the news. >> hello, and welcome to the news hour. these are our top stories. afghan forces race to attacks. >> russia has no intention of sending forces into ukraine as new talks with u.s. are scheduled for sunday. and ukraine's presidential contenders line up with momentum

building behind a chocolate manufacturer. >> also ahead chinese ships searching new area for the indian ocean looking for the missing malaysian plane. and cuba opening up to the outside world opening up a new law making it easier for foreigners to invest. >> but first within the last half an hour or so, another car bomb at an army checkpoint close to the syrian border. the army has now closed all roads to the checkpoint. we can get the very latest by talking to our correspondent who joins us live from beirut. bring us up-to-date. >> reporter: three lebanese

officials have been killed. this is the firs fourth suicide-bombing in the last three months, and the army has been on high alert, and despite all the measures the army had taken to circumvent this through personnel, the suicide-bombing did take place and three people have been killed. >> breaking news from lebanon. now let's go to afghanistan are the taliban has attacked the election headquarters just a week before the presidential vote. security forces killed four armed men. this is the second attack in just four days. >> reporter: and week until presidential elections and the taliban attacks again. the target this time the headquarters of the independent election in kabul.

four fighters were disguised as women when they entered the a house close to the election building. afghan special forces and police reinforcements took their positions. >> forces around my house. i would three guards, two outside and one inside, but i don't know what's happening right now. >> reporter: the taliban fighters were armed with assault rifles and grenades. this is the second attack in 24 hours and the fourth in just over a week. the distance between the targets show how the taliban can still seemingly strike where it likes in the capitol. on march 20th taliban gunman shot nine civilians dead including two girls. on march 26th, an attack where two police officers and five taliban were killed in the gun battle. three days later fighters

targeted a building used by an american aid group. a girl was killed by the suicide-bomber, security forces killed the four gunmen. saturday's attack was on the election commission hq close to the highway to the east of the city. the taliban seems to be doing all it can to scare voters away from the polling stations in next week's presidential vote. >> as we get close to the afghan elections which is very important in afghanistan, we do understand that there are enemies who would launch attacks like we have so far in the past few days. but it would not deter us from our commitment. >> reporter: an election member said taliban fighters fired ten rocket grenades towards the compound. in his final address president karzai said u.s. soldiers must leave afghanistan at the end of

the year. he said afghan forces are ready to protect the whole country on their own. he said afghanistan does not need u.s. military trainers to remain after american troops go home. regardless of whether that's true the latest surge in attacks shows the taliban is determined to disrupt the apri april 5th presidential vote. charles stratford, anger al jazeera. >> well, the secretary general of afghan has been speaking to us here at al jazeera and i asked him if his team is still prepared to conduct the elections give the amount of violence. >> it is very clear that the afghan people will vote for their candidate, and the election commission is fully committed. wwe do not have any problem. in terms of the staff we do not have any problem. we're ready and fully committed,

and we'll run this election across the country. the afghan people are committed. the civil society are committed. the candidates are committed to make this election successful. we havthey have started talking offices and today we have locked up five people. we don't have any casualties. one of our staff died, passed away, but they cannot kill the whole people. they cannot kill the whole borders. >> we go to our european center for the latest on ukraine. here is lauren taylor. >> reporter: thanks, martine, the ukraine presidential election takes place in may.

vitali klitschko has pulled out backing a chocolate manufacturer, who is ahead in the polls. >> the two front runners in the opinion polls have join forced. klitschko forfeited the presidential match to his political partner petro poroshenko, one of the most respected figures in ukrainian politics. the may 25th vote takes place in a country both men describe as under russian occupation. >> people in the east south of ukraine who may be fearful of this election because of moscow, what message to you address to them? >> if you read our program, the special message to the east and

south ukraine. the first message is security. the second message is the defending of all their rights including language rights, minority rights, everything. >> the deal prevented a division of forces among politician who is wanted closer ties with europe, an end of corruption and furious with the annexation of crimea. however, there will be another prime minister, yulia tymoshenko. >> she was officially nominated on assault and she, too, is promising a cleaner more responsive politics, but also to stand up to russia. >> if the people will trust me with the presidency i will never let any aggressor take our land without a fight. my aim is to demand cessation of the occupation of crimea. i do not accept an evidence.

crimea is part of ukraine. and we will have it back. >> the mayor and pledge to give more power to ukraine's regions. >> poroshenko said he hopes tymoshenko will join forces with him in a vote that is less than two months away with how they can keep the country together. >> a dozen other presidential hopefuls have also entered the race. among the most colorful was the internet party whose candidate was dressed as darth vader from "star wars." he said he was ugly but

powerful. now we can go to alan fisher in washington, d.c. for more news of that meeting in paris between kerry and lavrov. what more do we know about these talks? >> well, it came about after the conversation excellencely between vladimir putin and barack obama on friday. they agreed that their foreign ministers should meet and there should be more discussions. secretary kerry followed that up with a call. he landed in ireland to refuel. at that point he decided it was probably better that he headed to paris. one, because the middle east peace talks are in trouble, and he thought he could get there much more quickly. two, sergei lavrov was willing to clear his schedule and did to paris, and it's agreed that that meet willing take place on sunday. clearly the discussions between the presidents putin and obama created this window for the two

of them to start diplomatic measures and try to de-escalate the tension in the area. >> as you mention the word deescalation, is there any mention of what sort of deal might look like? >> vladimir putin saying he wants to stop extremists running riots in ukraine. president barack obama said its up to the russians to de-escalate by moving their troops back. the white house was asked just in the last 24 hours by a couple of u.s. senators please give the ukrainians military har hardwaro they could protect themselves. the white house said they were not going to do that at this stage. they want to calm things down. make sure if they have discussions that it's done in a much more open atmosphere. that's what they're hoping will

happen in paris on sunday. that lavrov and kerry will sit around a table, agree on a way forward, bring in the ukrainians, and some of the troops might move out of the area. at this stage what they know is that discussions work much better than having many troops in many places. >> thank you very much, indeed, alan fisher, live for pups. one more note on the ukraine story, crimea's tatars want to form an aton mouse region. --an autonomous region. now let's go back to martine in doha. >> thank you very much. lots more to come. including is ireland about to

repeat the mistakes that led to a financial crash a few years ago. and down and out in los angeles. we find vulnerable people are being treated like criminals. >> i'm mentally ill, and i don't receive the treatment i need. that's really the point. >> and in sports barcelona just about to move back to the top of the spanish league. we'll have all the details. >> now the search of the missing malaysia airline flight 370 in the southern indian ocean. this search aircraft spotted three suspicious objects in the water near australia. that's exactly three weeks since the plane went missing with 239 people on board. sonya gallegos has more. >> reporter: searching new areas of the indian ocean looking for

any evidence of malaysia airlines flight 370. the enormous task hampered by recent bad weather. even with saturday's improved condition. >> there were white a few white caps in the area. the crew would have had to be able to see--discerning the difference between objects in the water and the white caps, so it made it hard for the guys today. >> reporter: and this is the area where rescuers are now focusing the operation. authorities moved the search north of of reviewing new radar and satellite data. searchers saw three objects of interest. and if they belong to the aircraft, and they have to conclude that the aircraft

traveled faster after vanishing from radar screens on march 8th. malaysia officials assure that the search will continue to find anyone alive. >> hope against hope we will continue to find survivors. >> but in beijing relatives continue to feel anger at the response to the plane's disappearance. many argue that it's premature to conclude that the plane crashed. >> this kind of attitude is very irresponsible because they don't have any direct evidence. >> reporter: it has been three weeks since flight 370 disappeared. as the search continues to frustrate investigators there is only hope that they'll eventually find something, anything at all in the normal expanse of the indian association. >> now people in los angeles have been warned that friday's

5.1 magnitude earthquake could be followed by a much larger one. there were no injuries nor major damage. this is the second strong earthquake to hit the region in two weeks. in washington state the number of people killed by a mudslide a week ago is expected to rise substancely. 17 bodies have been found in the rural town of oso but 90 people are still missing. in a moment we'll hear the latest from sabrina in the nearby town of arlington. first we have this report from darington where the whole community has mobilized to serve for survivors. >> marvin was a few feet from oblivion. he was driving through oso on his 76th birthday when he stopped just short of a 20-foot wall of earth. >> in just a few minutes we would have been underneath it. we had no idea where it was

coming from. >> reporter: in his 49 years as a teacher, he got to know many of the victims. they came to this working class town for work logging trees, for the breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains, and for the close-knit neighborhood. >> i said after a visit that i was going to die in darington. it's getting closer to that time, but that's how much it impressed me to be part of this community, such a loving community. >> reporter: studies found the mountain above steel head drive was at high risk for a lethal landslide. political leaders say it's too soon to say why that didn't change anything. >> there were studies suggesting there was a significant landslide risk here. is there a reason to believe that something should have been done? >> you have to take a moment at some point and look back and say could we have prevented this so you know what, do in the future?

that moment will come with this disaster. right now we need every available resource focused on recovery. >> that is something that you would be looking into? >> reporter: in any di sass at this hour we would do that. >> people here knew there was a risk of landslide. they hadespite warnings, sayingy had no idea how bad it could be. >> we lost all kinds of people since i'veen here. this is part of living here. you grieve with the people and take care of each other. that's the philosophy here. their attitude is by god if you can tell me what to do on my property, then i don't own it. >> many are questioning letting locals live where they wanted despite the risk.

>> we have more from nearby arlington. >> the governor of washington state has asked for a moment of silence this morning at 10:37 pacific time to mark the one-week anniversary of this devastating slide that really took the community of oso, washington, by surprise. again, it's been one week. the search continues. it is still a rescue operation, not a recovery separation. they're holding off on any large equipment and to move debris. instead they're using dogs, shovels, even their hands combing through that debris looking for any survives. officials acknowledge that at this point chances are very slim that they'll find someone alive. still, it is a rescue operation.

the weather here is not cooperating. it's forecasted to be a stormy weekend. it's been raining steadily all morning. so that makes for a challenging rescue operation even more difficult. they had them bringing in new search crews, search crews have been here since last saturday. they are physically exhausted. they're emotionally exhausted. there are grief counselors on hand for those crews. in the meantime they have been switching out crews as they look for any signs of survivors. >> we stay in the u.s. because it's determined that 500,000 people mentally ill people are in prison. rob reynolds has been might be people going through a cycle of homelessness and imprisonment. >> reporter: he said his name is ethan.

he wanders the streets of los angeles, barefoot, disheveled and bleeding. ethan said he does not take anti-psychotic medication. he's tortured by delusions. >> i'm mentally ill, and i don't receive treatment for being mentally ill. that's the point. >> reporter: he's been arrested more times than he can remember, he says, and locked up here at the l.a. county jail. >> we have prisons and county jail that serve as defacter mental hospital. >> reporter: arthur lopez has studied the mentally ill in prison. >> we prosecute rather than do the medicine that is necessary. we're more apt to punish than to provide the necessary treatment. >> reporter: until the 1960s

and '70s, the memorially ill were kept in state hospitals. but advances in medication and abuse led to main hospitals being shut down. leaving thousands of former patients homeless, untreated, and often in trouble. jails were never meant to be treatment centers. >> most people who work in the jail system not only do they not understand mental illness, they don't know symptoms. they don't know behaviors. they have no clue as to how to de-escalate, nor was it designed that they should. >> reporter: advocates say what the mentally ill and homeless need more than anything is a place to live where they can get help and treatment. that, of course, would require taxpayers' money. according to the national

alliance on mental illness, since 2009. funding by the state has actually been cut by more than $4 billion. rob reberob reynolds al jazeera, los angeles. polls are being held as the government battles corruption scandals. we're at a pro-government rally in istanbul. >> reporter: the last day of campaigning and all political parties are trying to make use of it. the vote is seen as a referendum on prime minister erdogan. it's election hype and parties are campaigning. slogans and banners are everywhere, and so are the promises made by the candidates. but turkey is in political

turmoil, and it's making people a bit nervous. >> there is always tension before elections. but recently allegations against the government has made the situation more tense. it made each side more polarized. >> the government would like to consolidate the public. >> the feeling here is there this is more than local politics. what makes these local elections significant they are being held while the government faces rising political tensions, power struggles and allegations of mass corruption. to many people these polls are more a referendum for prime minister erdogan and his policies. widespread anti-government protests broke last summer. the police were accuse of using excessive force. the government blame western countries for supporting those demonstrators and the economic damage that they cause.

in december a corruption candle forced three ministers to redine and allegations were also made against the prime minister. prime minister erdogan accuse the allies in the movement of smear campaign aimed at bringing down his government. a political scientist calls these local elections crucial. >> we used to take the provincial elections as popularity of the government. it was a polls of polls. all of these issues from economic policy to foreign policy, various local issues. corruption issues. it will all play some role in the decision that people make. >> reporter: prime minister erdogan remains defiance relying

on the support that he and his party have had for the last 12 years. he's now calling on those supporters to back him once again. the country is deeply divided and polarized. many will be watching their results, and regardless of who wins the political struggle and polarizization will probably continue. >> we have a lot more to come. a defense official will be talking about today's affect of the afghan election headquarters, and we'll find out more about the elections generally. and then a new investment to attract foreigners. and in sports find out how formula one drivers qualify for the malaysian grand prix. >> scared as hell... >> as american troops prepare to leave afghanistan

get a first hand look at what life is really like under the taliban. >> we're going to be taken to a place, where they're going to make plans for an attack. >> the only thing i know is, that they say they're not going to withdraw. >> then, immediately after, an america tonight special edition for more inside and analysis. >> why did you decide to go... >> it's extremly important for the western audience to know why these people keep on fighting... ...it's so seldom you get that access to the other side. >> faultlines: on the front lines with the taliban then an america tonight:

>> everyday, someone leaves their home, searching for a better life. >> two hours in, you come up on a body. >> now, in a breakthough television event, al jazeera america takes you beyond the debate. experience first hand the tragic journey of these migrents. >> a lot of people don't have a

clue, what goes on when you live near the border. >> six strangers, with different points of view. >> i don't believe in borders... >> our government is allowing a invasion >> get to experience illegal immigration, up close and personal. >> it's very overwhelming to see this many people that have perished. >> a lot of families taht don't know where their babies went >> i wanna make sure that her life, it's remembered... >> what happens when lost lives are re-lived? >> the only way to find out is to see it yourselves. on borderland only on al jazeera america >> hey guys, wanna come to the united states? >> hello again. i'm martine dennis and here are the top stories for al jazeera. three lebanese soldiers were killed at a military checkpoint

close to the syrian border. a sunni group has claimed responsibility. secretary of state john kerry will meet with his russian counterpart in paris to discuss the ukraine crisis. mr. kerry was on his way home from the middle east when he abruptly changed his plans. police have killed four taliban gunmen who attacked to prevent the vote in kabul. this is the fourth attack in eight days. more on the situation in afghanistan. we can now talk to david from washington, d.c. a former secretary of defense. afghanistan and pakistan. today's attack on the election commission is really underlying

the facts that there these are crucial issues. >> yes, securities is a key issue, but more the taliban sees it as a threat to their legitimacy. the widespread attention, rallies, enthusiasm that the afghan people are showing for the election, so they're doing everything they can to stop the election. i don't think there is any sign that they'll be successful. the number of people who will turn out for the election is quite high, and that's going to be a problem for the taliban because their narrative is if they continue to be the government of afghanistan, the majority who are turning out to vote are going to prove them wrong.

>> and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> now back to the sports news. >> atletico madrid are about to take to the pitch, bidding the top of the spanish league. they need a win to move back to barcelona and edging past espanyol and the catalan derby. we have more. >> reporter: barcelona players made a t-shirt tribute to injured player victor valdez before kick off. the spaniard who is tipped to leave the club at the end of the season is unlikely to line up against messi again. co-receive a few trophies including a spanish league title. they took time to get going

against their cross city rivals. an unbelievable mess from five yards out. but at the other end, equally bad effort. espanyol giving as good as they were getting in this derby clash and they should have got a penalty. a spot kick was given but after the break and to the visitors. lopez partially adjust to have handled, giving messi a chance for his first-ever goal at that stadium. 1-0 to barcelona is how it finished. enough for the defending champions to move two points clear at the top for a couple of hours at least. >> real madrid third on the

table. gareth bale was changing his boot during real's last game. >> this is very important. it does not mean improve a lot because is the continue well, it's good at this moment. >> they hope to take take major blows. the blues are ahead of liverpool who can go top as they beat to thtottenham. right now manchester city took the lead from arsenal. the gunners had just equalized in the second half. the united fans staged a prote

protest. united responded on the pitch to win 4-1, but they're still down in seventh place. >> i was focused on the game today. i was focused on the game today. that's my end all that we as a team, nothing else. >> taking position for malaysian's grand prix. heavy rain caused multiple delays in qualify approximating. they kept the car on the circuit with good effect finishing 0.055 seconds ahead of vettetel. >> very, very tricky out there for everyone, particularly at the end it was almost impossible

to see. i could not do my last lap. i just could not see a thing. i could not see where the track went, where the corners were, when to brake. >> definitely the margin was possible to go that much fast, but at the end of the day it's good to be in the front row. i think if i'm not wrong i should see a good side for tomorrow. >> south africa knocked england out of the world twenty20. south africa reach 196 for 5. quick wickets for wayne parnell, and reaching the biggest targets south africa winning by 3-1. earlier new zealand continued to

push for a place in the semis with a comfortable win over the neverthelesnetherlands. the first to reach two international runs with citizen six-wicket victory, and the dutch are out. can world number one serena williams play in her ninth miami open filed. she's facing world number two, williams won the first set. rafael nadal will face djokovic. that's having to hit a ball. their opponent pulled out from injury, it will be their first meeting of the scene. >> the three-time stanley cup

champions have third-period goals. the two goals coming 47 seconds to make it 2-0. this would also take 47 in the season. a horse called african story won the do you pie cup. in the meanwhile you can catch up on the day's sports on our weddinwebsite. go to www.aljazeera.com/sport. now pack to you. >> thank you. people are celebrating a peace deal between fighters of the islamic liberation front and the government: it is meant to end decades of fighting. but for ingeneral new many thert

they may lose their ancestral homes. >> reporter: here in the philippines, they're in the mood to celebrate. >> the philippines signed a peace pack with southeast asia's most powerful rebel group. peace has finally come. >> the that's final chairs. >> for generations they have been misplaced. caught up in a conflict they have little to do with. there are 200 families in this village. most of them have been here for generations. there is no electricity. no running water. no medical clinic, and no properly school. they're hoping the that beast agreement will mean life for

them will get better. unlikthe struggle to preserve identity and culture. the peace deal creates a more a toautonomous region. she said muslims took away her ancestral home many years ago, now they're claiming her family home, too. >> what we would like when they come is that they respect the traditions and cultures that we have. so, too, our farms and properties. we don't have anywhere else to go but here. that's why our needs have to be met. >> but the chairman of the moore

islamic international front says that they will be inclusive. >> it may be like the peace keeper where after such deal the peace will be willingly handed over to the democratic will. >> reporter: many people say the agreement looks good on paper, but they're worried about the implementing it. >> we insure that people are protected. it should be available. >> reporter: for now they full will you sport the government, but wonder if their own grievances will be finally be addressed. >> well, that's all for me for now. we have more to come.

don't go away.

>> this is al jazeera america live from new york. i'm jonathan betz with today's top stories. secretary of state john kerry will meet with his russian counterpart in france tomorrow. kerry made an unscheduled stop in paris to discuss ukraine with with hi russian foreign minister lavrov. a moment of silence was held today for the vickers of the deadly mudslide in washington state. one weakened hillside gave away bury dozens of homes and killing 17.