so, some archiviscenturisl no you that. "the story of the jews" simon scharma, great to talk to you. >> you, too. lenten e >> russian soldiers moving in and taking control. they are now in charge of last major military base in crimea. >> and an minister surveillance plane rejoins search efforts to find the missing malaysian airliner. this as the australasian prime minister expresses optimism saying there are credible leads. >> dealing with a deadly mud slide. several killed after a small washington town is cut-off by

mother nature. >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york city. russia has taken over one of the last military bases in crimea after a standoff that lasted several hours. there was explosions as soldiers were corned and the russian -- cornered and the russian troops demanded their surrender. russia sent in reinforcements and started to unload from a war shop. the take over is part of russia's official annexation of crimea. demonstrators filled the streets in the east of ukraine, calling for viktor yanukovych to come home. >> russia's operation to seize belbek was larger and more

violent than other bases. jennifer glasse takes a look at crimea, and the impact on the crisis. >> the take over of the belbek outside of sevastopol is another example of russia tightening its grip on ukraine. it was an aggressive move in daylight, something we have not seen much of. there was an ultimatum to the ukrainian forces. the russians told them to give up their weapons. they were negotiating twice, the russians moved in aggressively. armoured personnel carriers moved in, firing shots into the air. the ukrainians lined up and sang the anthem. that's the defines we have seen from the ukrainian forces that hadn't wanted to give up bases and ships, but in most cases they were outnumbered and overrun. they are in a limbo. what will happen to them next is

unclear. many want to stay with the ukrainian military. where it will be, we don't know. they and their families would need to be evacuated, and we saw what russia is doing with some of the naval ships, where the russian flag raised on that. that occurred on friday. this morning russian forces took armament, missiles and ammunition off the ship, making it not a warship, but useless, to be used as a war machine. the future of the ships uncertain. obviously kiev having concern about demonstrations in ukraine's east. as russia consolidated the grip, many are concerned what will happen in ukraine proper in the east, where there has been pro-russian demonstrations. russia has amassed as much as 20,000 troops on the eastern border.

kiev has mobilized some of its troops. and that could be the next flash point. >> ukraine's leaders in kiev are watching the military escalation. thousands of russian troops continue to line up along the border. phil ittner has that part of the story. >> russian troops rolled in, smashing through the gates in armored vehicle. gunshots were fired, it's exactly the kind of incident that has not only ukraine, but the international community concern. word that the base is in russian hand is another challenge. many ukrainian furious at the treatment of their men. aleksai gritsenko notes what it's like to be detained by russian forces. a member of the ukrainian cadet

force, he was held for almost a week in what he calls terrible conditions. >> i was kept in a mask. my arms were bound. >> how many people in the room? >> 33. >> i was alone in the room. i could here people in other rooms being tortured. that created an atmosphere. >> aleksai gritsenko's imprisonment so incensed the ukrainian government that it threatened the russians with consequences if they were not released. on the diplomatic front un-secretary-general ban ki-moon recognised the longer the crisis continued, the greater the chance something could happen, rutting in a war. ukraine's acting defence minister, ihor tanyukh said his troops were disciplined and will

show restraint. he has given the order to return fire, but only if his men are at risk. >> provocation set up by the russian forces are failing. now is the time when the proper measures by political authorities must be taken in crimea. >> the government has another problem. in the east of the country. pro-russian and pro-western groups are at odds. a potential flare-up there could give moscow an excuse to move beyond crimea, to protect ethnic russians, and armed militias. some activists to play by their own rule. >> the government wants the froo troops to give up weapons and join a national guard under their control. just in case something happens. >> one hot spot is the city of

donetsk, in eastern ukraine. [ chants ] >> more than 5,000 people marched through the city on saturday, waving russian flags carrying signs saying "viktor yanukovych is our president." riot police clamped down when the pushing and shouting started. >> i think everything should be done in a peaceful way because viktor yanukovych is a legitimate president. he can help and assist. that's why today we call not only for help from vladimir putin and russia, but we ask for help from viktor yanukovych. we hope and rely on him. >> separatists in donetsk say they want to hold their own election to decide whether to split from ukraine. president obama will head to europe on sunday night in an effort to rally american allies around ukraine.

he'll attend an emergency meeting in the netherlands. as randall pinkston reports, one country that will not be there is russia. >> initially president obama's primary purpose for attending the meeting in yueurope was to to the nuclear summit. when russia took over crimea, prime minister -- the president called for a meeting of the gst 7. he'll meet with the industrialized nations except for that of vladimir putin. the obama administration is keeping a close watch on russia's move as take over of the belbek. and the mobilization of 20,000 russian troops along the ukrainian border. at a briefing on friday, in preparation for the president's trip to europe. national security advisor susan rice was asked what is the

meaning of russia's mobilization of the troops? . >> it's not clear what it signals. the russians stated they are intending military exercise, given the past practice and the gap between what they have said and done. we are watching it with skepticism. >> president obama will meet with leaders of the european union, as well as n.a.t.o. he is trying to get the european allies of america to agree to stringent economic sanctions against russia. that will be no easy task because europe that is closer ties to russia, and stringent sanctions against russia likely will hurt europe more than the u.s. >> that's randall pinkston reporting from washington. search operations for the missing malaysian airliner are focussing on the southern indian ocean. eight planes are scouring a remote area 1500 miles off the coast of western australia, after china released a satellite

image showing a large object floating in the search zone. some are concerned it may be too large to have come from the plane. the u.s. navy's p3 poseidon will join the search after a day off. a tropical cyclone threatens to hamper elements today. andrew thomas has this report from perth. >> some revelations that a chinese satellite had an image of an object roughly 22 metres in length, a sizeable object. that was to the sweat of of where an australian object had spotted the object.

this is in the opposite direction, which may explain why the spotter planes have not seen anything with the naked eye. the planes will head to the new expanded area, trying to spot objects. also, the civilians planes with spotters, they thought they spotted a number of small objects. they couldn't be sure of what they were. they redirected a military plane. when it got to what it thought was the area, all it could see was seaweed. tony abbott said combined the new developments are significant. they sounded optimistic. this is what he had to say. >> it's too early to be definite, but obviously we have had a number of very credible leads, and there is increasing hope, no more than hope, no more than hope, that we might be on the road to discovering what did happen to this ill-faith

aircraft. >> so the search continues on sunday, and with eight planes leaving the air force base. the fact that tony abbott was publicly bullish, optimistic, that there may be development. some grounds for hope, but hope, of course, an interesting ward in the context. news, ifs comes, could be news that relatives from passengers on the plane may be dreading. whilst they want new, it may be the news they dread. >> andrew thomas reporting from perth az. >> it's a big make leaving air traffic controllers scratching their heads. >> recordings re veal what a pilot told the tower when he landed a plane full of passengers at the wrong airport. >> and details of a deadly land

slide in washington state. why the area where it happened could be facing another whether-led disaster.

>> warm temperatures on the east coast. this morning we are looking at deadly conditions in western washington. rain showers scattered across the northern portion of western washington, and we had a mud slide come through. video of this mud slide. it swept across washington , near the squamish river, the mud slam k into the river, wiping out eight houses and killed three people that we know of and injured eight. this story will develop as we get through overnight into sunday. we'll see a drier day for western washington. the temperatures are warm and snow levels higher. snow in the mountains melts and is coming down the river, and

pressure is building up in that automatic-made mud dam sitting in the squamish river. one hour after the mud slide we saw the river at the guage at arlington, it dropped about three feet in an hour. at last check it was reported 0.3 feet at arlington. the danger grows as we are waiting to see the potential of water bursting through the dam. be warned, in western washington, you want to stay away from the river system. seattle, looking at your march rain, your total for the month over seven inches, well above the normal for the month of march. that's over 5 inches. now, as we shift from this terrible story in western washington, we'll deal with this as there's more rain coming in through the first part of the work week. in the east coast, the big story is the warm weather.

now we'll have a cool down and it will be a blast. the jet stream is changing it direction. in fact, we are getting an arctic blast developing in the mid west and upper planes, and it will sag across the mid-atlantic state sunday, monday, hitting the north-east, bringing the potential of snow to the north-east. starting out the morning hours, very cold for billings, single dim its, down to 34. after 63 in new york, only getting to 45 on your sunday. >> thank you so much. a pilot who landed at the wrong airport in january didn't even realise his mistake until after the plane touched down. the confusion is captured in a radio transmission between the pilot and air traffic chrome. the south-west airlines flight was supposed to land in branson missouri, but the pilot touched down at a smaller airport nearby:

>> no, he was not kidding. no one was hurt. passengers reported the plane came close to going off the runway. the pilots remain on paid leave. >> from the beginning the search for the missing malaysian airliner faces a number of hurdles. as florence looi reports, one issue is the coordination between the countries. >> this map shows the last movements of malaysia airlines flight mh370. it took off from kuala lumpur at 12:41am, and was about to enter vietnamese air space when it disappeared at 1:22. at some point it feared off course to the west. it was de tected by thai radar

at 1:28. thailand did not share the information until 10 days into the search, saying the request from malaysia was not specific. in the early days there were complaints from vietnam and china, over the way malaysia was using the information. >> information, past historical events, where the south-east governments had national security threats coming from neighbouring regions. now, these have not been able to move forward due to probable threats and errors that still exist. the south china sea has been identified as a flash point. it's here that several companies, including china, have territorial claims. this shows how some nations may

not have the capacity to back up claims or monitor borders. the malaysian military said it detected flight mh370 as a blip on the radar, but did nothing about it, as it was not identified as a threat. >> it is not a heightened state of alertness. it's not war time. not everything is being scrutinized. the thailand or singapore or indonesia, everyone is not in a state of alertness that they'd look at a commercial aircraft which is way off its flight path, with suspicion. >> while the search for flight mh370 may not have exposed deficiencies, it shows a level of trust in the region, and the limits of cooperation. >> protests turned deadly in

venezuela. three people were killed when thousands of protesters took to the streets of caracas, where nicolas maduro spoke to loyalists calling the protest a fascist us-backed consir assy. more than 30 died in five weeks. >> hundreds of thousands took to the streets, protesting poverty and austerity. many urged the spanish government not to pay debts and focus on high unemployment. >> protest turned violent, leaving 100 people injured. >> some say it's a troubling sign of the times. the struggling economy led to a spike in abused and abandoned children. we look at how some private charities are stepping up to protect them. >> these children are learning what it feels like to be loved, filling in gaps left by their parent. some were abused, some fending for themselves and some

abandoned. two dozen children make up a family of their own, along with 16 teachers and thursdays that care for them in this home run by a charity "the smile of the child." as the economic crisis moves on, demand is racing ahead of resources. >> the crisis caused parents to lose their jobs or live in a state of terror. they drink, some commit suicide, some take drugs and become mentally unbalanced. it impacts the children and in some cases endangers lives. >> the charity races $17 million by private donations. >> last year it rose its capacity to shelter children like these behind me, and helped 2,500 families feed their children. twice as many as the year before. >> the state gives nothing, but

supports newborns in hospitals around greece. last year greece's two biggest children's hospitals took in 300 minors, a third more than the year before. >> in the past children didn't stay for more than 2-3 weeks, now we keep them for 2-3 months. a healthy child shouldn't be kept in a hospital. we shouldn't occupy nursing staff taking care of them. >> the deposit says it's preparing shelters for abandoned children. as these workers know, racing a child takes more than a bed and a roof. >> busted brackets. the latest upsets in march madness. and same-sex couples - why they may have to wait a little longer to tie the

[ ♪ music ] >> there were plenty of upsets in the n.c.a.a. men's basketball tournament. on saturday dayton knocked off syracuse, and yukon won. one thing that changed over the years is the game. al jazeera's jessica taff has the story. >> march is the pinnacle of the men's college basketball season. the n.c.a.a. tournament is a jewel in the society of sports of the since 1939 each year one university is king, and in that moment that institution is at the top of the collegiate basketball world. up until the mid 1990s, individual athletes moulded the brand to what it is today. >> you had to go to school for four years. today you don't see that. in that era there were a lot of players. i dent want to disrespect -- don't want to disrespect anyone.

there were a number of players that were game change yourers not only for the team. >> they were in school for one or two years, so you got familiar with teams and players. i think that allowed basketball fans in general to watch teams for a longer period of time. >> great rivalries, and there was a connection, between the fans and the players, because you got to know them. you saw the players develop and evolve over four years. that was the key - four years. >> in 1971 a supreme court decision allowed high school basketball athletes to be professionally drafted. some players offered to go the route, it wasn't until 1995 when kevin garnett announced a decision to forego college. in 2006 the n.b.a. announced the one and done rule, forcing

student athletes to attend college for at least one year or until they were 19 years of age, changing the face of the n.c.a.a. >> most of the kids coming in now, it's crazier than ever. one and done - i've got to leave in six months. we don't recruit on that. everyone thinks we do. i tell kids they need to stay at least two years. if something happens after one, i'm not holding you back. >> you're one and down, you are out the door before you enter. getting coaching and college, where it's not about the individual, it's about the team, the school, the coach. having the foundation before you come into the n.b.a. would benefit the n.b.a. >> the days of the same players is a thing of the past. for these superstars, foregoing most of its college appearance

is creating a different look. >> more of the players in the college game are those that may not be the most super talented athletic guys but they know how to play and are fundamental. it's a better co-seesiveness. >> the men's basketball college icon may be gone forever. the athletes that created the miseke lives on eternally. the game, whilst looking in larger than life figures. this is evident by the $10.8 mullion deal with the c.b.c. network for the right to air the tournament and the over $1 billion in ad revenue that the games garnered. >> a court put a stop to same-sex unions in michigan until wednesday. a federal judge overturned a gay

marriage ban on friday. now an appeals court says the decision, while the state appeals, and if it fails michigan will be the 18th state where same-sex unions are legal. >> thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford. see you again at 4am. one of america's largest college fraternities is ending it's practice of hazing recruits. the fraternity was reportedly with the most reported hazing deaths. and others are following suit. the decades long practice.