>> ♪ ♪ >> welcome to al jazeera ameri america. i'm morgan radford in new york city. a tense stand off and warning shots fired at an air base in crimea. plus china says new satellite pictures may have detected debris from that airliner. anand an oil boom attracting job

seekers, but now creating an entirely new problem, one that no one saw coming. we begin this hour with breaking news out of crimea where russian troops are in a tense stand off with ukrainian forces. they're demanding that ukrainian troops clear completely out, and they're saying that russian forces have now taken over that facility. >> i think it's safe to say following standard procedure, which is an entry by local self defense forces, men wearing uniforms, they are firing handguns up and down the streets when we arrived. the armored personnel vehicle driven by russian soldiers arrived first. how russians arrived into the base is not difficult because

they women from the adjacent airfield. presumably soldiers came in from that part of the base to take over the base that the ukrainian soldiers had been bunking out, refusing to surrender. the situation as we understand it now is that russian soldiers and self defense forces are in there now. we can't get closer to the scene because we were told that our camera would be broken multiple times. journalist who is are inside are having their flash card memory areiesand cameras taken. which is standard procedure here they don't want what they're doing to be shared with a wider audience. >> let's go to phil ittner live in kiev. how do these types of incidents play into the big picture? >> reporter: well, morgan, this is exactly the kind of incident that a lot of people in the

country and around the world actually are gravely concerned about because it could quickly spiral out of control. you, of course, have now this presence of the ukrainian army and the russian army on disputed territory in the crimea, and it just takes one or two incidents where lives are lost for this thing to completely escalate. everyone is aware of it. here in kiev we have been speaking with the defense ministry. they say i have given orders to my troops in crimea that they can return fire, but only if they feel that their lives are in danger. in aside from that he's urging restraint. we know that there has been a phone call from secretary of defense chuck hagel to the ukrainian defense minister expressing his respect for the show of restraint that the ukrainians are performing. we have also heard from u.n.

secretary ban ki-moon while he was here who said that both sides, the russians and ukrainians have to start talking because the longer this goes on the more chance there will be of an incident, a provocation that will lead to all-out war. and nobody wants to see that. we have heard also, however, that there is the attention for provocation in mainland ukraine, and there is concern about that. all of this combines into a sense of anxiety around the country where people think its just one or two bad days. one or two incidents that could make this entire crisis spiral, escalate, just turn into something that nobody wants to see happen, and it does seem as though every time something like this happens, morgan, there is a sense of loss of control that is happening, and that has a lot of people in this country very, very scared. >> being worried about that loss

of control, phil, how is that affecting the anxiety or even the morale of people there on the ground? >> well, that loss of control is exactly what is leading to a lot of anxiety. now, i was just down on independent square talking to people down there, and they say that this thing is draining them. they are physically ex-u.s.a.d from the last few weeks of crisis. they're just drawn out on this. it's been weeks and weeks now of this crisis. they don't know where their country is going. they fear for their young mea mn uniform, and the at independent square they hold vigils, they remember those who have already died, and they don't want to see more deaths. with what is happening in crimea

today it keeps the anxiety and stress levels very high. ukraine tonight is anxious, fearful and exhausted. >> just briefly given everything that has happened today any word on whether the international monitors will be allowed in crimea? >> reporter: those are an interesting point, and we need to talk about that. 100 civilian monitors will be going out to the eastern part of the country. they want to make sure that the two groups that are potentially going to clash, those that are pro-russian, and those that are pro-western, that they're not provoked by any actors coming in from moscow. that's the accusation coming from kiev, something that the russians deny. that's where the osce monitors

are going for now. they say look, crimea is our territory. we have adopted it into the federation. we will take care of the peninsula ourselves. we don't need international monitors here. it does not look like the osce will be allowed on to crimea proper. >> phil, thank you for being with us again this afternoon. president obama is expected to rally allies next would be. he'll leave sunday for an european summit and the g-7 will consider whether to kick out russia from the eight leading nations. mike viqueira has those details. >> reporter: it's a long series of summits. 53 nations will be represented

many by heads of state. then for president obama it's on to bruce he wills, belgium. he'll be at the e.u. summit there, no doubt about it, the crisis in ukraine will dominate. they have a meeting with the g-7 about that issue. he'll have a bilateral meeting with the chinese leaders, the japanese leaders, and susan rice appears before reporters in the pressroom. she was asked about russian troops amassed on the border. susan rice said that the united states is still watching that development very carefully. >> it's not clear what that signals, the russians have stated that they are intended military exercises, obviously given their past practice and the gap between what they have said and what they have done. we're watching it with accident i am. >> one head of state who is not coming, vladimir putin. sergei lavrov will have another

bilateral meeting with john kerry. but after the two meetings, the netherlands and then bruce he wills, the president will go on to the vatican in rome he'll meet with the pope and the italian prime minister. then on to saudi arabia, he'll try to soothe the saudi anger. there is no doubt about it, the deal that the u.s. made to bring iran to 9 table, the saudis are very upset when president obama backed off a bombing campaign in connection with those chemical attacks in favor of going to congress and asking for congressional permission to begin that campaign, that has not happened, and the deal was brokered by russia to remove those weapons. and the saudis very upset with the way that president obama handled that. a long and crucial trip coming up for the president. >> now that russian president vladimir putin signed the papers

annexing crimea, barnaby phillips tells us what that power switch means for residen residents. >> across the straits, mainland russia. russian goods come across by ship. right now the only land routes to crimea pass through ukraine. that's why president vladimir putin wants to build a bridge here. but it will take years to complete and could cost billions of dollars. the port by which russian goods come in is called kursh. a graveyard of decaying soviet factories, and mixed opinions as to whether now things will get better. samara heard on the news that all people have reunited with russia.

viera is happy, her daughter is a graduate, and it's shameful what she earns. we were invited to see a new investment. a plant that brings gas in. suddenly we were told we were not welcome, apparently even asking about the economy is too sensitive. water. 80% of crimea comes from mainland ukraine. it's one of the few sources and it's looking rather low. crimea not only gets the majority of its water from the mainland ukraine, but electricity. that means crimea is vulnerable to pressure from the government in kiev. this economist doesn't think ukraine will cut vital supplies to crimea because of its own economic ties with russia.

>> remember that ukraine also owes russia lots of money for cass and depends on that gas. we must not politicize things here that affect people but water will effect crimeaen farmers. >> the beach here look sad these days. in the summer russians with money prefer to fly to the mediterranean and beyond. as for crimea tourists, many won't come here this year. russia may find that taking crimea was the easy part. >> a new clue has emerged in the missing malaysian flight 370. randall pinkston joins us live with the latest.

>> reporter: it's been 22 days since the flight disappeared en route from kuala lumpur to beijing. now the course is focused over the southern indian ocean. the day ended with the search nothing has been found. but the announcement was made by malaysia's acting transport minister. >> the newewewewewewewewewewewed that image, and they'll send trips tofer vie. the beijing government will announce it in a couple of hours. >> reporter: the object is 70 feet long and 03 feet wide. it was not spotted by the aircraft or ships in the areas. china and other nations will

keep an eyen the spotting. some reports were saying that weather conditions were better today, but pilots are saying its still pretty tough out there. >> the weather conditions are less than ideal in this part of the search. we had a cloud as low as 500 feet into the search area. we had small amount of showers and sea fog down on the surface reducing visibility as well. >> reporter: so the key question is whether the object spotted by the chinese satellite or the other object spotted by another satellite is 370. and there is no way to know until they find those objects and take them to a lab for testing. >> thank you for joining us on m washington, d.c. a small town with a big oil boom that is causing a whole new set of problems.

>> president obama said women are still not getting equal rights at work. the president said that women are earning $0.77 for every dollar that a man earns. he also said the outdated policies are hurting families as well as the economy. meanwhile walmart is rolling out the saving cash year. allowing you to compare walmart to other stores. if other stores are selling it for a cheaper price then you will get a store credit for the difference. north dakota's oil industry is booming. we have more on our new series "the new prone tear." >> erik kirby makes the best of a cramp situation. the living room also functions

as an office. there is no room for tools and other household items. so they're stashed in a shed. >> it's pretty packed. >> while small the mobile home was the most affordable option for the civil engineer, his wife and son who recently moved to north dakota oil country from oregon. >> $1,800 a month is a good deal for this right here in this town. for sure there are 2 bedroom apartments going over for $3,000. >> reporter: it's not only a boomtown but also the most expensive rental market in the nation as thousands of job seekers flock to the state to the oil fields. the city has jumped from roughly 15,000 residents to 30,000 residents. >> this is one of our typical studio rooms. >> danny hogan's firm is

building modular homes for oil service workers. but recent won't be cheap. >> depending on the people who are coming in, we're going for $139 a night. >> reporter: north dakota knows it has a major housing problem on its hand. it has been building affordable housing all over the state, but mostly in the oil patch. so far the state has subsidized apartment buildings for those in nursing, teaching, and police department. matt grim shaw has rented out all 66 units. now he's worried how he'll accommodate new hires. >> we are 25 to 30 full-time

opportunities. and as of today we no longer have guaranteed apartments that we can move somebody into. >> reporter: as more housing is built, developers think it will get less expensive. erik kirby is not waiting for that to happen. he's building a $275,000 home his family will move into this summer. >> that still to you a lot of money? >> that's a heck of a lot of money. my house back in oregon was half of that. >> in oil country that's the price you pay for the american dream. diane estherbrook, north dakota. >> michigan performed it's first gay marriage today. a federal judge overafternooned michigan's ban on friday. the state's attorney general asked that the ruling be freeze

until with a ruling is made. it is unknown if they will uphold that request. 06 years later, a passenger plane disappeared over the great lakes. why the search is still on. it's your average 6'0" easter egg. he'll tell you the story behind it in just a moment. >> 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 afternoon and welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york city. michigan performed it's first same-sex marriage today. several counties say they'll extend court hours and give licenses to those couples. michigan's gay marriage ban was struck down on friday. russian troops storm an ukrainian air base in crimea. the shots were heard but origins are unknown. u.n. general secretary ban ki-moon heads over to ukraine. the chinese government

released this satellite image showing a large object in the indian ocean. so far search crews have not been able to low kate i locate . as the search continues t brings back memories of a plane that disappeared over the great lakes. >> reporter: in 1950 northwest airlines flight 201 vanished over the skies of lake michigan. the dc 4 was en route from large object guard laguardia airport . >> valerie van heest wrote the definitive book of the flight over lake michigan. >> a big search developed the morning of the 24th. the coast guard, the navy were called in. five huge vessels, planes, boats

combing the waters of lake michigan looking for debris, but they didn't find anything. >> reporter: an investigation report concluded none of the 55 passengers and three could you members survived, and the aircraft was destroyed. at the time the investigators believe the doomed plane crashed, but the wreckage was never found. for the past ten years van heest and a group of volunteers have searched for the sunken fusela fuselage. >> initially it was a search to solve a historical history, but then it became a search for closure for these family members who are still seeking answers. >> reporter: ken's grandfather was on the flight. >> we would like to understand what happened. in this case an airplane flew into a thunder storm. no one knows what happened, they don't know exactly where it

went. did they try to turn around? i would like to know what happened. >> they found debris field 12 miles in diameter all kinds of pieces of the plane, human remains, luggage, personal effects, none of the human remains were identifiable. these are shredded human remains, flesh, organs, horrible tragedy. >> a shaving kit and many articles of bothing. broken buttons on this tattered jacket reveal how violent the crash may have been. but there was a check found made out for the ticket on that fateful flight. for families dec decades later,d

answers. >> for me, it's important. >> van heest will continue the recovery mission. >> there is a chance that it's just beyond the area we've searched. we're not willing to give up. we'll be back out there this spring continuing the search. >> reporter: for now a memorial for the 58 victims will suffice. their names etched in black granite, a reminder of so many lives lost. bon-ton harp bore, michigan. >> meteorologist: it's the first official weekend of spring but winter is hanging in there in the northeast. not a cloud across california, the southwest, however not necessarily good news give the fact that they're dealing with exceptional levels of drought,

one of the dryest starts of the year. north of los angeles is the worst along the fresno area as well. the temperatures are going to be a little lower than normal, 65 degrees in los angeles, 66 in francisco. onshore flow but forgively we're not looking at wet weather. across the southeast a different story as temperatures rise we are looking for showers and bigly between portions of louisiana and across to florida. across the northeast it's a chilly day out there, and we have a clipper system working its way in. we saw a little bit of snow across the northern portion of new york state where temperatures are in the 30s. 45 in albany.

55 in new york city. with all that cloud cover out there and the winds blowing, some places gusting up to 30 mph it will feel just a bull bit chilly. speaking of the chilly air portions of it are back across the dakotas. fargo feels like 1 degree when you factor in all that wind, and temperatures are going to be right around the teens as we reach into the later portions of the day. this cold air is on the way to the northeast and across portions of the midwest. saturday you'll feel it across the north central plains. by monday you'll feel it along the east coast. >> thanks so much. when it comes to easter eggs no one does it quite like croatia. eastern year artists paint easter eggs that are 60 tall. when the eggs are finished

they're shaped all around the country to be displaced and tunnel squares. thanks so much for watching al jazeera america. remember, you can always follow us on our website at www.aljazeera.com. >> no other sport can kick off mass emotion in indonesia like football, even if the national team languishes near the bottom of world rankings. >> indonesians, they're really crazy. we can see their ranking in fifa is going down, going down, going down. but every game in the stadium, 80,000 people, 90,000 people. >> even local competitions turn smaller stadiums into cauldrons