straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. >> >> i felt i had to be here in person, instead of giving money to somebody. >> a community comes together in the face of catastrophe as the death toll from the washington mudslide rises again. >> deadline for obamacare. what happens if you had not signed up for health insurance, and why some are not going to rester at all. >> they settled here, they bought property, and now they have to leave everything, evening their prompt property

>> diplomacy with russia hits a roadblock. >> the head of general motors getting really for a grilling. the expanding recall has deadly consequences already. >> welcome to al jazeera america. live from new york, i'm erica pitzi. washington state officials raised the death toll in the oso mud slide. the the number of people confirmed dead stands at 21. three more bodies were identified by the medical examiner. the number of people unaccounted for was 90 to 30 people. al jazeera's tonya moseley is in the pacific north-west with the latest. >> over the weekend crews were able to make progress in the recovery efforts. this is an

enormous project. in some areas the debris field was as high as 75 feet. >> armed with garden tools, rescue teams tediously cyst through the mud, searching for the missing. >> the family members that i have spoken to, i think, have a very mature real sense of wanting to have hope, and wanting to find the miracle. we have provided them and are providing them every opportunity to find that miracle. we are looking for the miracle out there now. i saw four or 500 people out looking for the miracle. >> washington state commander and the governor took an aerial tour of the mud slide. more than 600 have been working at the slide around the knock. >> we have a search team out in mud to their armpits, and they've been there for a week,

looking for victims. we have a fatality recovery team working with the coroner. >> the recovery team is assisting in the effort of identifying the dead. in some cases safers have only recovered body parts. volunteers are looking for possessions. so far they have discovered hundreds of pictures. >> a lot of people lock their homes, and they lost friends and family, and so to be reunited with some physical belongings is an important thing. we know how - what memories, wonderful things like photos can bring for a person, so to reunite family members with that is an important piece of effort. >> would you like hot coffee or cocoa. >> den was one of nearby residents offering what he can do comfort the community.

sunday morning he drove three hours to give away coffee for free. >> i thought i would give money to somebody, i had to be here in persons. i want to give assistance and make them file. >> governor inslee is pushing for more support. it will take years for the community to rebuild. >> crews are hoping for better weather. there's major flooding along the highway, the main entry way >> oso washington. reporting from derrington, i'm tonya moseley. >> 15 of 21 victims have been identified by the medicaler. >> monday is the last day for people to sign up for the affordable care act. 6 million has signed up, shy of 7 million. there's still confusion as to what the plan covers and doesn't

cover. >> the only thing i know about obamacare is what i have seen on "saturday night live." >> it continues to include many americans. >> what happens in one state is different to another? the other problem is the disastrous roll out of healthcare.gov made it active. >> we fumbled the ball. we'll get it fixed. >> there are pros and cons to the plan. the law protects people who fall ill from being dropped by their provider. those with pre-existing conditions, like cancer or mental illness can't be denied coverage. more low income americans are eligible for medicaid, tax credits and rebates. children can stay on their parents plans until the age of 26. one thing it does not do is control the cost of health care. many. affordable care act supporters see that as a

problem. >> nationwide premiums continued to rise. how much of that is because of obamacare is a subject of heated debate. 30 million americans lost private health insurance because their policies did not meet the law's requirements. that has been called a broken promise. the admission says the plans were substandard, in some cases offering little coverage. americans that don't sign up will be fined is% of their income in 2014, and the fines will increase every year. all told, the changes are part of a 10-year plan, and it is a key part of the law, but it's likely to be several years until the full impact can be measured. >> although the white house reported 6 million sign ups on sunday, they said it was closer to 10 million. the new figure

includes medicaid and health care sign-ups. >> secretary of state john kerry met with russian foreign minister sergei lavrov in paris to discuss ukraine. after four hours of talks, the two sides are no closer to finding a diplomatic solution. russia's actions are considered illegal and illegitimate and is calling on russia to pull back troops from the borders. >> i raised with the foreign minister strong concerns. we believe the forces created a climate of fear and intimidation in ukraine. >> we have more from paris on sunday's meeting. >> john kerry did outline a number of objectives which he said he shared with sergei lavrov. including free and fair elections in ukraine to be monitored by the international

community and the steps to protect the various minority groups in ukraine. it's clear that the u.s. and russia do have a different vision of how a democratic ukraine - what it would look like. russia want to see a federal system. that's something sergei lavrov has made clear. he wants to see greater autonomy for the various regions, that would be food for the parts of eastern and southern ukraine, where there are russian speakers, and strong ties with russia. on the other hands, the united states and its western allies are keen to see the may presidential elections followed by parliamentary elections. they are happy to see the counter players, people who were formally in the opposition against president viktor yanukovych taking part and see it as a democratic wave coming

through ukraine. it's not clear whether russia will start talking to those people in kiev. so far they have rented them as illegitimate. what they want to see is some kind of recognition from the u.s. that they have problems with dealing with those individua individuals. they want to see more respect shown to the russian speaking part of ukraine. the u.s. stressed that they talked with russia about how to pull back the tens of thousands of russian troops on the boarder that they say gathered. there's no word from john kerry how or when that might happen. >> thank you. the kremlin says it would like to see more power and independence for russian speaking areas. it is sparking concern that russia is weakening the government. the former ambassador to n.a.t.o. is not optimistic the west will be able to reach a

deal with russia. >> i got the impression that no progress was made. in fact, we are speaking different languages, russia is speaking a language of force and making demands of its rights over its neighbour. united states seems to be speaking diplomacy and deescall ration, which if russia was interested would be helpful. at the moment russia is demanding and is willing to use force. >> one of the the objectives is to stretch out a time line, so it can consolidate gains made in crimea, and it can de-escalate the move towards higher levels of sanctions and push backs. vladimir putin has taken an extraordinary step of annexing cart of the territory of the country. it's hard to escalate to those

levels, and once deescalated, it's hard to go back to them. if russia feels that it is aggrieved, these are territories belonging to russia, they are russian speaking populations, now is the time they are going to strike. we have to be worried about the scenarios. >> now, crimea is under russian control. every military base is plying a flag. as jennifer glasse reports, ukrainian's soldiers are being asked to leave. >> they didn't think it would end like this, packing hastily and leaving crimea. the deputy commander is trying to keep the spirits high. there are few words of conflict. >> the russian flag flies high, and soldiers are on watch. this man has lived here a decade. >> unlike the russian system, ukrainians serve in one place

for a long time. they settled, bought properties, and have to leave everything, even their property behind. >> the soldiers fought to stay. after the russians took over the base, the ukrainians faced unarmed and demanded it be returned. the russians fired in the air and a few ukrainians were allowed to return to their crops. the uneasy standoff lasted two weeks. the russians overran the base, kidnapping the commander, and holding it for five days, trying to get him to switch sides. he refused, was released. >> many have been reluctant to leave crimea. ukraine's equivalent of florida, and it offered the best opportunities in the ukrainian navy. not any more. >> the ukrainian navy ships fly the russian flag. the sailors forced to choose

between the russians and ukrainians, renouncing ukraine the only way to remain. the ben of belbek say changing sides will be dishonourable. they'll rejoin their commander. >> translation: i'm confident we'll rebuild. we'll stand until the end to fight for what is ours. moscow was not built in a day. >> mikhail says it's been a difficult time. he mashed alongside russian forces in parades, and many were friends, but he is not bitter. >> i'm not angry at anyone. they are military men, we are military, and we have to obey our own orders. >> like others, mikhail and his family face an uncertain future. >> more than 4,000 servicemen in crimea face the russian ultimatum.

three weeks since a jumbo jet vanished without a trace - now a new search area or promise from australia. fears of a pandemic as one of the world's deadliest viruses spreads. where the latest case of ebola has been found. a report says you can already see the effects of climate change are everywhere. stay with us.

>> there is breaking news out of pakistan. the former president has been charged with treason. he's been indicted for unlawfully suspending the constitution. musharraf was a long-serving leader and faces the death penalty if convicted. >> a new c.e.o. faces congress over the gm ignition switch

recall. they want to know why it took a decade to demrag the problem -- flag the problem. >> general motors mary barra will face tough questioning from lawmakers. congress has been combing through thousands of pages of documents from gm and the highway traffic safety administration. house and senate want to know how executives at the nation's biggest automaker can say they knew nothing about the ignition problem, and why they waited a decade to respond. congress is wandering what the highway traffic administration, which analyses the problem, new about it, and what they did about it. a memo released sunday by house investigators indicates that the highway safety regulators declined to open a formal investigation into the gm ignition even after receiving field reports and complaints about the problems.

ignition suppliers told gm in 2002, before the vehicles hit the road that the system didn't meet automakers speck. top executives new nothing about the switches until january 31st of this year. the company did not issue a first recall of 620,000 vehicles until february 10th. two weeks later it recalled an additional 748,000 vehicles. on friday, it added 824,000, bringing the total number of vehicles to more than 2 million. mary barra released this statement about the latest recall: >> gm is also feeling the heat from federal prosecutors, the

justice department examining whether general motors is criminally liable for failing to disclose the problems with its vehicles, all amid concerns that the bailout protected the automaker from civil suit. >> the defective ignition switches have been linked to 13 deaths and 31 crashes. it despite an intense search for flight mh370 nothing has been found. crews scoured 100,000 square miles over the weekend and are now moving to a new search area in the southern indian ocean, where the jetliner most likely ran out of fuel. >> australia's prime minister promised to step up efforts. >> we owe it to everyone to do whatever we reasonable can, and we can keep searching for quite some time to come, and we will keep searching for quite some time to come. as i said, the intensity of our search and magnitude of

operations is increasing, not decreasing. >> many families are venting their anger as weeks pass without signs of loved ones. some refuse malaysia's events. several relatives travelled to kuala lumpur to demand answers. at the same time vigils are being held for the missing throughout the malaysian capital. people released balloons attached with name cards of missing crew and passengers. >> we are not giving up home that we can find the missing mh370. we will find them. i hope we will not give up. >> it must be worse for them. this is to give them encouragement. and, you know, try to support them in... >> off the coast of australia, 20 planes and ships are searching the southern indian ocean. a new ship fitted with a black

box detector and an underwater drone will join the operation. >> in afghanistan ka, the world health organization confirmed two cases of ebola in liberia. it is blamed on 70 deaths in guinea. on saturday senegal closed its crossing it guinea until further notice. the ebola is contagious and there's no treatment or vaccine. >> archeologistsar examining two dozens skeletons. the remains could reveal knew information about the black plague that wiped out more than half of london's population. >> these bones are providing answers to questions about the black death. scientists say d.n.a. confirms what many thought, that the poor

soles died as a result of the plague that killed tens of millions in europe more than 600 years ago. stud oiling how is re -- studying how is revealing many things. >> they suffered malnutrition and stress. >> studying the bones can play a role in learning about deadly diseases and how to if fight future pandemics. >> we can look at re-emerging diseases and new-emerging diseases to help us understand what form they'll take, how they'll evolve. >> according to public health researchers, the evidence from the bones may change how the plague was spread. immediately thought to be transmitted by rats and sleeves, some believe it must have been airborne, spread by coughing and

sneezing, allowing it to kill many so fast. now it's a theory. and the future of the 25 excavated skeletons is yet to be decided. >> the plague is one of the oldest identifiable diseases known to man. it can be treated with antibiotics. the effects of climate change can be seen everywhere. that's the conclusion of the latest report of u.n. panel for climate change. ice caps are melting. sea life is becoming extinct. humanity is not prepared for the changes. scren rr responded -- secretary of state john kerry responded to the report stressing it's time for the world to wake up and respond. >> we started with 68 teams, now we are down to four, the final four competing for a chance to be the national champs.

>> it's our last day of march.

we are wrapping it up with a blizzard warning. we'll see the focus. warning in the northern plains states and we'll get more rain for the west coast, but the direction of the rain will be pointing further southward. this is going to impact the first day of baseball season, opening day for a lot of places across the u.s. the rain will impact gradually from north to south, northern california down to san francisco, and lighter rain through the evening hours reaching to san diego. it's the northern plain states. when we look closely at the dakotas and into minnesota. that's where the blizzard warning is going effect, and the higher elevations will receive 10 to 20 inches of snow while we get the wind gusts 40 to 50 miles per hour. they are coming out of the north, bringing down arctic air. a big chill from the dakotas down to sports of nebraska, and iowa.

it will be chilly, and we'll get a little light snow into the northern states and iowa. as we look at where the warnings are at. we'll focus attention into south-east to north dakota and north-west minnesota. as we get towards chicago, we will not get the impact from the storm. the track looks lick it goes over the great -- looks like it goes over the great lakes. we look at the west coast , our concerns are around rainfall and washington. the rain has been tapering off. showers decreasing. still a flood warning as we have the damming of the mud, allowing water to pool up and flood homes upstream. gradually well see this improve as we get a couple of dry days coming up. it will get wetter as we get further into northern california. expect the rain to continue to the west and temperatures chilly

to the northern plains, but warmer for day-time highs. >> march madness started with 68 teams, now we are down to the final four. ross shimabuku reports. >> after weeks of madness the last 14 teams are dancing into arlington texas to play the national championships. it will bep the battle of the the haves and the have not in the first. kentucky wildcats take on the wisconsin badgers. their lone time came in 1941, and they are making their third purposes in the final four. >> this is like nothing else i have ever felt before. we have played basketball our whole lives and dreamed of going to the final four. to accomplish that is something i can't put into words. florida is the lone number one seed to make it into the final four. after the gaiters knocked off the run of the fliers. the gaiters lean on senior

leadership, and they advance out of the league 8, falling short in the last three years. >> this is moving on to a final four. i'm not sure that the four seniors, having gone through the experience, could have made the next step that they made. >> i was looking at the ladder, thinking about how i want to do this again. i want to do whatever i can to help the team reach the goal at the beginning of the year. yukon is no stranger to the final four. they are three seasons removed. a lot has changed for the huskies since 2011. long-time coach stepped down in 2012, leaving kevin olly to run the huskies. >> i knew what it was about.

going on top, going through what they went through, without them doing anything, it wasn't their fault. >> we play for the coach, for the university in that program. it's great to see this. hello, i'm richard gisberg, and you are at "the listening post", this week recep tayyip erdogan bans twitter, and the twitter arty fight back. the pakistani issue of the "new york times", with some of the news fit to print. the media in hong kong and the beijing effect. happening. >> pick a brand, any brand, we have the pictures. >> last month we reported