>> thanks to all of our guests for joining us and we're out of time. until next time, we'll see you good afternoon. we've got a busy news day ahead for you, can coming up in the half hour, rescue crews are on the scene in washington state where a search for survivors is now underway. the coast guard told us, you know, don't eat fish you catch together. >> plus a barge with 900,000 gallons of oil crashing off the texas gulf coast. a syrian jet shot down by the turkish military claiming

that it violated their air space. rescue workers in washington state are still frantically searching for survivors following that massive mudslide? snohomish county. at a press conference a short while ago, authorities describe the magnitude of that disaster. >> it reminded me of the photographs that you would see and the video that we saw when mount st. helens erupted. trees laying over on their side, massive mud debris. >> it came 30 miles north of seattle and killed at least three people. we have the very latest now. what can we expect to see, and what just happened? >> morgan, here's what we do know. seven others in addition to the three fatalities were taken to area hospitals including a 6-month-old infant listed in

critical condition. right now emergency workers say they're very concerned about responder safety. the affected area is still very unsafe, and at this point they want to prevent further fatalities and injuries. yesterday rescue workers say they heard voices crying for help from beneath the debris. the mountain of mudflowed into a ne nearby river blocking water from flowing yoen stream. the landslide was 135 feet wide and 180 feet deep. one eyewitness described the horrific scene. >> i was coming down the hill. i just saw this like somebody wants to grab you. everything was gone in like three seconds. two miles from here that way, it's pretty much everything is gone. >> saturday's weather was sunny and clear, but authorities believe the wet winter season and groundwater saturation from a week of heavy rains is to blame for this. concerns grows along the

stillaguamish river blocked by debris in the area of the slide. the state's governor issued a state of emergency and there are fears the dam could break. more than 100 crews of emergency responders are searching for possible survivors right now using very sophisticated technology. thermal imaging cameras to find people. of course, we'll keep you updated as the search and rescue continues. morgan. >> let's turn to jalelah ahmed in terms of what to expect. >> it terms of weather it's dry. it's in the 50s and 60s across the region. when you look at the map, this area received a little bit of rainfall towards the north of it in the mountains where the snow is melting with temperatures in the 50s and 60s not only is the snow melting, but last month we did see everett, washington pick up 5.64 inches of rain. this isn't something that

occurred drastically but over time. when the snow melts, that helps the river rise, and that's giving rise to the flood conditions, which actually prompted that landslide. so they're not expecting any rain over the next 24 hours, but they will have to contend with that river, which actually may continue to overflow. back to you, morgan. in texas crews are trying to contain an oil spill after an oim barge carrying nearly 1 million gallons of crude oil collided with another ship. the crash happened near the coast of galveston, texas. for more on that, let's speak to our course pent in dallas for you monitoring the situation from the beginning. brandon, authorities have called this an extremely serious spill, but are there any concerns yet about health issues? we understand that bran ton is not with us just yet. we'll come to him later in the program. earlier i spoke with first class

petty officer andy kendrick off the u.s. coast guard, and he gave us an update on the response effort thus far. >> we did send a couple people to the hospital as a precautionary measure. the couple folks that were on the barge with the significant spill, we have close to 168,000 gallons that could have entered the water from the hull that was breached. so the barge was carrying a significant amount. the part that was damaged, about 168,000 was possible to have come out. we're not sure exactly how much of that has come out. we're responding as if all of it has. the folks that are on board, obviously, they enhailed a quite a few fumes and we got them checked out. other than that we have no reports of any injuries. we're definitely just hitting it with everything we've gone. fortunately, houston is one of the best places in the world as far as response and capability. we have great coordination and

relationships with all the folks here. we have federal, state and local agencies a agencies hitting it hard. we have containment boom around the barge itself. about 600 feet of it there to contain any oil that continues to seep out. right now we're checking the barge and working on the operations and we're removing the product. we have crews out there pumping the oil there off of the barges so we can take it in to get it fixed and check it out and survey the damage and also find out if there's still remaining oil in that hold that is built. so that hull that was breached, we're not sure how much oil may still be remaining in there. there may be a considerable amount. we may want to check it out and see what we've got. >> that was petty officer andy kendrick. we have our correspondent with us now from dallas. brandon, authorities have called this an extremely serious spill. so are there any concerns yet about health issues or even damage to the wildlife in the area? >> reporter: well, at this point

there have been no reports of impact on wildlife, however, the folks there working to kwan and clean up the mess, they certainly are concerned because the area is a popular bird habitat. at this time you have crews out skimming oil out of the water and 35,000 have been brought in to help protect the wildlife in the area and contain the spill. booms are actually temporary floating barriers that are used in situations like this. so, again, of course you have a big effort underway to contain the spill. as you mentioned, as much as 168,000 gallons are assumed to have leaked. >> 168 gallons? >> 168,000 gallons. it's quite a mess. it takes a while to contain the oil and work to get it out. >> brandon, we help you stay with us throughout the afternoon to keep us updated from texas.

brandon in dallas for us. a warning from nato saying there's so many russian troops on the eastern ukrainian border they're a threat to moldova, which is actually on the opposite side of ukraine. the ukrainian security chief is accusing putin of trying to take over the entire country, which is a claim that russia denies. meanwhile, russia is moving missiles and has now taken over most of the ukrainian military bases inside of crimea. let's go to phil etner who joins us live from the heart of independence square in kiev. phil, there's a lot of speculation as to what russia is up to. at this point what can ukraine and the western allies really do? >> reporter: well, not a lot when it comes to crimea, morgan. that is pretty much a done-deal. those russian forces are very well entrenched in the peninsula itself. there are concerns that crimea

may not be the end game. that russia may have designs on areas of -- on areas of mainland ukraine, and in particular the eastern part of the country, but the numbers of troops being massed along the russian border with ukraine are of such significant numbers it's creating shockwaves in other areas because there is the belief that they could, if they wanted to, certainly drive through much of this country and connect with an area called transnester. it's an interesting strip of land. it was fall over before in the collapse of the soviet union, and it's still disputed territory. it is mostly ethnic russians, and they have said, morgan, in the last few days that they want to follow crimea's example and rejoin with the russian federation. if that happens, russia might have to look at a way to link up with that strength of land, and that's what kiev is deeply concerned about. nato is also very concerned about it, and we have heard

today earlier from the white house deputy national security adviser, tony blinken, about this situation and whether or not russia is going to do anything about it, at the very least the military maneuvers create a dangerous atmosphere. >> it's deeply concerning to see the russian troop buildup along the border. it creates the potential for incidents, for instability. it's likely what they're trying to do is intimidate the ukrainians. it's possible they're preparing to move in. >> reporter: now, moscow says they have no intention of going across the border and coming into ukraine's mainland, but certainly the concern here in kiev tonight is that there are designs on the mainland of this country, and they are preparing in case this actually does turn into a military confrontation. morgan. >> phil, we're hearing a lot about this anxiety, and as your

sound bite mentioned intem addition. speaking of intimidation, you have these sanctions imposed on russian businessmen in the u.s. does that make a difference in russia's decision-making? >> reporter: well, we have seen the damage those sanctions have done in the very immediate term. we saw on friday a drop in russia's stock market. single-digit numbers and low single-digit numbers, but still an interesting drop. we have seen damage to russia's national currency, the ruble. we aren't seeing actually on russian social media people posting pictures of prices going up in the stores. things like, you know, jars of jam or shampoo, just a basic necessity of life. because the ruble is taking a hit, those prices are going up. so the average russia is seeing an effect on their pocketbook, but also in the bigger economic picture yes, there are things that are happening.

again, we saw the drop in the stock market, but we also have seen russia's credit rating downgraded by a number of international credit groups. so immediately we're seeing some effects, but those sanctions, it is believed, will take some time before we really see the larger, more deep effect of those sanctions. morgan. >> phil, just briefing before you go, we're hearing a lot of a rally behind you right there in independence square. is that in response to what happened yesterday? >> it is absolutely in response to what happened in belvak yesterday. many ukrainians are absolutely furious at the ways that the russians are treating their ukrainian men in uniform. they're deeply concerned about the presence of their forces. obviously, with all this talk of the risk of this escalating, they're very concerned whether or not they can send their young

men into harm's way. morgan. >> phil joining us live from the heart of independence square. phil, always a pleasure. meanwhile, president obama leaves for europe tonight, and that's for a long-planned four-country tour, but the president will attend a nuclear summit in the netherlands on monday where he's called for a g-7 meeting on the sid lines of that summit. he's also expected to ask couldn'ts to step up their sanctions against moscow. a new twist in syria's civil war. a jet plane shot down by turkey's military. new clues in the search for that missing malaysian jetliner.

turkey's armed forces shot down a syrian jet on sunday after it crossed into turkish air space. that air space was in a border region of syria and turkey where syrian rebels have been battling president bashar al-assad's forces. turkey's prime minister says the jet was gunned down after

violating his country's air space and he went on to warn of heavy response if that air space was violated again. anita mcnaught reports. >> reporter: the battle inside syria for the vital strategic border crossing between syria and turkey now involves turkey's military. as jubilant rebel fighters cheered, the remains a syrian fighter jet burn in the mountains, shot down by turkish f-16s after turkey said the syrian jet invaded its air space. today there's a political rally in the lead-up to local elections on march 30th, and the tur kirk prime minister told them a syrian plane violated the air space. our f-16s hit this plane. why? if you invite my air space, a slap after this will be hard. damascus says its plane was in

syrian air space when turkish jets attacked. rebels today posted a video shows them in control of the border crossing, the fighting in the area remains fierce. the casops crossing matters because it's the last border post captured and opening up a passage to the mediterranean. not only that, but it's in a region inhabited mainly by syrian allawites. s secretary the assad family coming from. his home village is only 30 kilometers away. syrian army and national defense forces have fighting back and being reinforced. syrian fighter jets have bombed the area for the past two days. anita mcnaught, al jazeera. >> that plane was taken down in an area where syrian and government forces have been fighting for control of a border crossing. now hundreds of thousands have fled syria to turkey to escape

the uprising against al assad. more than 100,000 people have been killed when the fighting began. according to u.n. figures 6.9 million syrians have been displayed by the civil war and 2.5 million are now registered at refugees. crewses in australia wrapped up a full day for the missing malaysian airliner. they scoured the southern indian ocean on sunday covering more than 10,000 nautical miles. several satellite images including new ones this morning out of france show objects floating right there in the water. look at that. an impending tropical cyclone threatened to interrupt search efforts later this week. in seo paulo for drug traffic it's the busiest airport in the world. >> reporter: federal police at sao paulo airport take two

nigerian passengers away suspected the carrying drugs. they were checking in for a flight to hoe togo. searching their luggage they find what they're looking for. an investigator takes samples of the powder. if the drops turn blue, it confirms it's cocaine. they then switch to the luggage of the second person. inside this suspect's suitcase were several of these women's purses, and what the investigators did is cut open up one of them, and inside were these white pacts. this is pure cocaine. it's 4 kilos, just a small portion of the 1.6 tons of cocaine confiscated from 4u7b 00 passengers arrested last year trying to smuggle it out of the airport. on just one flight last year from sao paulo to abu dhabi.

they were going to south africa or the countries heading to the final destination. >> translator: africa say warehouse for the drugs to be stored until trafficked to europe or asia. however, the cocaine that goes on flights to the middle east doesn't leave the airport. it transfers to the consumer marke markets >> reporter: with only a handful of police agents working a night, an airport that 30 million passed through last year, stopping all drugs is impossible. behind the drug mules there's a network of the nigerian mafia that runs the entire trafficking operation according to this officer that didn't want to be identified. >> translator: the mules arrive here with little more than. they're told to go to a hotel

where they're contacted by traffickers to tlifr the drugs to the mules, hand them a ticket and send them to the airport. >> you're under arrest for international drug transportation. >> reporter: on this night two are arrested, no telling how many others got through. a typical night in what could be one of the world's busiest airport for drugs. stay tuned because coming up on al jazeera america, we'll take you inside the shrimp farming industry in bangladesh. find out why some people are having a hard time breaking into the biz. and the first lady of the united states visiting one of china's most historic sites.

good afternoon. welcome back to al jazeera jerk. nato's military commander warned that russian troops on the eastern ukrainian border are a threat to moldova, which is on

the opposite side of ukraine. russia says it's simply not true. a rescue mission is underway in northwest washington state following a massive landslide that killed at least three people. the shrimp industry has brought a million jobs in banglade bangladesh, but it comes at a high price to the environment and to the economy. >> reporter: they call it white gold. for 30 years now they have made a killing on shrimp. the industry is a major earner for the country second only to the garment industry. for shrimp farmers it's been easy money. >> translator: take my farm, whatever i invest in it i'll get six or seven times as much money in return. it's a really profitable business. >> reporter: but the industry hasn't rewarded everyone equally. all this used to be farmland and home to a large number of farmers.

he can work this stretch of land by hiring four or five laborers. that's good news for shrimp growers and bad news for the locals. before an area of this size would you have provided an income for several dozen farmers. a few kilometers away he struggled to grow his crops on the soil. it's so salty it's turned white because of all the shrimp farming saltwater intrusion from the bay of bengal is a major problem in the area. >> translator: shrimp farming benefits those on a lot of land. small farmers like me haven't gained from it at all. >> he says many of his neighbors have been displayed because they can no longer support themselves off the land. those backing the shrimp industry say it employs over a million people, maybe not in the farms but in factories and plants like this one. they say crops should be grown elsewhere. >> if we do not produce rice,

there's no problem with that, because all of bangladesh can produce rice. all of bangladesh cannot grow the shrimp. this is the only area. >> reporter: like the garment sector, the shrimp industry is how the country is changing, if farmers to factory workers. perhaps an inevitable transition as they play catch-up on the road to industrialization. thunderstorms are combing across the southeast this morning and also through this afternoon we expect to see them continue to push towards tallahassee, northern portions of florida right through georgia and all the way towards the i-95 corridor where today a lot chillier than yesterday out there. 14 degrees less than where we reached high temperatures yesterday. birmingham was minus 20 and charlotte 25 degrees cooler than

yesterday. that cool air is felt across the northeast as well. in albany we have a high around 29 today, 32 from the indictment high early on in the day. back to you, morgan. >> thanks so much jalelah. parisians go to the polls today for the first round of local elections, and for the first time it's likely the city will be answers to madam mayor. from paris here's emma hayward. >> reporter: the state is the chance to run all this, one of the world's most distinctive cities. whoever wins this election in paris will make history. becoming its first female mayor. on the left want front-runner, socialist ann hildago and on the right ann marie. both campaigning hard to make their mark, but doing it

differently. morsai is a rising start on the right and a former ecology minister. >> because i want to change paris for the better because i love paris. >> reporter: while hidalgo takes a more low-key approach. she's the current deputy mayor. >> reporter: i hope parisians choose progress over conservatism and regress. >> reporter: whoever gains the keys to paris needs to keep in mind the interests of more than 2 million people. this is the first real electoral test seven francois hollande who struggled in the polls. this is an election dominated by discussions about housing, the economy and security. and that two women are leading the race. politics here like in my places is still dominated by men, and at times during this campaign

the two main mayoral candidates have been scrutinized in a way they wouldn't have been if they were men. compared not only on their politics. >> translator: the interest in the fact that the candidates are women could be seen in the media. for example, when they talked about the color of their hair, how they dressed. in fact, they have to play on a double-level, which is both one of seduction to the parisian woman but also on top of that to represent the image of the mayor. >> reporter: both of them want to revitalize paris. if gender isn't the main issue in the ballot booth this weekend, then just maybe it could lead to greater equality in politics here. emma hayward, al jazeera in paris. speaking of politics, the first lady and her daughters visited the great wall of china today. the first lady is on a week-long visit to promote educational exchanges between the u.s. and

china. she hopes to have a discussion on education in beijing with students, educators and their parents. thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford. stay tuned, because ""real money"" is coming up next. americans haven't paid this much for beef since ronald reagan was in the white house. i'll tell you why. i'll tell how the former president prediblthed the pickle we'd be in with russia and sanctions way back in 1981. plus, the mystical 15th century practice that farmers are using to solve a big problem right here in the 21st century. i'm ali velshi, and this is "real money."