twitter or reach me directly @ray suarez news. we'll see you for the next "inside story." in washington, i'm ray suarez. >> >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york city. here are the stories we are following. >> polling stations in kabul making history - a vote for president and democracy. >> after vanishing four weeks ago without a trace, a glimmer of hope in the search for malaysia airlines flight mh370. >> rallies across the country calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

>> the polls have closed in afghanistan. the nation voted in the first democratic election. there are fearing of violence because of a string of bombing and shootings. the day went off smoothly. we have that story in kabul. the queue started before the polling stations opened. despite taliban threats to target the operation, people wanted to vote. in afghanistan's 5,000 year history, this marks the first democratic transfer of power, the people here eager to seize the chance. >> you can see everyone coming here. for me, i don't have any kind of taliban. >> 12 million from eligible to

vote. in parts of the country where the taliban held sway polling stations were closed. people queue up after going through a security check, dip their finger in indelible ink. pick up their papers, go in and cast their ballot. blue for the presidential and green for the provincial. the presidential vote is easy, there's eight candidates. for the provincial elections there are six pages, 400 candidates in kabul. each voting must choose one candidate. president hamid karzai was one of the first to vote, bringing to an end his 12 years of rule since the taliban was forced out of power in 2001. >> translation: i cast my vote as a citizen of the country, i'm glad and proud i have voted.

i'm certain that the event and our people's participation would take afghanistan towards stability and better lives. >> there are eight candidates. zalmai rassoul is another, and ashraf ghani ahmadzai. kabul was locked down as part of a nation-wide security operation mobilizing 400 security personal. that helped to bring the number of attacks to afghanistan. ballot counting started since polls closed. there are aless of fraud being made. that will test the independence of the election commission. >> complaints could be handled, because we don't know how the election and complants commission will act during the

past experience. it remains to act whether it is sin sorely or in favour -- sincerely or in favour of a candidate. the commission is not expected to announce preliminary results for four to five days. this was never expected to be a poll free of fraud, but how much there is will determine whether afghans except the commission's decision on the winner. >> with our weeks after malaysia airlines flight mh370 vanished there's new hope that the jet will be found. a signal matching the frequency of the black box was detected. it matches the area being searched, about 1,000 miles off the coast of australia. a pulse signal, a ping, was detected this morning.

three members of the ship's crew heard it, but didn't have time to record it. the chinese and australian governments say there's no evidence to definitively link it to that plane. experts say the black botches batteries only -- black boxes batteries only last for about 30 days. >> rallies are taking place protesting washington's demonstration policy. demonstrators are calling it too little too many. today marks the 2 millionth deportation. we'll go to robert ray. you walked the route from the state cal toll to the iceheadquarters. what is the mood like. >> good afternoon. we did take that walk. last hour we were at the state capital. you can see the speakers.

you're about to take the microphone, what are you going to tell everyone? >> to keep the fight going, that we'll escalate, this is the beginning, and we are calling on president barack obama to act. it's a collection of the community, not just a symbolic act, but something that will shift the destiny for thousands. >> we could look at the little children here. this says it all. this is what the people are out here for, to be honest with you. this is the mood you ask. she's about to take the mike, and if me camera many looks down the street, there's hundreds of people that took this march from the capital to the headquarters of icehere in atlanta, and it's a situation where the folks wand

change. te -- want challenge, they want to be americans, many are, many of their relatives have been deported. we don't know how many people have been deported as we spoke about earlier. the number, they say, is 2 million, whether that is factual is tauf to put a number on that. you get a lot of different opinions, let me put the microphone here. >> this is part of rallies happening across the country, in 72 towns, because our communities have been rising to the call that we have been escalating that we have a unified call that we can't afford to wait for the president to act, we can't sit on our hands waiting for congress... >> that is the key message, they want action on immigration laws. they want to hear from the president, from lawmakers, and

again, i don't want to push this. so what i'm struck by is the children, families, and they want to good life for everybody. that's the message i'm receiving, at least from atlanta. >> it's interesting, because we were hearing chanting "yes, we can." >> in georgia federal records somehow that georgia has the largest detention center. that's the stuart center. it's interesting. they talk about keeping the fight going. that's what the young woman said. what specifically are they asking for? >> these people would specifically like their family members in the country right now to be given the chance to apply pore citizenship, not be deported to the country they

have come from. that is what they would like. a fair chance to become a citizens. at this point. they should be given that opportunity. in the state of georgia, deportations are on the down tick. they are on the down tick here in the state of georgia. >> why is that? why are they on the downturn? >> yes. >> well, not 100% sure on that question. i'll look into that, and we'll get to you next hour. i don't want to say anything that is not factual. i can't 100% april the question. >> we appreciate you staying out there and talking to you the next hour. and what the young woman says at

the poewed numb. >> a memorial service will be healed at fort hood. ivan lopez gunned down three soldiers and wounding 16 others. before turning the gun on himself. heidi zhou-castro has been following the matter. >> we understand authorities says ivan lopez's mental health was not the main fact in the shooting. >> george. base command says it was an argument. a direct factor to the shooting. we are getting deails of what it pay be about. he said his son saw him enter an office and of course for a form to request leave.

he was upset. that's when the shooting began. we are hearing from lopez's family that leave may have been a testy subject. his mother decide of a heart attack. he had trouble getting permission to go to her funerals. he got 48 hours. his grandmother died. at this point it's obvious that the question of leave is top of mind for investigators to look at. they haven't had time to nail down a motive, but they are looking into that as a likely possibility. >> you mentioned lopez's family. what about the families of the victims, have they said anything yet? >> well, obviously it's been a time of terrible tragedy and mourning for them.

lopez killed three soldiers, and two of the families have spoken out. we have heard from the under of 38-year-old staff sergeant carlos lesani. she says her nephew planned to retire at the end of the year, he served for 20 years and was planning to return to puerto rico to enjoy his retirement. that will not be happening, and the aunt feels like she's living a dream. and the uncle of timothy owens. he said that his nephew was an honourable man. and doesn't understand how this could happen. >> thank you to heidi zhou-castro, a pleasure to have you back with us. >> still ahead... >> it's for us to make sure the folks know it's not the few que

know about, there's thousands of stories. >> makeover in memphis. the civil rights museum reopens with new exhibits bringing history to life.

>> tomorrow evening marks the 20th anniversary of genocide. mostly ethnic tutsis were butchered. rwanda enjoyed economic development. >> we have more. >> this is the genocide memorial, a place for the nameless dead. 50,000 people died in the school at the height of the genocide in which ethnic hutus killed mostly tew tuesday. the government encouraged them to come here so they would be

safe. it was a trap. now there are only the remains of the dead to remind the living of what happened. >> this represents a crisis of humanity. >> it's easy to say it happened in a small african country, it has nothing to do with me. >> this is a failure of the rest of the world. >> this is one of only a few people who survived. but his parents and ate brothers and sisters were murdered. it's by choice. it's his way of dealing with what happened. i'm feeling proud. i feel that it's my responsibility. i'm feeling the void i my dad, mum, brothers and sisters. >> in the 20 years sing the genocide they have made strides

in avoiding to repeat the past. in the field with mass murder was submitted farmers work together to feed the nation, and the government continues to implement an ambitious plan to rebuild rwanda's infrastructure. >> rwanda laid a plan for the future for all children, enforcing zero tolerance to corruption, embracing zero technology. they are facing the future with the knowledge that slipping beside is not an option. >> the tragic matters of genocide will remain in our memories. they can't stop us moving forward, and building a bright future. that legacy is what we are having from the leadership led by the government. >> rwanda's progress is partly due to financial aid from western countries.

at a technology hub people are hard at work developing software and computer applications. they say through technology rwandans can pull themselves out of poverty, one of the things that caused the genocide in the first place. >> european foreign ministers say they are giving their full support to secretary of state john kerry to keep the talks alive. this comesar john kerry said there are limits to what the u.s. can do in the israeli and palestinians continue to frustrate each other. the frustration after mahmoud abbas sought recognition of statehood and binyamin netanyahu's hardline stance. >> it's been 46 years since mart martin luther king was assassinated on a hotel ballony.

that hotel now has been renovated. >> the lorraine motel seems to be frozen in time. the balcony where martin luther king jr. was killed, the cars outside and the room where he last slept look the way it did in 1968. beyond the walls is a museum designed to counteract the movement in an interactive way, starting with the slave movement. >> we saved space so you could crowd down and see what it looked like to be touching one person for months as they travel through. you can hear the slaves, what they were going through. when it opened in 1991, the national civil rights museum

painted a picture of the movement. new exhibits highlighted churches, and homes, while introducing lesser known soldiers. >> it's important to know that it's not just the few, there were thousands of stories that need to be told. >> what did you come here for. >> iconic exhibits like the sit-in lunch counters replicate the sounds. you cap sit in a cell where dr king wrote his letter. it is in a new environment, col pleat with statues of women. every day women who could have been rows apart, wanting a seat on the bus. a primary exhibit is about brown versus integration. it takes you from a court room to inside the classroom where

there's a map showing looking at matters heaped in iowa and michigan. 40 new videos were added. appealing to younger visitors. we can't get away from it. it should never be forgotten. everyone must know happened. >> briefly they explore present day issues. encouraging visitors not to be transferred back in time but be part of the today's movement. >> and when we return on al jazeera america, it may look painful, but mongolia is fighting to make contorsionism part of its herrism. we explain next. >> and an-ecuador volcano spews

ash into the sky.

>> good afternoon to you. welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york city, and here are the headlines. >> a chinese ship searching for malaysian airlines flight 370 picked up a signal from the floorof the indian ocean. the crew reportedly heard a ping. the source of that ping is not known. >> in afghanistan people voted in the first democratic presidential election. it received an upsurge in violence and results are expected in mid may. >> tomorrow marks a grim anniversary. it's been 20 years since rwanda's genocide began, when 800,000, ethnic tute says were killed. ecuador is on high alert 95 miles south of the capital.

it has erupted sporadically for the past 15 years. and what you can expect this weekend in weather? >> as you said earlier, it's a beautiful day in the north-east, it's extending back across portions of the great lakes into the plains. there's a little snow to contend with. that is pushing across portions of upstate new york. the whether is going to be lovely. in chicago highs of 50, down in memphis, cooler air pushing in. 63 our high. we'll look across the north-east, where we can see cloudy skies towards the interior at the coast. beautiful day across new york city. a little on the windy side on the back side of the front. snow to contend with. by this evening in tomorrow, it will clear on out of there.

that's a major role in temperatures. toronto, winds gusting out of the west. philadelphia winds gusting up to 23. a little breezy with the winds pushing in out of the north. it's cooler across albany and montreal. look at the water vapour, it's a measure of what has happened in the atmosphere. later on rain towards the amor illo area and towards dallas. the showers will continue to push east into portions of louisiana, tonight into tomorrow, and that's when we see the chance of weather, towards the afternoon and the evening hours, when the instability in the atmosphere is the greatest. we are talking severe storms. damaging winds are possible in

addition to hail, and we cannot rule out the chance for storms, and isolated tornados, areas we are watching for back towards jackson. we'll keep you updated. >> mongolians are bending over backwards to save the art of contorsion. for tech aids there has been a source of pride. we have that story. this young girl has dreamed of being a contorsionist like her mother. >> i want to be part of a performance. many other young girls like this 6-year-old want the same thing. for several hours a day they came to learn from one of the greats. for this lady teaching the children to contort their bodies is a matter of natural duty. >> it praises the body and gives

strength and beauty to those that take it up. the young and audiences are given inspiration for the ideals of the body. >> this woman was a contorsionist, starting her career at the age of nine. she says contorsionism dates back to the 12th century when dances performed for the leader. it's a different audience these pupils are preparing for now. the circus is an important event in mongolia. among the highlights are contorsionists. it's seen as an art form and mongolians want this protected as part of their heritage. if unesco grants the petition it will be the 12th recognise nig for intangible cultural recognition. alongside dancing, calligraphy.

>> we look for music within our bodies. nomadic moping owlians came up -- mongolians came up with the art forms as they meditate. >> this is a celebration of who they are. a celebration of the past, their beauty and heritage. >> items from a long time ago in a galaxy not far away will be up for auction. everything from american russian space suits to items on lunar missions are up for grabs. this shoulder strap is expected to sell for 35,000. notes written by buzz aldrin on the moon are slated at $40,000. if that's rich, here is something down to earth. today is pillow fight day. mock battles are being held in honk con and other cities. all are welcome, there's no

charm for participating. all you need to do is bring a pillow. into thank you for watching al jazeera america. "the stream" is coming up next. for news updates head to aljazeera.com. hi i'm lisa fletcher and you are in the stream. a reality check about the immigration debate. we talk about it but almost never talk through it, and we're right now. ♪ immigration, just the word gets people worked up, but for people who make their life and