satellite images that the australian government released yesterday and taken on march 16th. if they do show pieces of the plane and we don't know that at this point, what would the debris be able to tell investigators about what happened on board this flight? >> that's a really critical piece of information that is one of the most important buckets that there are and looking for flight information and flight accident information. even if there are small pieces investigators can get a wealth of information from those pieces. for example you can look at a small piece and see sometimes if there was an explosion, you can see perhaps if there was a fire and equally important you can see if there was not an explosion or a fire.

if you have a small piece from a particular control surface you can sometimes tell did that control surface come apart or not come apart. you can also know if there was stress or metal fatigue, just depending what the part is. it's amazing what they can do with small pieces of wreckage. >> reporter: i want your perspective on this because you are a pilot, a lot of the focus of the investigation in malaysia is on the pilot of the aircraft and the fact he had a home simulator and being inl vest gaited by the f.b.i. and is it suspicious to you, a, they had a flight simulator and, b, the pilot apparently deleted files which has become the focus of a criminal investigation? >> for a while for me that was the second most compelling piece of information about the investigation, the fact he would have a flight simulator is not in at all surprising. pilots love to fly. we all have flight simulators at

home. we use them to fly routes we want to do or routes we are planning to do. what would be interesting are what routes are on the simulator and deletion of the files is a little interesting not just that they were deleted because you can't store every file but the fact that it sounds like perhaps they may have been deleted more aggressively than just hitting the delete button. i heard an f.b.i. report they were deleted a couple of different times. so that piece is kind of interesting. and as i say this is one of many possibilities and investigators are looking for the files to help rule it out. >> reporter: author and pilot thanks so much for joining us from louisville this morning for your perspective. north dakota oil boom is creating jobs for veterans looking for work but the opportunities also come withdraw backs and diane has part two of our series the new frontier. >> with a quick once over on his truck, randy sets off with a

cement delivery. the 53-year-old came to north dakota oil country a few years ago to find a job when work back home in florida dried up. reeves landed a position with strata corporation within a day, crediting his experience as an airforce veteran. >> there is a prompt on the application of being a veteran and i think that they look out for their veterans. >> reporter: they are not alone, oil service companies recruit workers for thousands of jobs in north dakota's oil field, sometimes giving preferential treatment to veterans citing their skills, discipline and adaptability. this recent job fare opened an hour early to veterans for a leg up on other candidates. >> i am looking for opportunities up here. >> reporter: 41-year-old airforce veteran jason went from one booth. >> i want to talk to you. >> reporter: to another looking at a variety of jobs. >> i'm getting in the field and do what i need to do, i'm not

worried about, i'm not worried about anything. >> i can take your resume if you like. >> reporter: some companies like continental resources used veterans on staff to recruit other vets, rob bryant says working in airforce security helped him as an oil site foreman. >> in the military they put you at an early age responsible for resources that go in the millions of dollars. they kind of break down responsibility and make sure you are to work everyday on time and hold you accountable if you are not. >> reporter: and many of the employers here say they are eager to hire veterans, for veterans there are some challenges to coming to north dakota like a lack of housing and services. housing is so tight in towns like williston and a one-bedroom is over $2000 a month if you can find one. local medical facilities the nearest va hospital is 400 miles away in fargo. reeves says he adapted to some

of the harsh realities of life in the state's oil patch which include long work hours and sometimes frigid temperatures but he admits there is one thing he hasn't quite adopted to, being 2000 miles from his wife. >> the physical part of it, having somebody sit on the couch to hold hands with is a little rough. >> reporter: not the military could prepare him for that. diane with al jazeera north dakota. >> reporter: we will look at how schools are handling the schools coming to north dakota tomorrow. march madness is here and started with a bang jed and john henry smith is here with more in sports, good morning. >> ncaa tournament and we love let me count the ways, four overtime games and a buzzer beater sending single seeds home crying, it was a memorial opening day of ncaa tournament and 12 seeded nd needed a 3

point for 15 in oklahoma and they delivered. and coach phillips needed more from his star in the ot and alexander came through with six of the 12 points and north dakota state beats oklahoma 80-75 for the first ever big dance win. >> actually the play was drawn up for taylor, supposed to be a quick iso but coming out of the huddle i said if you don't have anything i will be on the right wing, i can't talk. >> everything else was right. >> and gave me the bounce pass and i took the shot. >> what did you say when it was in the air? >> bucket. [laughter] i love that, another confident was harvard a popular upset coming in the match up with fifth seed cincinnati and they left anyone who did not take them red faced and five straight points with the game on the line and picked the pocket of shaun kilpatrick for good measure and harvard one the first game last year now two after going home

saad al husseiny 61-57. >> if you play this time of the year you are probably a good basketball team and lucky and fortunate to advance in this great tournament and we were good and we also were somewhat fortunate and lucky as well. >> reporter: 7th seed texas going for the win against 10 seed arizona home and he put it back, yes, go crazy texas and win 87-85 and making the devil's go home. let's take a romney p through the brakts and florida survived 16 seed albany and pitt had no trouble chipping the buffalos and florida and pitt meet this weekend and dayton had an upstate and beating ohio state and take on third seed syracuse and tonight's games are virginia common wealth versus steven f austin, ucla versus tall is an and stanford versus new mexico and kentucky. the reward for winning round one

is against michigan state in round two and surviving in ot against st. jones with villa nova and virginia takes on coastal carolina and tuned in the triangle as unc takes on providence and nc central takes on iowa state and memphis and georgia washington and north dakota has a date with san diego state, oregon and wisconsin were winners thursday and hook up this weekend too. the games have top seed arizona in action against weeker state and gonzaga against oklahoma state and should be a good one in the 8-9 match up and 6th seed bailer takes on nebraska and star doug mcdurmott and midwest and defending louisville held off manhattan and st. louis erased a 16 point deficit to survive nc state and louisville st. louis in the next round and

texas next faces michigan after the wolverines dispatched them and among the games top seeded wichita takes on 19 loss calpali and kentucky and kansas state in 8-9 game and um ashga takes on tennessee and duke and mercer and that is a look at sports and we will have more on wichita state coming up. >> thanks a lot. cracking down on the largest electric company and north carolina regulators issued violation to duke energy for dumping 61 million gallons of waste into public waterways and in line with the permit but the state says this went far beyond what duke needed and cited 8 times in the past few weeks and robert ray has our report. >> reporter: on the river he works to keep the waters healthy and nonprofit river keeper eyes the environment in a place where

toxic coal ash sits up stream. >> coal ash on rivers everywhere and it's contaminating and toxic material. >> reporter: on february second a toxic coal ash spill from duke energy plant in north carolina highlighted a complex problem, how to cleanup tons of coal ash, a dirty byproduct of coal power production and coal is the nation's dominant energy source and coal ash is in a slush, regulatory landscape. >> carcinogens and you know the list and a quarter of the periodic table are all extremely toxic to humans and so the cumulative effect in the environment is i think under studied. >> reporter: the environmental protection agency has no single federal standard requiring that

ponds be lined and no common standard for pit or pond structures in monitoring. >> if you go back and look at the history of disposal for a long time, the cheapest way frankly to dispose of the material was to put it in the ash ponds. >> reporter: up this hill is duke energy's station. there are combined three coal ash ponds that makeup some of the largest in the state of north carolina. the water you see coming down is discharged from those coal ash ponds and duke energy has a permit. this is actually legal even though through are toxic substances like arsenic flowing into the water system here. that permit states that there is no discharge limit for arsenic, selenium and mercury and three pollutants and most toxic to wildlife and humans, in response to al jazeera duke energy told us with very few historic exceptions we meet all the permit requirements that are designed conservatively to

ensure the lake or river is well protected. >> what we are talking about is people unknowingly drinking contaminated well water over long periods of time. >> reporter: duke energy pledged to fully cleanup 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 and state regulators duke pledged to convert its active coal plants to dry ash which can be recycled and minimize the potential risk of a discharge similar to dan river by accelerating the removal of water from ash ponds and all retired coal plants and duces mates the work could take 2-3 years. state regulators say it's an inadequate response and expected duke to provide more potential actions and expectation is duke would include more detailed information about processes that would inform their timelines and cost estimates to execute those

plans. >> coal is just a filthy, dirty business and it's a filthy dirty energy source we just need to move past. >> reporter: as coal ash ponds age environmental groups worry time could be running out. they are testing seeping groundwater on nearby property. hoping that when they do find contamination energy companies like duke will be forced to cleanup what decades of coal powered production has left behind, robert ray with al jazeera spencer, north carolina. >> reporter: a ford motor plant regularly dumped toxic chemicals in the woods of new jersey in the 60s and 70s and people living there say the pollution has given them cancer and most don't make it past 60. >> 7 funerals in 7-day time period and it really got to the point where i couldn't do the whole five that week. >> reporter: ford says it is cooperating with the epa but the

cleanup is still ongoing and coming up, at 8:00 eastern we have the story of the tribe and the battles it has with the auto makers. questions about security at the world trade center in new york city, a teenage boy was able to climb all the way to the top of the new skyscraper and stay there for two hours. >> how does the wine taste, girls? >> good. >> reporter: from toilets to tap how one part of california is turning that water into drinking water and a live look at new york city, this is a shot from the bureau of queens and this is the united nations building on manhattan east side and al jazeera continues in just two minutes.

come through. absolutely brutal. >> toughest place to be a firefighter. sunday at 9 eastern, on al jazeera america.

>> 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. just ahead drinking water this california that may be hard for some people to swallow but the

forecast across the country and nicole mitchell is back. >> as we look out we are in the first full day of spring and we have what is more winter weather for northern parts of the midwest and this is going through especially minnesota right now and moving out of north dakota and has been bringing some areas of snow along with it and you can especially expect a core on the northern that is 3-6" and through the course of the day moving through the northern areas of the great lakes so that means places like grant forks not only light snow but with the wind the temperatures feel like the teens and blowing snow and making it treacherous and more on that and back to you. >> reporter: police investigating how a 16-year-old boy sneaked past security and climbed up to the top of the one world trade center, early sunday morning he passed a guard unnoticed and the guard has since been fired and made his way up to the antenna and took pictures before being caught by police and charged with

trespassing. the drought is forcing the state to conserve water or recycle it even if it's yucky and turning to toilet water to drinking water. what if this water could be turned into this water? as california struggles through what the governor has called perhaps the worst drought the state has ever seen recycling waste water has taken on a new sense of urgency, yet every single day southern california are flushing literally hundreds of millions of gallons of water out to sea. in orange county california some 35 miles south of los angeles the water district decided back in 2008 that no water even waste water should be, well, wasted. >> through the application of science and technology we manufacture drinking water. >> reporter: today water for 2.4 million orange county residents comes from purified waste water and we are not talking about gray water from

showering or laundry, this is also black water, straight from the toilet. put the yuk factor aside and a district president shaun dwayne says this is the future. >> every drop we create frees up a drop of water elsewhere in the state to irrigate crops and grow the food that united states depends on. >> reporter: before going from the toilet to the tap, the water takes a long journey that starts here. at the county's waste water recycling facility. they fill it with soapy waste water and the water travels through a four-step micro filtration process and 2 1/2 hours later you have pure h 20 and safe to drink. everyday 300 tons of purified water is produced in orange county by recycling waste water. that's equal to filling 4500

swimming pools all at a cost that is 30% less than importing water from the colorado river and northern california. >> the idea we can just use it once and flush it out or let it drain to the ocean, we can no longer afford that luxury of one-time water use. >> reporter: long-time orange county residents and their two daughters usually drink bottled water but on this night they were willing to put their toilets to tap water to the test. how does the water taste, girls? >> good. >> it's an ick factor and i look at it coming out and i'm wondering where is that really coming from. >> reporter: psychologically there are hurdles to overcome but it's california's drought, if it persists perhaps the lack of water will be more offensive than turning toilet water into drinking water. jennifer london, al jazeera,

orange county, california. >> reporter: dell joins us with a look at what we are following for the next hour but i don't know about you i would drink it. >> not touching that with a ten foot pole. the end of the first hour and here is what we are following, crews from countries including the u.s. are going through the south indian ocean and searching for malaysia flight 370 but extremely difficult these days because of the rough seas and currents. ukraine leaders meeting with eu in brussels and the eu and president obama expanding the sanctions against russia storm annexiation of crimea and they blocked twitter calling it a security breach. next hour the people of venice heading to the polls for an unofficial vote to succeed and they want it to become its own country and the morning news continues and stephanie and i are back in 2 1/2 minutes. we will see you then. ♪

>>izing h.i.v. infections in young americans. >> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. >> russia making an aggressive move in efforts to take over crimea, troops seizing three ukrainian naval vessels, changing the flags to russian colors. >> this as president obama warns russia not to go further into ukraine. >> ukraine's prime minister in brussels signing for closer ties with the european union. >> jennifer glass is in

sevastopol where the navy ships were seized. you ever been following the takeover of that vessel. what more do we know at this point? >> we know that the pro russian forces and russian navy have been taking over systematically most of the available ships around the whole crimea peninsula. the ukrainian gun ship, they raised the russian flag, the russian navy taking over that ship and it has been moved to a different port. it used to sit next to a ukrainian command ship, that ship still flying the ukrainian flag. the music, it's a friday here and it's very kind of public area here, waterfront area, so very popular, that's why the music behind me. we expect a big holiday weekend as the pro russians continue to

celebrate the annexation to russia. it became official just a while ago. they take control of everything at the military air base. ukrainian forces are preparing to leave, russian forces had them blockaded for several weeks. about an hour and a half north of here, a couple of ukrainian naval ships are asking for direction from kiev as to what to do with the ships and their families and how they're all going to get out. that's the big question. about 25,000 ethnic ukraineens, military personnel and their families estimated by ukrainian authorities will need to be evacuated from crimea. >> what does it appear russia's next move might be? all of these events and takeover of the military in crimea seems very rapid. >> it's been a very, very busy week here on sunday. this is ukraine on monday,

independent crimea and now finally, officially, russia today as the upper house of the duma signs that decree and makes it all legal, signed, sealed and delivered. the russian military is con cool dating across the crimean peninsula, taking over ukrainian bases and to add insult to injury, russian prime minute at her i should on his facebook page a statement saying that now that sevastopol is part of russia again, they're going to try to get back the $11 billion theyified ukraine to rental the base here. that's going to be an interesting court case if it ever comes to that. >> jennifer glass live in crimea. stay with aljazeera america for all the latest developments. an agreement between the european and ukraine was just signed in brussels. we will have the former

president of georgia joining us live to talk about his experiences dealing with russia and president vladimir putin. >> there is more political paralysis in thailand, the countries constitutional court declaring elections held in february invalid, saying they didn't take day on the same day across the country. the prime minister called for the poles to open and because anti-government protests were filling the streets, they disrupted voting. 23 people there havified in anti-government protests that began in november. >> two weeks after malaysia airline flight 370 disappeared, search teams still clueless as to where it is. five planes are scouring the indian ocean looking for two objects spotted in satellite images. officials say containers often fall off ships, which could complicate the search. the search still coming up empty

despite a massive international effort. >> yes, so far no success, they are still trying to find those two objects spotted by the satellite. one of them 80 feet long, today no sighting of those objects or anything else significant. the search has ended because it is now 9/11 in australia. >> satellite images revealed images of debris on the deep area of the indian ocean, 141500 miles off the australian coast. >> if there is anything down there, we will find it. >> while the search zone's focus

has been significantly reduced, finding any of those objects won't be easy. the satellite images were taken days ago, meaning strong currents could have caused debris to drift. they hope to track ocean current for however any of those objects could be. another challenge, the weather, wimp hampered search efforts thursday. thick clouds and fog laying right over the ocean's surface. >> unfortunately, the weather conditions, unable to locate any wreckage or debris, but other aircraft are continuing the search up until last light. >> with a flight time of four hours to reach the new deserve zone, time is critical, giving crews only a two hour window before need to go refuel. >> very remote and a very large

expansive area that we need to search. >> while investigators have urged caution about the potential discovery, it's the first glimmer of hope for the families and loved ones onboard flight 370. >> we owe it to the families, friends and loved once of the 240 people on the flight to do everything we can to try to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary rid jewel with hope may come the realization of the worst or even another false lead in a case riddled with miscommunication. >> i'm prepared to find him, and i'm prepared to find that he's not with us anymore, and i'm a little less prepared to not know. i think the risk of not knowing is what frightens me the most. >> six helicopters, 19 military ships, one commercial vessel are involved in the search off the coast of australia and planes

from china japan are on all the way to join the search. >> we have much more on the search for the plane coming up. our transportation contributor todd curtis will explain which parents of the plane are most important for investigators to fine to determine what happened to the missing flight. >> nine people dead after a shooting in afghanistan, four gunman opening fire in a hotel restaurant. officials say all four shooters were killed. the luxury hotel normally a safe haven for u.n. staff and foreign delegations, at a attack coming two weeks before afghan's presidential elections begin. >> a military has given general jeffery sinclair a fine and avoids jail time after admitting to inappropriate relationships

with women in a plea deal. he could have faced 20 years in jail and dismissal from service. >> he did not reduce his rank and allowed him to remain in the army. >> the system worked. all i want to do now is go up north, hug my kids and see my wife. thank you very much for treating me with dignity and respect. i appreciate it. thank you. >> the general is asking to retire. the army's disciplinary board can still reduce his rank and pension. >> that dispute between the senate and c.i.a. is heating up, senate majority leader harry reid ordering an investigation into the breach of computers by intelligence staffers. after dianne feinstein accused the c.i.a. of hacking its computers. >> we may soon know more about the scope of government surveillance programs, officials from the n.s.a. say there is a

proposal to release transparency reports. deputy director said the people need to be reassured about its work but said when edward snowden released those top secret documents, it did put people's lives at risk. >> searching for debris spotted by satellite in a vast ocean. >> if they find those objects, will they tell us what happened to the plane? we are look at key parts of the investigation and what they hope to find to solve this mystery. >> venice votes on separating from italy. some there want to become an independent state. >> our big number of the day, $80 million. >> why someone may hold claim to that sum after only six weeks on the job.

>> welcome back to aljazeera. >> we're going to break down the deal between ukraine and european union. >> first, temperatures across the nation today. nicole mitchell is here.

>> some places are getting nice mild air over the next couple days. we have a system starting to change things. this morning not too uncomfortable, denver 29, not unseasonable, a little below average but not what we were having a couple of days ago when it was much milder. midsection of the country versus yesterday, we've had a little bit of a warm up and then this colder air is going to start to come in. that's kind of the pattern in general. as the front goes in, now we'll start to see the colder air ahead of that. a nice warm up with winds out of the south. not only is this drawing in the colder air from canada, but it's picking up the winds, wind chills in the teens as that front moves through. you can see the delineation today, 73, 60 for memphis and chicago respectively versus temperatures like 41 for minneapolis, 31 for billings where we were mild a couple of days ago before that front went through and more cold air

spreading eastward into saturday and to the east coast for sunday. >> phil ittner is in kiev, let's begin with what is happening today in moscow and brussels? >> out in moscow, the news of the day is that the upper house of the russian parliament, the duma did vote to make crimea part of the russian federation, so with the lower house having done that yesterday and the upper house having done it today, all it takes is vladimir putin's signature on a piece of paper and crimea will be russian under russian law, but probably the only law that's going to recognize it at least for now. in brussels, there are meetings of the leadership of the european union along with ukraine's acting president

yatsenyuk. they have already signed the association agreement. that will draw ukraine closer to the political sphere of europe. it is actually the document that started this entire crisis. when ousted president viktor yanukovych didn't sign it, that's when people took to the streets in the square behind me. this agreement being signed today is going to clearly be something russia is going to take umbrage with. >> we'll have more analysis on the agreement coming up. russia answered with sanctions of its own after president obama imposed sanctions on russia. what impact have the sanctions had on russia so far? >> it's going to take and get built of time for those sanctions to realliability, but already we have seen some things in the immediate term. the rating system, standard and poor has downgraded russia's credit rating from normal to

risky. we have seen an effect on the russian market, but again, it's going to take some time for those sanctions to really hilt both the banking sector and individuals that have been targeted. now the european union is also announcing an expanded role of their sanctions, looking at more people, they say. like the white house, they say that they do have options to take this even further if russia shows more aggressive tendencies, but for now, the european president is saying that they are going to keep their powder dry. >> each incident, each new action, we will assist on itself. we will not put all our cards on the table. that's up to us to decide when we trigger all this, but the preparations are on going and

now with a very, very clear mandate. >> potential things that could spark more sanctions programs, apparently in lock step with the united states and white house, the europeans say if the ukrainians try to take -- i'm sorry, if the russians try to take more ukrainian territory in the east of the country or they start demanding more money from the kiev government for past bills or cut off the natural gas flow, they, then will implement those stronger sanction measures. >> u.n. general ban ki-moon will be in kiev today after visiting moscow thursday. do we know the message he's going to deliver to ukraine's new government? >> first and foremost, stephanie, what ban ki-moon will be bringing here to kiev is a request by the united nations to try and open up a line of dialogue between moscow and

kiev, the problem being that the kremlin doesn't even recognize this government. that is a huge problem, because they're not even starting to talk. they're not even recognizing each other and there are no lines of communication and in this crisis, in order to deescalate, the international community has repeatedly said and ban ki-moon himself has said they need to start talking. that's what he's going to be talking with the residing government here in kiev today. >> phil, thank you. >> 154 passengers on that missing malaysia airlines flight 370 are from china. this has been a long wait. they are briefed today in beijing. >> so far, its seems the relatives are getting not much more information than they already were being given over the last two weeks, saying it's a lot more of nothing. basically, this one concrete lead that officials are saying they've had with these

australian findings is still lead to go not much more in terms of closure for relatives. they are being told that this lead could basically develop into inning more than oh container from a ship that might have been passing that area. one thin malaysian officials have said is that they are not ruling out the possibility of a highjacking here or an act of terrorism. this has just led to more anger and frustration from the relatives. they've basically been told that there is still no new information with rewards to what move happened to all the relatives onboard that plane. >> reporting from beijing, china. todd curtis is aljazeera's transportation contributor. he joins us this morning from massachusetts. good morning, todd, we have been seeing satellite images for several days. what does the size of these objects and their location tell us about them, and are they likely to be parts of the plane? >> well, the size of the objects and there are two main objects,

one about 15 feet long and one about 80 feet long, they could conceivably be from the aircraft. unfortunately, they could conceivably be from a standard sides shipping container, which is why it's vitally important to have a better image than the distant satellite photos. the most important part about the location of those objects was it was in a plausible area for the aircraft. as described by the ntsb, they had actually computed two possible paths into the southern indian ocean and given the currents in the last week and a half or so, where these objects were spotted on the satellite were reasonable, given the likely area of the aircraft and the ocean flows in the last few days. >> were these two objects sighted consistent with other

debris fields where in the past we have seen several objects related to what would be considered to be a debris field. >> first of all, the satellite, even the satellites that may not have been released satellite photos that may not have been released to the public for military satellites, although good, they can pick up large objects, but can't pick up a debris field of small objects, which is why you need to get in closer. as far as debris fields are concerned, the best comparison would be the 2009 crash of air fans 447. that was an aircraft similar sized to this aircraft. some of the viewers may recall, there is this iconic picture of the tail section floating in the water, very large, roughly the same order of magnitude as the two objects that were seen in the southern indian ocean, and like the objects that were described by the australians, that tail section from the air

france flight was awash, that is it was partially submerged. it seems the kind of photographs they saw the other day in the indian ocean is consistent with the kind of thing that was seen five years ago, so it's -- yes? >> the black box and flight data recorder, is there a time particular on them and is there now a clock ticking on the search effort that they have to find the plane quickly or that stops sending out signals? >> well, one clock is how long will the pinger, which is attached to the black boxes will keep transmitting. right now, if it is at the bottom of the ocean, they'll have about another two to three weeks of having that signal. that signal helps them find it, but they have to have a very, very good idea of where to search first, because it has a very limited range. the other clock to think of is how long could the black boxes stay underwater and still retain

their date the. from the most recent crash comparable, the air france flight, they were on the floor for two years and pulled up and they extracted a full set of data. unless the boxes have had catastrophic damage, they could search for months and years and still pull off good data. >> todd curtis, thanks very much. >> in business news, russia's stock market taking a hit after standard and poor cut credit outlook on the country and said russia is at risk of a credit downgrade do to the impact of anxiouses on their economy. vladimir putin tells real money's ali velshi u.s. sanctions won't work against russia. >> they could attack gas, could attack oil, they could attack different sectors of our russian industry.

it will not produce any desired effect. please remember, russia was a part of the soviet union and for decades, it was isolated economic system and it was able to survive. >> wall street seems to be brushing off the developments between the west and russia, dow futures up 30 points, starting at 16331, the s&p at 1872, the nasdaq at 4319. overseas, asian markets ending on a high note. european markets also higher. >> the c.e.o. of general motors head to go capitol hill next month to testify about that company's recall. marry barra will testify april 1, facing multiple investigations why it took so long to issue a recall for that dangerous ignition problem now linked to 12 deaths. barra apologized on how the company handled that recall and named a new head of global

safety. >> who says you have to work long and hard to become wealthy? today's big number, $80 billion, that's how much time warner cable's c.e.o. robert marcus could pocket for just six weeks on the job. how much money i should say. >> he is selling time warner cable to comcast for $45 billion in february, 44 days after taking over that company. if that deal is approved, the severance package comes out to a million dollars for each day that he was in charge. nice work, if you can get it. >> that's why he's smiling in these pictures. marcus would get $56.5 million in stock, $20.5 million in cash and a bonus of $2.5 million if time warner cable meets performance targets by the time the deal is finalized. >> where do you go to school for jobs like that? >> i don't know, i wish i had gone. >> ukraine searching for international support in the face of russian aggression. >> it has just signed an

agreement, how it's different from the one that started the uprising. >> increasing school funding, what it means for schools and taxpayers across that state. >> residents of this region are voting in a referendum to break free from ili and become an independent state. >> from cinderella to front runner, we'll look closer at the only perfect team coming into the big 10.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. in this half hour, explaining that agreement to ukraine signed with the european union. >> the american community where h.i.v. rates are climbing and why health officials believe that's happening. >> we're going to talk to the

former president of georgia who shares his unique view on the crimean situation and why he believes vladimir putin has a bigger agenda. wait until you hear what he says about all the negative press and how vladimir putin responds. >> first let's get a look at our top stories this morning, the search for the malaysia airlines flight 370 plane has expanded to the southern indian ocean, scouring an area from the mainland, the area one of the most isolated understand world. >> thailand's elections have been ruled invalid, a court saying the polls were unconstitutional because they didn't take place on the same day. the prime minister called for them to open despite widespread protestors in bangkok. >> russia is in control of ukrainian navy ships and bases in the port of sevastopol.

crimea, russian sailors put up their flags on the day that russian lawmakers approved the annexation of crimea. u.n. secretary ban ki-moon is in meetings today with ukrainian government. >> foreign minister nats yuck is in meetings in brussels. is the e.u. now speeding up efforts to bring ukraine under its umbrella? >> that depends on which time frame we apply to that question. if you think about it from the perspective that this deal was supposed to be signed back in november, then this is actually a four month delay in that and how much has changed in the course of those four months. i think what the e.u. is trying to do, as well as punish russia

for its involvement in ukraine and the annexation of crimea is support ukraine as much as possible, so this association agreement is basically going to be pulling down trade barriers between the european block and ukraine and they're also going to be supporting ukraine as much as they can with loans, macro financial assistance, as they call it. on a long term level, they're also going to think about how they can reduce the european union's reliance on russian energy, which of course is a big weak point here. >> coupled with the american sanctions that the white house announced yesterday, is putin feeling the pressure or not? >> that's a difficult one to assess, because as with most things rewarding the kremlin, you generally are kind of looking at signs and trying to interpret things rather than

getting a full frontal declaration of what the kremlin is feeling or thinking about certain things. it would seem that this has been a bit of a wake up call for the kremlin, a bit of a wake up call for putin's inner circle. i don't think they were quite expecting the u.s.a. to go after that core of putin advises, so what the kremlin has done so far is say they'll wait to see whether those sanctions happen or not. >> joining us to discuss the european union deal, joining us from brussels where developments are happening, sir, thank you for being with us. what is the difference between

the association agreement today and the one that president yanukovych rejected last foul which started the upricings in kiev? >> essentially, what has been signed today is the chapter on political provisions within the more comprehensive association agreement. it's only a part of what yanukovych was about to sign in november. >> that economic piece, how important is that at this point, given that ukraine's economy is still in turmoil? >> >> it is the economic piece to determine new relations between the european union and ukraine. the part that was signed today is highly symbolic in value, contains pro advices on political dialogue. it underlines the political independence and territorial

integrity of ukraine, the adherence to international treaties, which russia has trampled upon in the part couple of weeks so dramatically. the real chunk will be the deep and comprehensive free trade agreement or arrangement, wimp is within the overall association agreement, and that will increase trade benefits over time. >> and that comprehensive deal, back in november, which yanukovych decided not to sign, what are the criticisms, the original association agreement put too many conditions on yanukovych to reform the economy. would you expect the next deal to be any different between the e.u. and ukraine? >> no, i don't think it will be any different at all. what has been happening recently

is a lot of spin being put on the side of brussels, in fact, on the association agreement and the offer which was made to yanukovych in the first place, stressing the fact that the association agreement with the deep and comprehensive free trade arrangements would have allowed and still allow ukraine to engage in advanced free trade arrangement with other countries, like russia. what the e.u. has stressed is on the contrary, the offer by russia for ukraine to join its customs union for future you're reaction economic union would have applied the fixing of external tariff barriers which would be in compatible with any other free trade arrangement that ukraine would have wanted to sign, including with the european union. the stress has been from the side of the european union of the signature on the entire agreement and e.u. leaders have

been said to send that message to yanukovych, it's the entire deal or nothing. >> steven blackman, senior research fellow and head of the e.u. foreign policy unit at the center for european policy studies, thanks, sir. >> stay with aljazeera for in-depth coverage of the ukraine cries. we'll be joined by the former president of georgia, sharing his insight into the crimea referendum after his dealings with russia when it annexed to break away georgeen provinces. >> venice holding a referendum to break away from italy. organizers hope this is the first step to independence. >> a truman of venice, his an as he is stores have lived here for

more than 500 years. he flies the flag of the former republic of venice rather than the italian colors. >> our city used to be the capitol of an empire and now it's underdeveloped because our wealth is in the hands of the state and distributed unequally. >> he's one of hundreds of thousands of residents of venice and the surrounding region who voted in an unofficial referendum to break away from italy and go back to being an independent state. >> venice was the heart of a powerful republic that lost in a thousand years. since it became part of italy, resentment towards rome has grown steadily. >> tourism and a strong industrial base have made it one of the wealthiest areas in italy. voters are tired are seeing their taxpayer money washed

away. >> we are victims of an open air robbery. every year, we pay high taxes, stolen by the italian states because they don't come back in any shape or form. >> not everyone in venice wants to break free from italy. >> it's senseless. we live in the european union. why would we want independence? >> my family is asking me to vote for independence but i'm not sure it's the right thing to do. >> the privately funded vote is not politically binding or recognized by the palian government, but organizers will appeal for the right of self determination and to keep the lion's share of their wealth. aljazeera, venice. >> the final results of the vote will be announced after the polls close friday evening. 3.8 million residents of the region are eligible to vote on line or at polling stations.

300,000 people live in the capitol. islands are all separate the by canals and linked by bridges. >> turkey blocked access to twitter. users were redirected to a statement from the telecommunications regulator, shutting down twitter. turkey said it is in response to complaints from citizens that the site was breaching privacy. the prime minister promised to shut down access to the site on thursday. >> can you imagine there are international conspiracies? we have a court order now. we will wipe out all of these. the international community can say this, can say that, i don't care at all. everyone will see how powerful the republic of turkey is. >> the fight with twitter intensified after audiotapes were leaked that the prime minister could be heard instructing his son on how to dispose of large amounts of

cash. he insists those recordings are fake. >> fighting for funding equality in kansas, successfully suing the state claiming the government was cutting too much from the school system. we report on the damage done and if the funding is there to fix. >> i mean, this is the only assignment. >> with four kids in the public schools, this mother is frustrated with the repeated cuts to education. >> educators have been cut, nurses have been cut, some of the classes have 27 kids in there. >> the tug of war over school funding in kansas have come to a head as the state supreme court ordered the republican controlled legislature to spend more on schools. four kansas school districts and 30 parents sued the state in 2010, claiming schools were underfunded. in 2009 during the recession, the state cut millions from education. kansas now spends $900 less per

student. at fulton elementary, 90% of the children receive free or reduced lunch, even with increasing enrollment, there's no money to hire more teachers. >> overcrowding is an issue at this school, students taking music up on stage while cafeteria workers get ready for lunch. the noise is from a p.e. class going on. >> we tightened our budgets. >> the principal said the state cuts lead a disparities between wealthy and disadvantaged districts like hers. >> it's easier in a more of a fluent community to increase taxes and rural areas, you may not have that tack base to draw from. >> the kansas supreme court agreed and ordered the state to repay districts for funding cuts by july 1. by april, nearly $130 million. that isn't a total victory, because the supreme court left it up to a lower court to decide how much overall spending per schools is adequate. >> that puts us right back in

this court and appeals and lengthy process. >> the issue is contentious because while lawmakers have not increased education funding led by republican governor sam brown back, they did in 2012 pass the largest income tax cuts in the state's history. some lawmakers are quick to defend the state's current education spending, factoring in state, local and federal health. >> we do spend a significant amount of money, add all three sources together, 12,000 plus dollars, almost 13,000 per student. >> with the high court's order, she hopes to see changes in her children's school soon. the big issue of overall school spending is still unresolved. >> republicans in the kansas house unveiled a plan thursday to fund the state's poorer school districts, but it would

tie that money to school choice initiatives. >> a lot of communities having that same debate. >> spring may officially be here, but high winds and snow are moving across the mid yeast let's check in now for your national forecast. >> we know mother nature doesn't necessarily keep to a calendar and sometimes see snow into march or april. if you take a broad look, you can see what we're looking at this morning in northern portions of the midwest. not everyone is going to be impacted by this, but you are getting snow in place like grand forks, blowing snow because the winds have been picking up, reducing visibility. over the course of the day, continues to move along the northern tears of minnesota and wisconsin and through the great lakes. that's not the only element we're concerned about. some areas getting the snow could see three to six inches in general, a corridor that could

go six inches, possibly up to a foot, but most that have, not a lot of moisture with this system. you can see that as it treks towards the east coast, chances for northern new england to get the snow into saturday, possible parts early in the day of the east coast to get rain with that, clearing by saturday. it's the cold front that is the other portion of this system that everyone's kind of eyeing carefully, because not only will the wind drop the wind chill level down, but the cold air itself with this system is making places like billings go into the 30's. you can see the temperature divide even for today, minneapolis starting to get that colder air from the front, more tomorrow, but that versus chicago, already about a 20-degree change. back to you. >> nicole, thank you very much. >> a lot of billionaire dreams died on the first day of the big dance, march madness tournament, dayton, harvard, north carolina state crushing millions of bracket after a big upset. >> i always go for the underdog.

9 million people entered to win the challenge. over 83% eliminated. >> but there's still some in there! >> buffet caused a frenzy offering a billion dollars if anyone could correctly pick the winning attempt in the tournament. >> do you get a feeling it was a sure bet on his part? teams trying to avoid upsets today in the big dance. >> we have a look at only perfect number one seed. >> warren buffet ain't no fool. i think he knew the odds, as far as a undefeated teams going to the tournament, they're not the only once. reds led by johnson and anthony, they were the last team to go in undefeated. they hope not to repeat the rest of history 23 years ago, the rebs didn't win a championship. the shockers think they can.

>> wichita state has had a lot to celebrate, heading into the ncaa tournament undefeated. does that mean they have a target on their backs? >> wichita state has the bigger bullseye, but from that conference, having the number one seed, they're stacking all the chips. >> despite a final four run last season, questions remain on how the shockers will handle the pressure of trying to become the first team since the hoosiers to go on to the title. greg anthony was in the last undefeated team to enter the tournament. unlv posted a 34-0 record before losing to duke at the final four. >> we knew duke would be far more competitive, more difficult challenge this time around. there's no doubt about it. it's a bit shocking. as the years have gone by, the

disappointment from that loss never goes away. >> i don't think anybody thought we could win. i'm not sure we thought we could win. it was a great moment, really a defining moment pour duke university to come back and avenge that loss from the year before and be the dominant team. i think it really put our stamp on college basketball, and really started a great run by coach k. >> despite the remarkable season, doubters point to wichita state's week schedule, which did not include a single game against a ranked team. >> i think that's been what's motivated them in some respects, because they've had more anyway sayers and doubters. they haven't played anybody, the schedule's not as difficult. what i would impress upon people is don't always focus on who they play. sometimes you want to focus on how they play, and they played championship caliber basketball. wichita state hawaii everyone's skeptical at times is every time they played, you go they should win. i've never watched them play and

go this one is the one, so they haven't gone into louisville, florida, into chapel hill on a consistent basis. >> you just have to take it one game at a time as last year. we played the number one seed, number two seed and eventually ran into louisville, the top overall seed, played them very well in the final four and came up two possessions short, so we know it's going to be tough. we're prepared for that, and it doesn't matter. if you have one off night or play poorly one night, you won't get to the second round. >> unla and wichita state put themselves in a position to make history with the undefeated records entering the tournament. the shockers hope that's where their similarities end. >> they've got something to prove. i think they know how good they are. i think they realize how good they are and people within the game of college basketball, coaches, players, they know how

good this team is, but know get an opportunity to show fans. >> wichita state shockers open up ncaa tournament play tonight, just after 7:00 against cal college. >> we are talking about jerry tarkanian was the coach. thank you very much. >> the number of h.i.v. infections in america has been dropping for years. >> for one community, it is on the rise. >> we really don't believe that their ages are actually vulnerable to contracting h.i.v. and aids. >> what health officials are doing to make sure young people take the risk rearously. >> some places basking in warm temperatures. we'll have a big turnaround by the end of the weekend. i'll have your forecast.

joins a group of brave men. >> the most surprising thing for me is the size of the fires that come through. absolutely brutal. >> toughest place to be a firefighter. sunday at 9 eastern, on al jazeera america.

>> good morning, welcome to al

jazeera america. i'm del walters. >> i'm stephanie sy. why health officials are worried about a rise in h.i.v. infections in young americans. >> first, where it's going to rain and snow. >> we definitely have areas seeing both, portions of midwest. we have enough cold air with this next system, you can see heavier bands of snow in minnesota. southern side, some rain. most is actually the winter precipitation, even though it's our first full day of spring. this system, you can see where the front shifts, in nebraska, still out of the south ahead of this system and that's creating some of those temperature contrasts we'll see as this moves along. warmer than average temperatures above this with the southerly flow and then we'll drop below average, we'll see a 20-30 temperature degree reversal. we get to saturday and you see

that colder air in chicago. >> more than 1 million americans are living with h.i.v. and every year, about 50,000 more people are infected, nearly one in six of those don't even know they have the virus and one in four receive proper medical treatment. we take a closer look. >> jonathan watson remembers the day he learned he had h.i.v. he was 17. >> it won't happen to me. like that's exactly what line was going through my head, it wouldn't happen to me, and it did happen. >> what made it particularly tough for watson was the sense he'd let his mother down. she had educated him on the importance of protection from an early able and yet when that moment came, caught in a whirl wind romance, he let his guard down. >> they really don't believe that their age is actually vulnerable. >> the number of new h.i.v. infections in the u.s. has

dropped by two thirds since the height of the he dickic in the 1980's. where the infection rate that grown is with yuck, gay men. now 20 years old, they face a 50% chance of catching the disease by the age 50. >> with the united states leading the global battle, some worry that in that struggle, we've neglected the home front. >> people don't think h.i.v. is still an issue. it's not a problem anymore. we don't hear a lot about it and we hear a lot about the medication and new advances wimp is wonderful but those aren't getting us to zero. we need to get people to understand that h.i.v. is still a problem. >> what's important is that we make sure we are getting tested more frequently so if they have h.i.v., we can hook them up with a doctor and they can enter primary care. >> the sense of imminent danger has faded, unlike an older

generation of gay men who experienced the trauma of dying friends, most young gay men don't see the impact of h.i.v. watson also represents another vulnerable demographic, african americans count for half of all new infections. researchers believe a combination of socioeconomic factors may explain the trend. watson now 24 plans to finish college and work in theater. >> there are days where i'm tired and i know why i'm tired, so like i'm so used to burning through, like you know, let's do this, let's do that, i have to take a breath, take a weekend off from hanging out or going to parties and stuff. >> for the most part, he makes sure the infection plays a limited role in his life. aljazeera, san francisco. >> worldwide, there are more

than 33 million people living with h.i.v. >> these are the stories we're following at this hour. crews from a number of countries including the u.s. of combing the indian ocean in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. >> ukrainian leaders meeting with the e.u. in russia. turks no longer tweeting, the government blocking the site. >> the former president of georgia joins us to discuss his take on crimea's referendum and the former soviet state he believes is next on vladimir putin's list. >> tons of pollution dumped into a native american woods. the health problem the community said its causing and the fight to have those toxins cleaned up. >> the same system bringing snow to parts of the midwest will drop temperatures for most of the country.

i'll have that walked outlook. >> the aljazeera morning news continues. del is back in just two minutes. have a happy friday.

>> russia seizes three ukrainian navy ships in sevastopol as president putin signs a bill completing the annexation of crimea. >> the former president of georgia shares his experiences of having his country invaded by russia and dealing with moscow in the aftermath. >> no sign yet of that missing malaysia airlines flight 370 as search crews battle rough seas and strong currents.

>> most of our family members. >> the decades of dumping that some say is wiping out their community. >> good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. russian sailors seizing ships in sevastopol. they changed the flags to russian colors. vladimir putin completes the annexation of crimea. this is the president warning russia not to go any further into ukraine, issuing new sanctions against government officials and businessmen connected to vladimir putin. >> signing off on an agreement for closer ties with the european union. we begin our coverage with

jennifer glass in sevastopol with navy ships were seized. what do we know he at this point? good morning, del. even as the russian penalty made it all an official deal, we've seen changes on the streets. all of a sudden, there are russian soldiers wearing their insignia. i saw them in a restaurant a couple of minutes ago. the most dramatic change in the last 12 hours has been really the russian military move to consolidate what they have here, taking over the ships of the ukrainian navy. >> they raised the russian naval flag over a ship that was until yesterday ukrainian. this is ukrainian colors, now sitting alongside russian ships in sevastopol. she used to sit next to the ukrainian command ship that still defiantly flies the

ukrainian flag and is blocked in by russian ships. the ukraine anyone naval academy changed hands. an awkward official flag raising ceremony, russian naval officers took it over, citing the past years of ukrainian control as part of the glory here. one of the dozens of ukrainian officers thrown out of naval command wednesday said there is no military honor in russia's actions. >> we have clearly seen in the past two weeks you can't believe russia. putin said his troops aren't here. i'm a military man. i see perfectly that these are military men. >> every deal ukrainians have made, the russians have broken, including the promise not to take the base. >> in my opinion, our blockaded

ships should be sunk or blown up, because it's a war now, just nobody shooting at each other. god forbid they start shooting. >> at the naval school handover, a last show of independence, ukrainians singing their national anthem, trying to drown out the sound of the russians. around the base today, most of those ukrainian ships are flying the russian flag and soldiers have gone home for the most part. to add insult to injury, as the russian forces were taking over ukrainian naval forces, the russian prime minister posted on his facebook page that now that sevastopol is part of russia, russia might try to get back the $11 billion it paid to ukraine in 2012 to rental the bases here. >> live in sevastopol this morning, thank you very much. we turn to phil ittner in key every.

let's bring things up to date. >> vladimir putin signing into law that agreement or that decision by the russian parliament that makes crimea part of the russian federation. that law probably only going to be recognized in russia in the immediate term, but it is now a done deal. in brussels, there were meetings today with the leadership of the european union and prime minister yatsenyuk from the ukrainian government. they signed the association agreement with europe. that's an interesting development. that's the document that started this whole crisis. when the ousted president viktor yanukovych refused to sign that agreement, that's when people took to the streets. now we've seen all the activity

here in kiev, the turmoil, and we go back now to this agreement, this document that started it all being signed in brussels today. >> the president yesterday signing off on new sanctions against russia, russia answering with sanctions of its own. what type of impact have those sanctions had on russia so far? >> we've seen a dip in russia's stock market. we have also seen various credit ratings, global credit ratings down agreeing russias position, standard & poor's taking it, russia's credit rating down from standard to negative. we are seeing an awful lot of things happening on the economic front in russia. no major collapse, no major damage to the economy quite yet, it's going to take some time for many of those sanctions to kick in, not only in the banking sector in russia, but those

individuals targeted with the sanctions and visa ban program instigated by the white house and the by the european union now. we have seen the you're seen leadership coming out and saying they, like the white house, have further sanctioned programs, but for now, the european president saying for now they're going to keep their powder dry. >> each incident, each new action, we will assess on itself. we will not put all our cards on the table. that's up to us to decide when we trigger all this, but the preparations are on going, and now with a very, very clear mandate. >> now, what may kick in further sanctions program on both the american and the european front is if russia tries to expand gained crimea, that is a grave

concern for the international community and the white house and the europeans saying if russia tries to go into in particular eastern ukraine, mainland ukraine, that there are more stringent sanctions that they can apply. del. >> phil, before we let you go with that ban ki-moon meeting with those authorities. >> man man is in town. he brings a message from the kremlin expressing concern about those far right elements within this acting government, but he also is trying to establish lines of dialogue between moscow and kiev. the moscow government, the kremlin don't recognize kiev. they say that its a coup d'etat, illegal, that this government here is not legitimate. they're not even talking and ban

ki-moon wants to change that. to deescalate this crisis, there has to be an open line of dialogue between moscow and kiev. that's his main objective while hes in town. >> we go back to sevastopol. jennifer, what happens next to those military families that are involved? >> that is a big question here, a real big concern. the ukrainian military requested some clarification from kiev as to what they're going to do and how they get out of here. the ukrainian government had said it was making up an evacuation plan for the families of ukrainian forces here. it had amended that to say the forces were stay but with them thrown off bases across crimea, the question is where we will they go, what will they do next. i spoke to a number of ukrainian

naval officials who said they need to be rebased somewhere. there's about 25,000 ethnic ukrainian service members and their families in crimea right now. ukraine has to figure how to get them out at some point. made the more difficult, because kiev is not talking to sevastopol or moscow. there's very, very little diplomatic communication there so trying to organize something from kiev is going to be difficult. >> both of you, thank you very much. before ukraine, there was georgia, russian invading its southern border. the former president of georgia will join us live, sharing his experience of having his country invaded by russia and the former soviet state he believes that vladimir putin will target next. >> it has been two weeks since

malaysia airlines flight 370 disappeared, the search in the southern indian ocean, five planes searching today and finding nothing. they are looking for two objects spotted on satellite images. containers often fall off ships in that area wimp could complicate that search. the search still coming up empty despite that massive international effort. >> a very huge disappointment to the relatives, friends and family of those people who were onboard flight 370. those five planes at times were flying as low as 1,000 feet above the surface of the ocean using electronic sensors, and old fashioned binoculars. >> the international hunt for malaysia airlines flight 370 now in its 14th day resumed this morning, after satellite images revealed possible debris from

the missing plane floating on the surface of a deep area of indian ocean, 1500 miles off the australian coast. australia's prime minister spoke about the search operation one day after telling parliament about the satellite images. >> that's about the motor inaccessible spot you can imagine on the face of the earth. if there is anything down there, we will find it. >> while the search zone focus has been significantly reduced, finding those objects, one measuring almost 80 feet won't be easy. the satellite images were taken days ago, meaning strong currents could have caused debris to drift hundreds of miles. search crews have been dropping to track ocean currents and however the debris could be. the weather hampered search efforts, thick clouds and fog laying right over the ocean surface. >> with the weather conditions, unable to locate any wreckage or

debris, other aircraft are continuing to search. >> with a flight time of four hours to reach the new search zone, time is critical, giving crews an hour window before needing to head back to refuel. >> probably 1600 nautical miles to the southwest of perth, so very remeet, and a very large expansive area that we need to search. >> while investigators have urged caution about the potential discovery, it's the first glimmer of hope for families and loved ones of the 239 onboard night 370. >> we owe it to the families, friends and loved ones of the almost 240 people on malaysia airlines flight 370 to do everything we can to resolve what is as yet an extraordinary riddle. >> the realize of the worse or another false lead in a case

riddled with communication. >> i'm prepared to find him and prepared to find that he's not with us anymore, and i'm a little less prepared to not know. i think the risk of not knowing is what frightens me the most. >> there will be now more assets added to the search. there will be vessels coming from australia, as well as planes from china and japan joining the 25 fixed wing aircraft, six helicopters, 19 ships and one commercial vessel already in the south indian ocean. >> randall, thank you very much. >> it is now the first full day of spring and while some of you are going to feel a bit of a warm up, don't get used to it. for more, we turn to nicole mitchell. >> after the winter we had, even a couple days of a warm up we can appreciate. witness we get out there today, pretty quiet in terms of precipitation. we had a little disturbance moving through the ohio river valley. a lot of what was the northeast

cleared out after dumping significant snow in new england. it's the next weather system we're watching into the midwest causing problems in terms of moisture, that's going to change our temperatures, as well. you can see the heavy snow moving into places like minnesota into wisconsin and michigan. watch for three to six inches with isolated amounts running higher than that. you can see that's a pretty narrow core of moisture, and a little moisture southward. that's where the front is going to end up. not a lot of moisture with this system, enough, though, with the winds to throw up winter weather advisories. over the course of today, and then into tomorrow, possibly some rain for parts of the east coast early in the day, parts of new england, some snow, the front, that is going to really change things. this is saturday's temperatures, not today's, already by tomorrow, chicago starts to cool down. look up and down the east coast, 60's and 70's, as far south at houston at 78 degrees, and then

that front comes through. this is where it is this evening. lots of warm air ahead, much colder air behind, so going from above average to below average in a lot of cases, with many places for sunday dropping 10 we 20, even 30 degrees. back to you. >> thank you very much. >> the situation in ukraine, many say echos that between russia and georgia. georgia's former president joins us next with his perspective on the situation in crimea and russias action in regards to those former soviet states.

>> when the satisfactory jet union collapsed, kiev got rid of a nuclear arsenal after guarantees from the u.s. and the united kingdom. >> back in 1991, when the soviet union collapsed, ukraine found itself holding the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world, nearly 2,000 warheads aimed at

the west. as part of a deal to turn that arsenal over to russia, ukraine got something in return, security, a promise that russia, the u.s. and its allies ukraine borders and refrain from using military force against it. that promise is called the budapest memorandum on security assurances, signed in december, 1994 by russia, the u.s., u.k. and ukraine, it was until recently a largely forgotten footnote at the end of the cold war. not anymore. on tuesday, after ukrainian officer was killed at a base in crimea, allegedly by a russian, ukraine's prime minister cited the memorandum, calling on the u.s., u.k. and france to help "prevent an escalation of the conflict." former ukrainian prime minister also made specific mention of the memorandum in a recent interview. >> is there any point at which the world should react with

military force? >> i cannot give advice to the countries that signed the memorandum with ukraine, which led to ukraine giving up its nuclear arms voluntarily. i cannot offer them advice. i'm just asking them to honor their guarantees. >> the key word is guarantees, a word which something not appear in the memorandum. what does appear are repeated affirmations and commitments and in diplomatic terms, that makes the difference. the agreement is barely two pages long and short on specifics, saying only that all sides will cult if questions come up. >> there's a reason that it's the budapest memorandum and not the treaty. this administration, the british, french, europeans have the challenge of showing that we meant what we said, take it very seriously, we're not going to release the pressure on russia and also that we won't be baited into military gestures that won't work. >> nevertheless, ukraine's prime

minister is warning of potential ripple effects. >> if you don't secure those guarantees that were signed in the budapest memorandum, then please explain how you will convince iran or north korea to dispose of thor status as nuclear states if the necessary guarantees are not upheld by the world. >> a notion that as high as the stakes are right now in ukraine, they could still get even higher. >> the president of georgia from 2004 to 2013 had his own run-ins with russian president vladimir putin and joins us live from brussels. let's go back to that 1994

budapest memorandum signed by the u.s., russia and united kingdom guaranteeing the sovereignty of ukraine, but crimea's gone. should ukraine feel betrayed? >> well, you know, imagine if ukraine had been nuclear state. now there was no way russia would ever contemplate to attack it. that gives you answer to your question. of course i'm sure ukrainians are looking at it. but ukraine is not far away from restoring nuclear capabilities. it has enough facilities to do it. it gave up enriched uranium but can get it back. that should open up decisions to ukrainians. they counted on being protected and it turned out not to be the case. >> you heard the prime minister address the ukrainian parliament

saying if the west does not protect ukraine, why should other world powers believe it will protect them if they disarm themselves on their nuclear programs. what signal does this sent to iran and the rest of the nuclear -- >> here is the point. i spoke to him yesterday and he is frustrated. their country is in real big danger now. i hope that the world understands that putin should be stopped now. budapest memorandum provide for some kind of guarantee. people might argue now about details whether this was obligation tear guarantees or not. when they give up weapons, that was the understanding it was. that makes no point, it's not about lawyers, it's about political commitment of great powers to protect ukraine. >> let's talk about that. do you think the west has the guts to take on vladimir putin and go toe-to-toe as much as it

takes to stop this situation from escalating any further? >> many people in the west swallowed the appointment and lie by putin in 2008, georgia first. we had the exact same situation. uni did he understandified soldiers were attacking our troops, killed our officers, killed civilians a understand then many people in the world, also many media said oh, georgia attacked and then russia was compelled to repel georgian attack. this lie was fed and swallowed, because people didn't want to do anything about russia's bladant attack on georgia. exactly the same token now, we have the situation where ukraine is under attack. what can they do? they can do lots of things. vladimir putin and his entourage of very vulnerable. they want to rule like stalin

but live like rockefeller. all their kids are abroad, their wives are abroad, they were houses abroad. america made first important step to go after corrupt friends of putin. they should shut down incomes, immediately start building allies around europe and continue to operate, they should freeze the currency accounts of russia, because russia has all this currency in euros and dollars, which means that federal reserve from united states and european central bank have full leverage. if they freeze their currency, the russian government will be paralyzed. they did this to the iranian government after the haftage crisis. it's all about political will. there are many instruments from which the rest can repel putin and it did.

either putin would be on a rampage and continue to attack or his attacks would be revered. he turned himself into real dictator. we know from other places in the world, all dictators are the same way. the problem is vladimir putin knows it himself. he thinks that he can extend hills existence through new attacks, new adventures in the west and his speech about crimea, he spoke list about ukraine. he spoke about america, about u.s. and the world and the whole world respect putin, which is total rubbish. >> i want to take you back to the last time you spoke to putin before the war in georgia. you asked him if he saw the papers condemning him and he had this to say, yes, there are lots of pieces of paper condemning me. why don't you roll up those pieces of paper and stick them in your and i won't finish it because it's not kind at this hour of the morning, but does vladimir putin really care about

what the west thinks about him? >> well, about papers, he doesn't care indeed. about actions, he does. the problem is that he's so cynical that he does believe the actions will follow. he's so-called liberal finance minister, he wants cover up, last time in georgia wars, it was gorbachev to justify the whole show. he said we will have six months, maybe a little longer than after georgia, but then things will go back to normal. the problem is that it's not going to go back to normal and the problem is that what he believes that he can buy like former german chancellor, people like schroeder talk to the west about their interest, about

finance and campaigns and then things will go away. this time, this is a threat really to the existence of international law. if he gets away with what he did, international law is deceased. if you talk about whose territory was before, alaska was russian territory in the past like crimea at her to in was russian in the past. you want to conduct referendum all over europe. these are office issues, so when you talk about the obvious issues, there should be obvious answer. when you talk about american interests, i heard some americans say well -- >> in fact -- i want to cut you off, because we have a lot more that we want to discuss with you and i don't want you to go too far, because i want to go in depth on a lot of things you're

talking about. we're going to continue our conversations with the former penalty of georgia in a moment. we're going to take a short break and be right back, because this is a fascinating conversation.

>> welcome back. these are our top stairs at this hour. the search for that missing malaysia airlines flight 370 has expanded to the southern indian ocean, five planes scouring a territory the size of minnesota friday. officials describe it as one of the most isolated places in the world. they are looking for objects spotted on satellite images. >> last month's thailand elections invalid because they didn't take place on the same day. prime minister calling for the polls to open following massive anti-government pro tests. her party was expected to win, but opposition protestors disrupted voting. >> crimea now officially a part of russia as far as russia is concerned, the russian parliament approving the annexation. vladimir putin signing those

papers, making it official. >> now the invasion of ukraine, so many people are saying bear striking similarities to russia's invasion of russia in 2008. georgia once a part of ussr gained independence from when the soviet union dissolved in 1981. the president of georgia from 2004 to 2013, and has had his own run-ins with russian president vladimir putin. we go back to him in brussels. you referenced a 1938 quote. he was referring to germany annexes areas saying it was a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. that was right before world war ii started. clearly you know the inflammatory nature of your comments. was that intentional or on purpose comparing putin to

hitler? >> well, i mean, there are striking similarities. it looks very much exactly like back then, we have 2 million germans and we need to protect them from check slovakia. he said russia is a big united country. if you continue like that, then russia has to go after north kazing stan, baltics, parts of georgia, has to go after belarus and continue on like that, but the strike is similar to hitler. it is not only that that rhetoric is similar to hitler. we heard things like well, let's get used to the idea that russia has vital interests. well, crimea's gone. some important former u.s.

officials saying that by the same token you can say well latvia is gone tomorrow, well, some province of poland is gone, georgia is gone. you can say things like that and then you will discover like winston churchill said hoping crocodile will never make it to them. the idea is that i saw the other day some comments in the suppress saying well, you know, we forced our hand too much. excuse me, america did everything to accommodate russia. second, what are we talking about? people in the state of kiev were not asking americans, repeating narrative of putin that it was c.i.a. plot -- they are saying they are denying the right of people of ukraine to have their own will. >> mr. president -- part the interruption, but let me ask the question this way.

>> sure, go ahead. >> as former president of georgia when vladimir putin invaded, do you feel betrayed by the u.s. and west for not standing up more to vladimir putin then? >> well, let's put it this way, vladimir putin was also warning them. he told at the summit innate toe around the time of summit that he clearly implied there would be attack on georgia. he told the same thing to the u.s. administration, by all the way, he said that ukraine is a territory and should be implying that it should be sliced up. he bombed georgian military installations and population for a couple of years, from time to time basically sending signals and checking western reactions. when we were screaming for help, they were saying oh, you are just crying wolf. many people in the west. when it really happened, there were lots of people who rushed to blame us, because they made a commission on initiative of then

german foreign minister saying all the basic facts are right, russia came in to georgia, technically, then went blah blah blah and in the end, basically, they kind of blurred the conclusions and they be the many people in european union said well, the concludes are not -- >> of course there were many things that could have been done better -- >> do you live in -- >> things are not done now. go ahead. >> do you have then that nato is a -- >> go ahead. >> do you believe that nato has no teeth? >> well, i think nato has lots of leverage. if it uses it properly. i think that nato has strong say, but before it even goes to military options, as i said, there are so many economic

options, but there is one caveat to them. the west and its company should be willing and wanting and able to pay the price for sanctions. it's like cutting out cancer. if you don't get proper chemical therapy, you cannot cure cancer. the problem is that when you get this therapy, you get other functions of our organ is damaged. this is temporary damage in order to be cured. that's the same thing with russia. lots of western companies saying gas price will go up, we'll lose this contract, sell less, but what about if there is large scale conflict in europe? ukraine is all the way putin is behaving is exactly like -- but he has nuclear button on his side. every time they neglect the

situation in yugoslavia, putin is doing exactly the same thing. yesterday i was at summit and most people were saying absolutely the right things. shof them still say he promised this is the last thing. he is promising it in georgia, promising it now. >> if you had -- >> after croatia -- >> if you have the ear of the president of the united states, i know that you talked to several senators on capitol hill. if you are talking to barack obama, president barack obama right now, what do you tell him? what's the next step you think he should take? >> i think steps he has taken so far are important. he should make clear that this will not be reversed. that's what putin believes in, he will push americans hands

back and reverse the sakes and second, go after russian energy companies. that's the heart of putin's corrupt regime. go after putin himself, because he is the most corrupt man in the world today among officials and may be the richest man in europe and certainly is money is decisive. part lethey went after his money by going after his bankers yesterday. apprise their reserves, most of kept in the federal reserve. once putin is off the cash, this is not a guy who can operate without cash. he operates with cash first and military after that. there are many things americans can do to provide the political will. one thing clearly should be said, repeating that there is no military option, well we all understand that. repeating it several times a day, it just comes down to

putin. i remember putin stopped after george bush announced military humanitarian operation. that helped. he stopped a few miles from our capitol in the way, because he showed he meant sirius business and they did. then secretary of defense gates said well, you know, we don't have military option at all and we are not going to take any military actions at all and almost the same day, putin went back and grabbed one more district in georgia. words in washington matter. american words and america is still the most powerful country in the world but should believe in itself. what vladimir putin said and we should not convince him otherwise. that's why every word said now should be followed up by real actions. >> i want to ask you about something else that you said. you said that you believed that vladimir putin is spoiling for what you call a hot war, and

that moldova is next. what do you mean? >> well, moldova is very vulnerable and it is also member, candidate for member of the european union, might be prospective candidate for member, and in moldova, it is exactly the same way russia controlled separate breakaway regions. by the same token, now there is the region of bulgaria to the south that suddenly are start outerly or becoming next hot spot. they formed their own national guard and basically what we are getting now is some kind of flash point in three places in moldova. the problem will be that putin

has to sent judging by his prefers actions, his troops from mole dove have a, they have to go from crimea, and crimea is cut ago corridor for the rest of ukraine and involves some kind of fighting with ukrainian forces. that's a very dangerous situation. we know that putin is after moldova. exactly the same way, i can imagine when i had my conversation with putin, he was always talking about ukraine, moldova and pal particular countries. they have considerable russian population. what if there's major trouble there? will the west be able to act there? they are small countries and can be taken over very fast -- there are lots of risk points -- >> i've got a minute left and that's why i'm cutting you off. i apologize for doing so. where do we go from here? what is the move forward and is there any possibility that

ukraine, significance and russia can all live side by side? >> well, they are doomed to live side by side. i don't think ukraine is inherently anti russian or georgia or any organization. the problem is russia doesn't want to have neighbors, they want to have basically subservient peoples, colonies that will be and they want that. it's not going to work. i think we are facing lots of attacks, eventually things will settle down, but it will have every dictator ended the same way and putin will fade away from the scene of history. i believe that there will be another russia, very transformed one and this will lead to major problems inside russia, what he's doing. he's on attack now, but once reversed, russia is going to get lots of problems. there will be a moment when neighbors will be needed to help

russia itself, but that should be a normal russia that goes away, takes away policies and becomes normal democratic way. it's not as far away as many people thing i'm i'm optimistic in long term. >> thank you for spending time with us this morning. when you are in the states, we have it you, you have an open invitation to join us here at aljazeera america. also by satellite anytime you wish to talk. that is former georgian president joining us. thank you very much. >> we are looking at business news, we're already seeing the first signs that those u.s. sanctions against russia are having an impact. moscow's main stock index falling nearly 2% today, ratings firms, standard and poor and fitch cutting credit of the

company because of sanction impacts. a former economic advisor to putin saying sanctions really won't work. >> they could certainly attack gas, they could attack oil, they could attack different sectors of russian industry. it will not produce any fighter effect. police remember, russia on the part of the soviet union and for several decades, it was isolated economic system, and it was able to survive. >> that of course counter to what you just heard from the former georgian president saying those sanctions will work over the long haul. wall street doesn't seem to be focused on the sanction, up 26 points at this hour is the dow. the s&p 1872, nasdaq at 4319. overseas, asian markets bouncing back, ending the week on a high note. nikkei closing for a public holiday.

the european markets are higher. >> the ford motor company produced millions of cars in new jersey, but an american indian tribe living they're that site said it produced millions of tons of pollution and dumped it on the woods. members of the tribe say toxic chemicals are causing cancer. >>ern environmental scientist called this area home. >> there were two foxes here this morning. >> he spent his boy hood in these woods, 30 miles northwest of new york city. >> i tracked through the creek here. i was exposed to whatever they were exposed to and we ate wild game. years later, i got my in test national cancer and then my liver cancer. >> cancer that came from tockics chemicals from lead, arsonic found in automobile paint and solvents. from 1955 to 1980, fort motor company build more than

6 million cars at its nearby plant. when it opened, it was the biggest automobile plant in america. >> they would dump the paint off the back of the docks out of the shops into these drums and stock piled this will they had too many of them. then they started carting them up to places like here. you got $100 to make 655-gallon drums disappear. >> the paint is still here. >> this is red lead. there's probably 30 or 40 pounds right in this little nowhere right in here. it continues to flow down to the week. >> decades of polluted soil and water have taken their toll on people and nobody harder hit than the indians who live, hunt and grow foot acknowledge land. >> the con tam anything else that taken most of our family members. >> many remember playing in the paint sludge as children. >> we used to play in the sludge, did we not?

do you remember what part you enjoyed the most? >> yes. >> that nice pretty colored lava, we made the woods a play ground. >> others chewed the paint like it was gum. >> we used to chew it and spit it out. >> just a month after this interview, janet lost her battle with cancer. >> the funeral home people know me. they know me like i am a neighbor. there was five if you know release in a seven day time period, and it really got to the point where i couldn't do the whole five that week. >> the environmental protection agency said the site had been cleaned up in 1994 but has since found much more contamination. >> the latest agency clean up plan involve capping dump sites rather than excavating them. environmental scientists say this won't keep the contamination from migrating

into the ground water. >> i can perfectly well understand their reaction being get it out of my community, it shouldn't have been here in the first place, i don't want it here now. make it go away. i understand that. if i were living there, i would want that, as well, but my task as the superfund director is to select a remedy that is fully protective so that going forward, people will not be exposed to the same chemicals that these poor people were exposed to in the past. >> ford said in a statement that it takes environmental responsibility is your yes, sir will you and is working with the e.p.a. and the development of a final remediation plan for the site. but the tribe fears its rung out of time as many members die young. >> we're at a point where if anybody can get to their 60's, they're lucky. >> chuck was given a few months

to live. he said ford is not taking responsibility for the health problems. >> it's very hard to get that out of them. what we can get is full extraction and full removal. >> removal that will leave the mountains as pristine as they were for centuries. >> in a 2010 settlement, ford motors paid $12.5 million to current and former residents. the most anyone received was $35,000. residents say that's not enough for turning their home into a toxic dumping ground. >> ncaa tournament time is here. >> it was a memorable opening day. they need three-pointer to send it into overtime. coming through with six of the

12 points in the overtime period. st. louis erase a deficit to win. dayton beat ohio state. florida survived a scare from 16 seed albany 67-65. the spar tons beat delaware 93-78. here's how the bracket looks today. in the south region, florida meets pittsburgh in the next round. tonight's games feature virginia common wealth, u.c.l.a. versus tulsa. stanford versus new mexico and kansas versus eastern kentucky. harvard versus michigan state in round two u conn versus

villanova. n.c. central takes on iowa state and memphis takes on george washington. north dakota state with san diego state. today's games feature arizona in action against weaver state. gonzaga takes on oklahoma state. louisville managed to hold off manhattan, the cardinals face st. louis in the next round. texas faces michigan. wichita state takes on cal poly. kentucky faces kansas state. u mass takes on tennessee while duke takes on mercer. should be another exciting day of action as the ncaa tournament. >> cal poly again? >> 19th loss. >> where obamacare stands as we

approach the deadline to sign up for health insurance or face fines.

>> 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. >> it was four years ago today president obama announced the affordable care act. >> i want to thank every member of congress who stood up tonight with courage and conviction to make health care reform a reality. i know this wasn't an easy vote for a lot of people. >> he signed it into law

march 23, 2010, amid coverage for 32 million people. that's when the fight started. the rollout was a disaster. 5 million people have now signed up, but the bill has faced 50 votes to do away with it and the deadline to sign up is 10 days away. senior health care policy advisor joins us from washington, d.c. this morning. republicans are licking their chops and democrats are bracing for the worst in the mid terms, so will obamacare survive? >> i think it's pretty clear the law will survive, as long as president obama is in office. for a repeal piece of legislation to be passed, actually, the president of course has to sign it and that's not likely. whether the law will be tinkered with between now and the end of

the obama administration is the question. >> there are millions short with 11 days to go for sign-ups. is that realistic? >> march 31 is a soft deadline. in at least six if not seven states, there's a clear signal that people will be able to sign up after march 31 if they can show that they encountered technical difficulties in getting enrolled by march 31. of course, the federal government has signaled much the same thing. in fact, we expect within a couple of weeks if not days that the federal government will say that people who also can show they had trouble signing up through healthcare.gov will get an extension. it's pretty realistic to think that the target right now by the end of april is probably about

where we'll come out. >> the country seems to be difficulted even to this day on the affordable care act. 51% of americans say they favor retaining it with small modifications. 13% would leave it alone and 34% say repeal it. that is the highest level of public yet in the poll, but even with that number, what does that say? >> its this is going to take a while. in fact, how many people today remember what bitter fight there was about enacting the medicare program? medicare is now considered part and parcel of american life in american society. i think that we expect that with not only the people enroll would in the exchange, but also probably at least 5 million people if not more enrolled in an expand medicate program, as more and more numbers of people become enrolled in various facets of this program, it will seem more like par part and parl

of american life, also. >> thank you. >> that does it for this edition of aljazeera america. thanks for watching.

>> welcome to the news hour. russian's president completes the annexation of crimea as eu leaders sign up for closer toys with ukraine. >> null and void, thailand's court invalidates the general election. >> protestors killed in egypt as thousands protest the government. >> i'm in the heart of the coffee growing region of