straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. >> welcome to aljazeera, these are the stories we're following for you. >> these are some of the most dramatic times in the history of ukraine. >> the leader of the united nations calling for direct talks between russia and ukraine. >> the one thing that we don't have. >> the difficulty in searching for flight 370 as two objects

found on the satellite come up empty. and toxic cleanup, residents say it's too little too late. >> it is now official. russia signing the papers annexing crimea, tainment, ukraine signing an association agreement with the europe un. that's the trade deal that started this crisis months ago. crimea has only been russian for a few hours, but already, they're making moves. jennifer glasse has more from sevastopol >> reporter: with little fanfare, they raised a flag over the ship that was until yesterday ukrainian these are the ukrainian colors. she's sitting alongside of russian ships and a new berth in sevastopol. she used to sit next to the ukrainian command ship that still flies the ukrainian flag

and is blocked in bring russian ships. the ucukian naval academy has also changed hands. there was fanfare here. an awkward flag raising ceremony where russian officers took it over. citing the last years of ukrainian control as part of the unbreakable glory here. he was one of the dozens of ukrainian officers thrown out of command wednesday. he says there's no military honor in russia's actions >> reporter: we have clearly seen in the past two weeks, you can't belief russia. putin says his troops are not here, i'm a military man, and i see perfectly these are military men. >> reporter: every deal that they have made, russia has broken, including the promise not to take the bait. >> interpreter: in my opinion,

the ships should be sunk or blown up. it's a war now, god forbid they start shooting. >> reporter: at the naval school hand over, a last show of independence. ed ukrainians sing their national anthem, trying to drown out the sound of the russians. >> jennifer glasse joins me, and what are they to do? caught in limbo? >> reporter: that's right, they're looking for guidance from the ukraine an military as to what they should do next. and they said there are sailors and their families here across the crimeaian peninsula. and the families, there's supposed to be an vacuation plan for the families, but they aren't sure what to do. they lost their ships, and there's a holdout until a few minutes ago. a manage walking his dog pointed it out to me, saying there's

still one ukrainian flag flying here. but still unsure of the state of the ukrainian military, still in the peninsula, and still on that ship, del. >> and i get asked this question. explain once again, what is that music behind you? >> reporter: i'm sorry, we're on a very popular waterfront, it's kind of like baltimore's inner harbor or the seaport in new york, and there's a musician below me, and you can't see him, but he comes and plays, and of course it's a friday afternoon here, and it's going to be a big holiday weekend here as they celebrate crimea's ascension to russia. >> jennifer glasse, thank you very much. and to reset, the upheaval began when the government rejected the government with the european

union. and phil, bring us up-to-date, what happens next? >> reporter: well, what happens next, del, is that it appears as though ukraine will be getting closer ties with europe. they signed the political side of that association agreement. down the road, they intend to look at closer economic ties as well. but right now, the finances in this country are in such disarray, that they have to work things out before they can start thinking about getting closer to europe in terms of their economies. but it is interesting, what they plan to do on the political side, this will create closer ties with europe and of course russia is deeply concerned about that. ultimately what many ukrainians are worried about during that agreement, is visa free travel. they want to go to europe without any trouble to go across the borders to take vacations and do business in eastern

europe. and that's something that their russian neighbors are not able to do right now, and there are a lot in the ukraine who say this is about that kind of aspect. ukraine getting closer to western europe, while russia becomes increasingly isolated. >> are the diplomats in russia trying to leave crimea or are they trying to move into another part of ukraine? >> well, del, i think that crimea is a done deal and a lot of people accept it. of course publicly, the international community is still demanding that russia leave the crimeaian peninsula, but with so many boots on the ground, it's pretty much complete. but when it comes to moving into other parts of the country, absolutely, the international community is saying, look, don't do it. if you do do it, there will be some serious consequences. of course we have heard from both washington and brussels,

that if russia tries to grab more territory, they will ramp up their sanction program. here in kiev today, we have a visit by the u.n. secretary general, moon, and he is in town trying to deescalate the situation for a number of reasons. he want to open up lines of communication between kiev and moscow. moscow doesn't recognize the government here, and he wants to start them paying, but other than that, the danger here, as long as the crisis continues, there's this real potential for things spiraling out of control. >> over time the process of preserving this issue through peaceful resolution and dialogue, the greater risk will be for the uncontrollable situations beyond these two countries and beyond the region.

>> reporter: so del, there's a serious concern that while the concern is heated, and if it continues, and there are these fringege elements, there's the possibility that it takes one or two bullets. just a 19-year-old kid in a uniform with an a-k47 to spark a war, and that's what no one wants to see happen. >> coming up in money news, how those sanctions are having an impact on the economy of russia. the ukrainian crisis is similar to events taking place between russia and georgia back in 2008. i asked the former president of georgia if he thought that nato was doing enough. >> before it goes to military

options. as i said, there are so many economic options, but one caveat to that. the best and it's companies should being will, and wanting to able to pay the price for sanctions to russia. it's like cutting out cancer, if you don't get proper chemical therapy, you cannot cure cancer, and the problem is when you get the therapy, you get other organs damaged, and damaged in order to be cured. and have that's the same thing with russia. gas prices will go up, and we'll lose this contract. and what about the large scale conflict in europe? ukraine, the way that putin is behaving, don't forget these kind of negotiations have -- so there's this thing that every

time they neglect the situation in yugoslavia and he did it again. so putin is doing exactly the saying, and most of the people were saying absolutely the right things, but some of them still say, well, he promised us that this would be the last thing. he's not going further. he was proposing the same after georgia, and the military is promising this after slovenia and bosnia and croatia, and the same thing happens. >> the former president of georgia. crews searching for the missing malaysia flight, 370, said that a series of storms are on the way. and it has been two weeks since it vanished. the search has grown to one of the most desolate corners of the indian ocean. the two objects were spotted on

satellite. and randall, it appears that time is critical. >> reporter: yes, and not just because of the weather. the keys to learning the cause of the disappearance of flight 370 is locating the black box, the flight dataer recorder. the battery only lasts for one month. we have already passed the two week mark, and we have two peeks to go for the battery to emit a signal. all day friday, australia time, five planes criss-crossed an area the size of minnesota, trying to find cases of the debris spotted by a satellite, but so far, nothing. now the search in its 14th day, resumed this morning after satellite images revealed an area in the deep area of the indian ocean, more than 1500 miles off of the australian coast.

australia's prime minister spoke about it. >> it's about the most inaccessible spot you can imagine on the face of the earth. if there's anything down there, we'll 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 that strong currents could have caused any debris to drift hundreds of miles. but search crews have been dropping marker buoys hopes that they can track. another challenge, the weather. thick clouds and fog lying right over the ocean's assumption. >> unfortunately, the weather conditions, make it unable to locate any wreckage or debris, but we're continuing to search. >> with a flight time of 4 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. >> 100 miles to the west of perth, so very remote and a very large expansive area. >> reporter: it's the first glimmer of hope for families and loved ones for the 239 onboard the flight 3 370. >> we owe it to the family and the friends and the loved ones of almost 300 people onboard. it's an extraordinary riddle >> reporter: but with that hope may come the realization of the worst or another false lead in a case riddled with miscommunication. >> i'm prepared to find him, and prepared top 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. >> so with the second day of

searching ending with nothing found, malaysian authorities are saying that they will be consulting with the man who led the investigation into their search for air france 447. that plane, you may recall, crashed into the atlantic ocean in 2009, and within days, they had spotted debris and bodies from the crash, but it took two years to retrieve the black box. >> thank you very much, randall, and remember, for the latest details on that missing malaysian airlines flight, and the evidence coming out of the ukraine and the rest of the day's headlines, follow us on twitter. our handle is@ajam. after days of fighting near the lebanon border, the syrian army has captured the citadel, built in the 20th century. it has been under rebel correctly since 2012. two dozen children are sickened by a mass pointing in

china. the toxic substance is as powerful as rat poison, but they have not determined if it was intentional or an accident. as many as six children are still in the hospital. coming up on aljazeera, decades of pollution is making their community sick. people who live there say plans to clean it up don't go far enough.

>> wall street seems to have spring in its step. the dow is upright now. and the s&p is also flirting with another record high today, but the nasdaq composite is in the minus. u.s. sanctions are having an impact on russia. moscow's main stock index fell. and they are cutting their credit apps in the country. there are fears that the

sanctions could hurt russia's economy. visa and mastercard are already processing named in the sanctions. they are raising the outlook from negative to stable, it doesn't appear to have affected the country's ability to borrow money and federal deficits are going down. in 2012, ford motor company paid an inditribe for polluting their water. but some are saying that it's not enough. >> reporter: environmental services, he has called it home his entire life. >> there are two foxes here this morning. >> reporter: he spent his home in these woods, 30 miles north of new york city of. >> i skinned a lot of the animals and i was exposed.

and we ate them. and years later, i got intestinal cancer. >> chemicals found in automobile paint and solvent. from 198 1988, ford motor compay built cars in new jersey, and when it opened it was the biggest plant in america. >> they would drop the drums, and they had too many of them. and in the 1950s, they started carting them up this year. you would get $65 to make them disappear. >> 45 years later, the paint is still here. >> this is red lead and there's probably 30, 40 pounds in this little notch here, and it continues to flow down to the creek. >> decades of polluted soil and water have taken their toll on people, and no one has been harder hit than the indians who

live and grow food on this land. >> the contamination has affected many of our family members. >> many remember playing with the paint as children, including vivian and her sister. >> we remember playing. do you remember what you enjoyed the most. yes, on that nice, hard, pretty colored lava. we made the woods a playground. >> reporter: others treated the sweet lead paint like it was gum. billy's brother died of cancer in february, and just after the interview, she lost her battle with cancer as well. >> reporter: there were five funerals in a seven-day time period. and it got to the point where i couldn't do that whole five that week. >> reporter: the environmental

protection agency cleaned up. and it included tapping some of the sites rather than excavating them. but environmental sciences says that this won't keep the contamination from migrating into the ground water. topping some of the chemicals deep under the ground is safe. >> i can say why their reaction would be, get it out of my community, it shouldn't have been here in the first place, and make it go away. i understand that if i were living there, i would want that as well. but my task as the super fund director here is to select a remedy that is fully protected, so that going forward people last name be exposed to the same kinds of chemicals that these poor people were in the past. >> the statement that it takes environmental protection seriously, and they're working with the epa for the upper ringwood site. but the tribe fears that it's

running out of town, as many of its members die young. > >> we're at the point where if anybody can get into their 60s, that's good. >> reporter: for chuck, it's about pushing for a cleanup for the toxic legacy. ford is not taking responsibility for the health problems. >> it's very hard to get that out of them. what we can get out of them is full extraction and removal. >> reporter: it will leave this tribe at home and as pristine as it was for a century. >> coming up on aljazeera america. it's being called the chicken from hell but no word on if it will show up in the next jurassic park movie. a new type of dinosaur is found.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm delaware. del walters and te the headlines at this hour. it is official, crimea is now

russian territory. vladimir putin signing th the annexation into law. tomorrow marking two weeks since malaysian flight 370 vanished and the search continues on the parts found on satellite. but weather would hampering finding any debris. f. >> a castle was captured near the lebanon border. scientists have discovered a new dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago. it has been described as a cross between an emu and an alligator. >> it had a beak, clause and feathers. >> it's a creature that's a

cross -- and an alligator. sos a bizarre looking creature, covered in feathers, long tail, and a head with a tall, tall crest on it, and large beak in front. and large eyes, and long arms and long legs, and the arms ending with these enormous claws. >> it walked in the crustaceous period. parts of the skeleton were found in the hell creek formation, giving the discovery the nickname, the chicken from hell. the scientists managed to put it together to create 80% of a skeleton, and that gives them an idea of what this dinosaur may have looked like. the scientific name is anzo wily. and they can't hide the

excitement for the discovery. >> almost every time you find a new dinosaur, it seems to represent something really district. and every once in a while, you find something completely out of sight. a creature like this, or certain other dinosaurs that have been discovered in recent years. you think this is really some sort of weird thing that evolution cooked up. >> the discovery of this creature once again establishes a link between dinosaurs and bird. another piece in the jigsaw of the evolutionary chain. aljazeera, washington. >> i'm meteorologist, dave warren with the national forecast. heavy snow and wind coming out in the plains, with another shot of cold air pushing south. blizzard warnings and winter storm warnings in effect, because of this area of snow. from minnesota, it will push

east over new england. but the rain-snowline to the north with the temperatures trying to warm up. it's moving in to the south. and we're seeing a brief warmup before the cold front returns, and we see the arctic air. even as far north as chicago, it will try to push up to pennsylvania and be new england. there's the cold air behind it, and nothing really affecting southern california as the drought continues. those storms in the forecast there. looking at the computer forecast, snow over the great lakes, very heavy snow there, and into new york and new england, the storm track keeps the snow along the u.s.-canadian border and passing with a shower. this will be followed by cold arctic air, and the wind picks up and high pressure picks up, so no more snow, but the temperatures are dropping and cold this weekend. as far as the temperatures now.

54 in memphis, and 37 in chicago. saturday and sunday, the highs don't claim above freezing chicago. 48 in washington, and 44 in new york. there's the air to the south. the light snow and gusty wind will be developing, and here's the forecast. with the snow well up to the north, but very heavy snow in northern new york, new hampshire and vermont. that's what we can expect. really, no more rain or snow in the southwest. we need more storms giving us rain or snow, but none are in the forecast. not the best news there. >> the first day of spring, which is today, makes everybody happy, but for those outside of mexico city, it is an event. hundreds celebrating the spring equinox, an archeological site in mexico. in white and red, dancing to the

rhythm of drums and burning incense. all of this bringing in the new year on the aztec calendar. thanks for watching aljazeera america. i'm del walters in new york, "inside story" is next, and check us out 24 hours a day on aljazeera.com. >> it's the inside story. hello, i'm ray swarez. with each passing year, the toll from alzheimerss rising. more americans die from the disease and more people dev i