russian backs troops have been shoring up their positions ton peninsula and taking over ukrainian military assets base by base. i'm tony harris in new york. "america tonight" with joie chen is up next. perth,. >> on "america tonight," an end to the mystery but not the pain. what happened to malaysia air 370, now the world knows. also, a dark part of virginia's history not all that long ago. >> the end was to develop a super-human race. >> exclusive look at how the commonwealth's forced sterilization policy became a model for the nazis. >> how many forced sterilizations do you think you witnessed during your time there? >> oh my

goodness, i coan couldn't begin to tell you. >> and obamacare. >> evenly ly, that will be something i'll sign up for. >> it's not something i want to think about . >> good evening, thanks for joining us. i'm joie chen. the official hope has ended. although the skepticism doesn't, with the notice that the malaysia air 370 ended in the indian ocean. the aircraft with 239 on board did crash into the ocean after taking off from kuala lumpur over two weeks ago. they can't say why. that's why a search continues in

a remote part of indian ocean, 2500 miles beyond perth awful. sarah hoye has the story. >> it's with deep sadness and regret that i must inform you that according to this new data, life of 370 ended in the southern indian ocean. >> the missing malaysia airlines plain that vanished 17 days ago, crashed, he said. citing new data analysis by satellite company bringing new comfort to the families of draugh distraught passengers. >> for them the past few weeks have been heartbreaking. i know this news

must be harder still. >> reporter: plaintiff malaysia's prime minister addressed the world, malaysia airlines met with the families of the missing passengers. released a statement that said in part, it must be assumed the flight had been lost. chaos ensued with many screaming inside the briefing room in agony and disbelief and dozens needing medical attention. the announcement was too much for this woman who heard the news at a hotel where many of the relatives are staying in beijing. although there's been no confirmed sighting of the plane for days satellite images showed possible debris floating in the indian ocean. with the search window finally narrowed, the few pieces of possible wreckage that have been spotted. for some family members of the missing reality is setting in. >> translator: there were only

bad. this is my worst fear, i just have to accept it as calmly as i can. >> with officials believing the plane's flight ending in the indian ocean, the race is why the jet course. >> sarah hoye joins us. when are officials going to tell us what more they have found on the search? >> we'll have an announcement and press conference tuesday. >> can they tell us any more about what happened to it from the hours from the take off to the time it crashed? >> the answer, no, because they really need that data recorder. so if they don't find it, that's really what they need, they're going to try to check what this debris is. it really is something that takes a lot of time, it's tedious we're talking about rough waves and bad weather. >> very, very deep part of the

ocean as well. they've asked the united states help here. >> that's right, the united states is moving in a black box locator. >> what does that mean? >> it is like a sting ray, towed behind a naval ship. it can locate whatever is missing. >> even in the very deep water. we know it only pings for about 30 days. carefully. sarah hoye, thanks very much. the news crushes hopes for families waiting for more positive news. heidi snow joins us. after she lost her fe fiancee , in twa flight, heartbreaking on getting the news from the plaishia

malasian authorities. can you talk us through the stages of emotional grief happening here? >> i remember all too well-being we were all gather ed at the ramada inn in new york city, getting information, wanting information. and waiting and hoping to get some confirmation that the loved ones of our remains were found. in this case, they do not actually have any remains of the plane, and they don't have the remains of their loved ones. what we're finding is people are still going back and forth and fluctuating from hope there is a possibility that they survived then going back the next hour to the reality that they truly could be gone at this point. >> i did see some relatives going on the air already talking about you know, they had so much doubt, there had been so many conflicting reports over the last couple of weeks that really must add to that feeling that how can i believe this to be true?

>> right, exactly. and i believe that until there's tangible evidence, like some piece of the plane or remains of their loved ones found they are going to continue to go through this process of wondering, holding onto the possibility that they could still be alive somewhere safe. and then going back and forth to the reality. and so many people who call us for help at access over time, we all remember this waiting period. and that's what our mentors are there to do. we just listen and we remember just fluctuating back and forth. knowing. >> do you find that this is different, in different cultures, or you know, faiths, that people have a different reaction to this? an emotional place that is different in different groups? >> yeah, absolutely. it is different. but at the end of the day, what they all need is to go through whatever the process is. so if it is being angry, if it is

willing, or screaming or crying, do people helping them need to embrace that and understand that this is what they need to do to get through this. and there really is no right or wrong way. and yes, different cultures do vary as to how they express their emotions but in any event that's what they need to go through. i remember it so well. it took five weeks for the remains of my fiancee to be found. but we had confirmation and visual parts of the plane. i could see that part but these folks have nothing. they really don't have anything beyond the latest news report to really hold onto it and make sense of it. and we still deal with this. i think about it all the time did michelle feel pain? to really understand what they go through, that goes on

inevitably. >> hyde heidi snowy, we appreciate you being with us. a -- snowy snow, we preach yo prevent meesht yo appreciate you being with us. the town of oso, an hour north of seattle, millions of tons of mud and rock came down, the recovery effort comes continues. allen schauffler is in arlington, washington, not far from oso what can you tell us allen? >> that huge landslide hit a couple of dais ago, joie. we can tell you they had to pull

a couple of the search and rescue out of the that slide zone. they're worried about further slides coming down so that a portion at least of the search and rescue eferl rescue effort had to be pulled down. they had se sonar, dog teams on the scene, as well, and we understand about 100 people on foot looking through the debris from 30 or so homes that were wiped out by that slide. we now understand about 15 million cubic yards of earth that came thundering out of the cascade foothills wiped out a neighborhood and search and rescue officials admit they do not have an exact number of how many people are missing. they are chasing down 108 separate reports of missing people. they say a lot of those may be overlaps, publicly they are saying this is still a rescue

operation and with every passing hour those miracles seem more and more likely. joie. >> allen i was in this miefl. this i myself. this has had landslides before. is there indication what happened before, had there been rain or precipitating event? >> you nailed it joie. this area has slipped before at least twice in the last 20 years, the last one at least seven years ago, a major one at this very site. >> al jazeera's allen schauffler, thanks very much for being with us. after the break, on "america tonight," what might have been. >> i looked ahead. i wondered what kind of daddy would i be if i had any children. that's all i want to know.

>> the dark era of forced sterilization in virginia. how it inspired the nazis, "america tonight"'s investigation into the attempt to create a super-race in this country.

>> it isn't hard to believe that there could be a from race, that people could have children by sterilizing people. a courageous nurse now admits that the role she played was wrong. >> i thought at the time i was doing the right thing. the legislators wanted it at that time and my bosses wanted and. and even the president of the united states, you trusted all of those people. >> 87-year-old selia vandagrift

remembers her time in the operating room, working with those ep lem tick. they housed people with mental disabilities, teens from broken homes, alcoholics, and others that the state considered inadequate. >> how many sterilizations to you think that you observed in your career? >> oh, my goodness, i couldn't begin to tell you. >> during her 40 years working there vandagrist witnessed thousands of sterilization procedures. >> what did you think about the kids when they came in to be sterilized? was everybody calm? >> they were sitting outside of the operating room, and i remember one week, we could do male sterilizations, and the

next week, we could only do two fem sterilizations because it took much longer to do the females than the males. >> this is the first time that she has talked about virginia's history --. >> hello, everyone, this is tony harris, and you're watching aljazeera america. we're interrupting "america tonight" for an update on missing malaysian airlines flight 370. we're about to hear from australia's defense minister, david johnson, and this is coming from perth, australia. take a listen. >> what's going on in terms of the most important in terms of aviation and maritime safety. today, i'm here to speak to the crews and the maintainers of

these magnificent aircraft that are behind me. i want to take the opportunity to publicly thank all of the crews and all of the teams that keep these plains flying. as you know, it's four ours there, two hours there, and four hours back. the ocean is 3,000 meters deep, 3,000 kilometers from perth. and it's a exercise. four p3s, four japanese, one new zealand, two from china, and who else have you missed? there's a p3 coming from korea with a c-130 this afternoon. now, i want to take the opportunity to thank all of those countries for their assistance and commitment. i just had lunch with the chinese and japanese teams.

it has been a long hard road. two weeks, and we have a station sight down there, and hmi has had to deploy 120 kilometers to the south for those of you who understand sites, weather condition, and this is a horrendous operation. the prime minister has announced that visas will be given to the families of the people on the architect and we will bring them here for closer. this is an amazing example of international cooperation particularly between militaries. we are very pleased to host the chinese, the japanese, the koreans, and the new zealanders and the americans into western australia. >> is there a special facility for the families to come here

and be flown over or taken by sea to the crash area? >> i think those dodgeiscal operations will be needed to be very carefully. this is a major operation, and as i say, this is probably one of the most remote parts of our planet and we want to get that right and assist these family and friends to have some closer, but let's talk about when they are coming and when they arrive. >> the operation after the malaysians announced it right now, is it very clearly now a case of not looking for survivors, but looking for debris and looking for the black boxes? >> let's be clear. to this point in time, we have not successfully identified any debris from the aircraft in question. >> reporter: [ unintelligible ]. >> i think that if we go on that information, giving us what

has actually happened, that's all we have to go on. i think that the telemetry from the satellite generating on a hourly basis, the telemetry from those and the performance of the aircraft is all we have to go on, and we have to rely on that, and that's what we have been doing. >> she would like to ask the question. >> reporter: would you say you're confident with the prime minister's assessment that the fate of flight 370 ended in the indian ocean? >> i'm confident because that's the best that we have at this point in time. >> so you're not surprised that they made the call last night? >> i'm not surprised about anything with respect to this. this is a mystery, and until we recover and positively identify a piece of debris, everything is virtually speculation. >> what's the situation? >> when you have to suspend

operations for 24 hours, the way that these beautiful aircraft are behind me, all on the ground as you see. and it's unsafe to fly down there. remember, this part of the world has shipwrecked many westerners in australia. seaside 7, for big ships. > >> reporter: [ unintelligible ]. >> i will hand over in a minute to vice chief of defense who will tell that you everything that we have, you know about, and we're doing everything we can to first of all make a positive identification on a piece of debris. and that will mean that we're on the right track. that's not going to happen i think for at least another 24 hours because we have had to redeplay the ship, given the bad

weather. >> reporter: the photos that the chinese provide. >> i have nothing further to add on that. i think you've seen all of the information that's out there. >> reporter: [ unintelligible ]. >> well, i probably wasn't because i was probably traveling somewhere, on the way back to western australia. the prime minister, i'm sure has been informed by the malaysians as when these have come to pass and they have been confirmed. >> do you understand that they're confident to what they have steen in the incident? >> it's very easy to speculate about being close. close in this part of the world could be several hundred kilometers. just remember, we're looking for an aircraft from victoria from perth be in western australia. if you want to put it in an an al sift's description, we're looking for an aircraft from australia.

the deployment that you see behind me and all of aircraft that can i've named is probably one of the largest efforts ever in maritime surveillance, and joint efforts with china, new zealand, japan, korea. >> how can you find the black box. >> we continue put pilots and crews at risk, and can't put want ship's deputy at risk. we have to deal with this shep's location as well as we can, in terms of weather and hospital. >> it had to be confirmed. >> we have to positive identify it as being from the aircraft. >> reporter: do you have the support that you'll be providing for the families.

>> at this stage, i don't, but bear in find that the prime minister is very veryfection odd assisting mall asia, who is a very good friend of australia, in dealing with families of the crew and the passengers on the aircraft. we'll do what we can. >> reporter: [ unintelligible ]. >> as you can see with the royal australian airforce, he's going to tell you about some of those. >> so if i can put the analogy of what we have at the moment, we're not searching for a need until a haystack, we're still trying to define what a haystack is, you say a multinational effort going on. and in these weather conditions, it's difficult to find small bits of debris that's washing around in the southern indian

ocean at the moment. as the minister said, for safety concerns today, we had to pull the search off and put in assistance in the south. in the coming days, the search effort will be joined by more aircraft, more ships in the area, and we'll be able to refine the search. >> it's more of a recovery operation than it was before. there are new australian assets, including the ocean she'd. and what will it do? >> reporter: the ocean shield will join in the search in the coming days. it takes time to come in around the search area. it will be working to put specialists onboard so that as we further refine the search area, we might be able to go in and look for the black boxes. >

>> all right, we have lost the install, and we'll try to get it back in just a minute, but there's a lot of information that we can sort through, and i think that you heard a moment ago -- we have the signal back, and let's listen in. >> reporter: that's there been collaboration in terms of the search? is it under a specific brel? >> the cooperation has been very good between the nations. at the start of it, there has been a lot of corporation between the thank you. k and australia, utilizing that satellite imagery, and it was the uk that put us in the area, and now it's being refine the by china, and that's something very area. there's a lot of cooperation going on at the moment. it's a relatively small operation, but it's growing by

the day, and another question is, is the information being passed to mall asia, and the answer is yes. >> >> reporter: can you describe -- >> it can [ unintelligible ]. >> the best information that we have, and we continue do refine any information that comes in, the information from the british, i have not passed to the malaysians, and more assurity that it went down in the southern indian ocean, but as you can imagine, as you get more, we continue to refine the search area. >> how do you do that? >> do you get an indication of where to search? >> reporter: how well do you think that the search will afford you to the weather?

>> well, answer, we're very very good at measuring the currents, and we have buoys out this from the last few days, with the water, and they will keep a very good track on where the current debris field should be, as well asking able to if a back in. but at the moment, it's visible by aircraft, and it could be anywhere around the world. and we have to make sure that anything we pick up -- >> let's do this. let's give you a reset of what you're looking at right now, on the left of the screen, you're listening to the vice chief of defense forces in australia, continuing on with the briefing right now, and on the right, we're standing by and waiting for -- maybe this is happening right now, a little bit early. we're going to monitor this situation. we're anticipating on hearing from malaysia airlines in kuala

lumpur. we're not sure what we'll hear from the malaysian officials, and we thought we might hear from the prime minister. and let's listen in if we can to what's being said here at kuala lumpur. >> we have the disappearance of flight 370 on the 8th of march. based on the evidence, we must accept the painful reality that the aircraft is now lost, and that none of the passengers or crew or board survived. this is a sad and tragic day for

all of us. we not entirely expected after an intense multinational search across the area. this is devastating for the families of those onboard. they have waited for two weeks for even the smallest of hope or positive news about their loved ones. this has been an unprecedented event, requiring an unprecedented response. the investigation underway may yet prove to be even longer and more complex. complex than it has been since march 8th.

but we will continue to support the families. as we have done throughout. and to support the authorities as the search companies. i -- the search continues. >> i will now at this juncture leave it to you for our families. >> i stand before you today, as the chief executive officer of the malaysia airlines. my heart breaks, there are no

words. everyone in malaysia airlines' family is praying for the 259 souls on flight 370. and are for their loved ones. i pray a prayer of sincerity on them. we all feel sorrow. sorrow that all those who boarded flight 370 on saturday, 8th of march, will not see their families again. and those families will now have to live on. without their loved ones. it must be remembered that 13 of

our police were also onboard. and let me -- our sole motivation last night was t to -- last night, the families heard the tragic news before the world d wherever humanly possible, we did so in person with the families. using sms as a last result, and ensuring that nearly 1,000 family ribs heard the news from us, and.

ever since the disappearance of flight 370, the families and those involved, in a international search effort. we continue to do this, and to support the work of the investigating authorities. like everyone else, we are waiting for news from those authorities. we know that there have been an increasing number of -- and after 17 days, the announcement made last night and shared with the families is the reality that we must face, and we now must

attempt. when malaysia airlines received approval from investigating authorities, arrangements will be made to bring the families to the areas if their soul wished. until that types, until that time, we continue to support the investigation. and may i expression my thanks to the malaysian government and all of those involved in this truly global search effort. in the meantime, malaysia's focus will be the same as it has been from the outset. to provide families with a comprehensive support program. with a network of over 700 dedicated caregivers, loved ones of those onboard will be

provided with caregivers, and they provide care, support and council to the families. we're now supporting over 900 people, if in the last hours, there have been three additional caregivers to ensure that the families have success to support. in addition -- initial assistance of 5,000 u.s. dollars per -- . >> they have been providing additional financial assistance of 5,000 u.s. dollar per each

passenger for each next of kin. we recognize that the financial port is not the only k.. prolonged search financial strain on the relatives. and we are therefore prepared to offer additional payment as the search continues. this has made the past days the greatest challenge to face at malaysia airlines. i've been humbled by the hard work and dedication, heartfelt messages, concern, and offers of support from our markable team. we do not know why, we do not

know how, and we don't know how this terrible tragedy has spoken. for the malaysia ears, we all pray for the passengers and the crew. [ unintelligible ] i open the floor for a question-and-answer session. please state your name and your organization. >> reporter: yes, [ unintelligible ] actually, just having you show soro to the family members, they are hurt,

up until now, they said you delayed the investigations. if you had actually had evidence that you show can get ruts, and some of the documents are still easy. australia, they welcome to you australia. >> first and foremost, we appreciate that the missing plane was -- the authorities, they took over. as i mentioned earlier, i would hope that the center of action throughout this painful period,

was to provide the care and assistance to our families. certainly, the impact to our medium, in terms of [ unintelligible ]. as regards, as aj mentioned -- . >> in regard to australia, we have been informed by australian authorities, that it will be given to the family members, once the evidence has been established. o

>> reporter: [ unintelligible ] how you be so sure about camping the lead that the plane has crashed? how do you know that? and based on the satellite picture? >> we also appreciate -- especially last night, what came out, that we have fairly credible lead that would point to where the plane ended it's life. and as you mex, this position is very far away from the nearest landmass, and unto 17 days, we

could only bring ourselves to reach that conclusion. [ unintelligible ] facing that their loved ones are dead, [ unintelligible ]. >> as far as he has mentioned, [ unintelligible ] and when the families heard the statement, it was very evident that it ended it's flight in the middle of south indian ocean, and so we

until it is presented to us, and what they can with next of kin. [ unintelligible ] >> reporter: has the malaysian flight, to the conclusion of the >> malaysia airline, the investigation is with the authorities, and it's better to

ask the authorities. >> all right, everyone, tony harris in new york, and we want to jump? in just a moment and try to give you, if you're just joining us, kind of a recap, a reset of what we have been listening to for the last 40 minutes or so. it began at 12:15 eastern time. it began in perk, on the west coast of australia, and we heard from the defense minister, the man who tes, thanking the crews, trying to locate flight 370.

and it suggests that a lot of the information, the data coming in, she's to point to the fact that this plane, malaysia okay, we're going to get a sound bite from him in just a moment, and we'll play that so you can get a sense of his comments on where the investigation stands, and over the course of the last 15 minutes, we have been listening to two speakers from malaysia airlines. first, we heard from had quarters, and nearly 1,000 people, who have been waiting for answers, and we have been seeing frustration expressed and anger expressed and extreme grief expressed by those family

members and friends of those victims. all 239 of them for more than two weeks. now, it really spilled out over the course of this day and he yesterday. they said that the officials from malaysia airlines and the officials said that the 18 days since the plane has been missing is the greatest challenge to ever face malaysia airlines. this is an unprecedented event. i want to bring in our captain, art sampson, who was with me earlier, a former airlines pilot. and art, i appreciate you staying with us, a lot to sort through here. i remember the vice chief of australia's defense forces saying, we're not looking for a needle in a haystack right now, we don't even know where the

haystack is at this point. given what you know in your days of flying in this area of the world that we're talking about. the southern indian ocean, you've flown that area, and is that something that makes all of the sense to you? >> tony, it really does, and i haven't heard all of the details about the sea state in that region in the recently. and that's enormous. they have taken the surface vessels out of that area as well because of the storm conditions that exist in exactly that search area, so it makes it so much more difficult. and i would say so much less likely that they're going to findinfind significant debris. >> you know what's interesting to me, we did hear from the defense minister, talking about how difficult that area is, and

now there's a weather system that has effectively ended the search for today. tell me why you think it's going to be difficult to find debris that can positively be identified as belonging to a flight, this particular malaysia airline flight? >> well, it almost looks like a mix master turning out there. the churning in the water is so severe, it's breaking up a lot of the natural debris that could come from shipping or shore, and making it smaller and smallerpies, so the searchers, when they can return to the area on surface vessels, it seems much less likely to me that they will be able to extract something more significant that they will be able to identify the aircraft. >> and we know with a great deal

of certainty what happened, but not where it happened. and if the black boxes aren't recovered, what are the chances of knowing why this behind. >> i'm not sure that even if they do recover the black boxes, we'll know what happened. the cockpit voice recorder records over every two hours, and unless there was something significant happening when the aircraft was lost, there will be no way of knowing what took place on the aircraft. the flight data recorders would certainly provide valuable information, but i want to reemphasize how difficult it's going to to be for them to find those boxes, when they don't even know where the haystack is

to be looking at. >> art, stand by, i have other questions for you, but brendan nicholson, the defense minister for australia, and brent, appreciate your time. i heard a couple of things that i want to followup on with you. first of all, talk to us about the difficulty that all of these countries and their assets are having and identifying anything at this point that could be brought to shore or identified as positively belonging to flight 370, and attack a moment and talk to us about the resources from a number of nations. obviously australia, japan, china and malaysia that i haven't mentioned here, the resources that have been brought to help in the search and the operation. >> well, it's just been announced that south korea was

sending two patrol planes, one surclies anwhat's real and justn to many people around the world, the size of the area to be searched and i mentioned to your colleagues today, it's like the marine equivalent of the biggest ditch in the world. everyone has been tantalizingly close to finding something with a series of debris that could be objects seen from satellites and the united states, some british information, the chinese have all spotted objects. now, a patrol plane spotted some

objects. that was an area where the chinese initially indicated there was something on the water. the orion crew did not describe what the chinese spotted, but they did see two smaller objects, one was greenish or gray. and this possibility is that it could be something like an escape chute. now, the problem is that overnight, a fairly ferocious gale has been over the area, and an australian ship was looking for it, spent much of the night with search lights trying to find it, and trying to find all

of these objects and has to hit out of the area because of the gale-forced winds and the very louf seas. as you just pointed out, one of the aspects of this, it's like a giant robberring some type, any bubbles of can be row. >> my understanding is that to you t spoke to the captain, and what did you ask and what did he tell you about the conditions? >> well, the conditions yesterday, she was dealing with waves of 2-2.5 meters. it was reasonable rough, but the ship was handling it very well. it's not huge, but it's 100 tons fullo loaded, and it's an experienced crew, experienced

captain. and they were doing searches, two types of searches. one is a spiral search, they went to an area they were directed to go and ever increasing circles around want point, with the material. and now, they had not found anything at the point where i spoke to them. and they were continuing the search 24 hours a day. they cruising at about 8 knots, and they were concerned that if they came across a big piece of wreckage, they didn't want to run it over, and they wouldn't want to damage the ship. and basically, they were using search lights, every light kept going on the ship. >> hey, brendan, can i ask this question, and i think someone

asked this of the malaysian airlines team. and i think it's the question of the moment. and i what is it about the data being reported from the uk team that has a sense of feeling conclusively, though no one will say that it is. but it she' seems to be the data that's reported to by malaysian authorities saying that the plane has gone down in the southern indian ocean. what is it about the data and the analysis of it that's leading people to the conclusion that this plane has gone down? >> everything is relative. if you look the september 11t september 11th, there were people sending phonecalls and making text messages from aircraft that crashed.

and i think that set an expectation, and there were trons respond, senting that's so wwe had with the aircraft, as yu know, all of the electronics have been turned off or destroyed or trusted. now, what has just been -- what is left coming from the aircraft is this faint sign of life. and i think again, people don't realize how tenuous is. what it is, it's a signal or a ping that is sent out every hour basically from equipment on the aircraft to a satellite, saying, i am ready, if you want, to make a connection to send and that's

my understanding, anything that's running would give a vibration. so all we're looking at a ping that went off once an hour. and when the british technicians were examining the data, i think that they were very cautious about it. because all of the talk was that the aircraft had crashed and there's all of the talk talking about it going up to chasm stan. they were able to put together two courses, the center being on the equator, based on the satellite data, and one has the aircraft heading up to the northern hemisphere, and the other curving down to the southern ocean. >> let me do this.

>> thank you for that, and i'm just running up against it here, and i just want to thank you for making that final point. brendan nicholson, for the newspaper, the australian, and i want to thank art sampson as well. former pilot for delta airlines. i. before we go, i want to show you the scene from beijing and these are family members, distraught, hundreds of them outside of the malaysian embassy, family and friends of those apparently lost now with mallerationa, bring our families -- another sign reading, liars, tell the truth. and they broke through the lines, i understand, and beijing

authorities have called more in. obviously, we're going to bring you more, i'm tony harris in new york, and have a good evening. >> it went down in the southern indian ocean - the latest grim details about the missing malaysian airliner. deadly force on camera, the albuquerque is under federal investigation. what is it like to be american and imprisoned in iran - three hikers share their harrowing ordeal. >> and america's greatest concentration of wealth. >> i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this". here is more