google+ pages. you can find us on twitter. see you next time. good evening everyone. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler e-john inw york. flash point. taking control of another region near crimea. the hive and death of an extraordinary man of faith. >> bernie,arik, a new york top

cop. tells us about abuses in reich ersrierykersisland, a prison hed then mickey rooney, an extraordinary personality on and off the screen. and we begin with ukraine. this picture is not from crimea or kiev. but from the eastern part of the country that may be a tipping point. pro-russian protesters took over government buildings in three cities. now it's a volatile situation fears what we saw before, white house secretary jay carney said there is evidence some of the protestors are being paid and not local residents.

>> if russia moves into eastern ukraine, either of overtly or covertly this would be a serious situation. we call on president putin to call off all efforts to destabilize ukraine. >> now ukraine's acting president says force will be used against protestors with weapons. kim vanell reports. >> this is a celebration of independence. taken over by activists on sunday. listening to songs of the soviet era sending a message of support to those smied inside, independt republic. this they say is the region's new seat of power. with all the people's council is made up of residents from every

town across the region. not only have they announced that this is now an independent republic they have also created and signed a resolution which they're going to pass on to russian president vladimir putin asking for his helicopter. some of the residents say the positions ton council were difficult to fill. >> together they came up with a resolution and wrote the names of those who they represent. 45% o of the seats were taken by the delegates and the rest were filled by those who came with them. >> reporter: activists have also asked putin to put a force on stand by of so-called peace keepers if kiev responds with violence. >> we are addressing you vladimir putin, and the last hope for our future and the future of our children. only in russia we see the last

defending of the culture of the russian world. >> the first demand a referendum giving them a chance whether to join russia. that's been russia's end game all along said the russian representative, creating an excuse to invade. >> there are citizens of ukraine. yesterday the second waive of the russian special operation against ukraine started. the goal is to destabilize the situation in the country, topple the ukraine and tear our country apart. >> the government in kiev has said it has set up an antiterrorism unit. authorities note they'll need to act quickly but avoiding a repeat of the bloodshed which ousted the last ukrainian president. kim vanel, al jazeera, donetske.

>> some refused to leave, among theme dutch priest. he stayed behind to help syrian christians. he was killed today in homs. shot by masked gunmen. >> for years, this had been a sarnght wear and for -- sanctuary. and for 50 years, father francis luck had built a community based on tolerance and compassion. we send soup to the elderly who are stuck at home alone or injured and can't leave their homes. a mosque a thousand years old. but today when the bell tolls faintly for the christians here, there's almost no one to hear it. this is the old city of homs, used to be 70,000 christians

here. today fewer than 70 are left. more than 60 chumps were destroyed. in fact, nearly all of homs old city was destroyed. an antigovernment activist posted this video on youtube. the two sides fought brutally. and the opposition says the government cordoned the city off and choked its residents. this woman says she's had no medicine, flour, electricity since 2012. francis had the chance to leave. he refused. january he released a plea via youtube. it's impossible for us to continue like this, he says. we need a lot of help.

after it posted we spoke to francis by skype. >> what are the conditions for the people who are still living in the old city? on a cell phone, his assistant filmed his horrific answer. people are running down the streets he says, screaming i am hungry. francis was the only westerner left in homs. he showed us his food smie. a few olives. an empty jar formerly holding wheat. i wish those lives who are at risk don't die, i wish they create a bridge to transport everything we need. francis died trying to build that bridge to the end he kept his dignity. but he and most of the old city

of homs lost their sanctuary. nick schifrin, al jazeera. >> a prisoner at new york's rykers island is dead after being left in a sweltering cell. the temperature, over 100°. bernard kerik former police commissioner of the city of new york. he joins us live to talk about prison conditions in just about 15 minutes. it lasted just over 100 days as long as 800,000 people to be slawlslaughtered. that was rwanda. fish richelle carey joins us with more on this sad story. >> today somber memorial service john offered the people the chance to reflect the pain rwanda went through and the healing still taking place.

the controversy, current rwandan president accused one nation of having a direct role in the genocide. thousands of people packed rwanda's sport stadium to remember those who died 20 years ago. dancers reenacted the slaughter lying life isless on the ground -- lifeless on the ground. some had to be carried out the pain too much to handle two decades later. the mass murder started april 7th, 1994. one day after the plane carrying rwanda's then president was shot down as it approached the capital. the killing sparked three months of massacres. with the attacks against the tutsi population against the majority hutus.

secretary-general ban ki-moon. we should have done much more. we should have done much more. >> paul kagami was a rebel in 1994 to stop the genocide. >> the people who carried out the genocide were rwandans but the root causes go beyond this beautiful country. >> kagami recently told a fremplfrmpfrenchmagazine. pain of a nation. for some survivors, the healing process means facing their attackers in person. like alice, seen hear embracing emanuel, the man who cut off her hands, sliced her face and body with the machete and left her for dead. >> i went down on my knees,

raised my hands in the air and begged her forgiveness. she collapsed and we had to take her to the hospital. >> just knowing who did this gave me foaferlgness. >> many parts of rwanda has administered community sessions, to strengthen the relationships. for those who cannot forgive, the focus is on the rest of the world focusing on what happened in rwanda and making sure nothing else happens like this in the rest of the world. >> on the 20 year commemoration secretary of state john kerry said, we hope they will l build a brighter future for their country. the french foreign minister boy colted the day's event.

we must never forget, john. >> it's hard to believe richelle, 20 years. eugenie was 20 years old when the war broke out in rwanda. she joins us from new york. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> can you tell us how you survived william you were eight months pregnant when the genocide broke out. >> i survived because of luck and because of the kindness of some people who were taking the risk to save my life. >> how do you talk to your daughter about this? what have you told her? >> i haven't had a conversation with her one on one really to focus on the genocide and what happened to me. she's lucky, in a sense, because she's been with me when i started publicly talking about this and she heard the story

from the audience. she knows what the story is. but we haven't really sat down and had a conversation about it. >> is it just too difficult? >> it is hard. it is difficult. i kept thinking that well, she's too young for this, she's too young for this and i really don't know what the right age to begin the conversation. >> can you talk a little bit about looking back 20 years now, has enough been done to help survivors? how did you cope? how have you coped? >> i was lucky because by the time the genocide was over i have had some education. i did not lose an arm or a leg or anything. so i could -- i could rebuild in some ways. but that's not the case for other survivors who have had to endure some physical and intense

psychological harm that delayed their recovery. 20 years, it doesn't feel that long ago for us. the memories are still fresh, especially during this commemoration time. and the logs that we suffered are still real to us. >> and yet we saw in this piece some people are willing to forgive. can you forgive the people who attacked your family? >> forgiveness is a personal thing. and i think it is not -- it's not permanent. some days are better than othe others. sometimes you can go on without even thinking about these people until they do something and then it brings you back to -- back to the very beginning.

i don't -- >> what does this day do? >> we go back. i think most of us go back to the very beginning of the genocide. everyone remembers where they were when we got the news that this is what was happening. and it's very sad day for us. >> what do you want the world to know about this? >> i want the world to know that genocide was preventible. this one was preventible. it's just that there was no will to stop it from happening. but also want to world to know that when a tragedy like this happens to a nation, the needs -- the level of need that we as a country, rwanda, need is just, it's just going to stretch for so many, many, many years,

generations even. so right now it's 20 years. but survivors still need a lot of help. >> eugenie. great to talk to you tonight. thanks for sharing your story. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> in afghanistan, residents turned out for the apology. preliminary results are expected to be announced april 24th. coming up. bernard kerik, spend time in prison, now, the former new york police corrections commissioner, is here to talk about rykers island. next. jeb bush takes on his own party with surprising comments about immigration.

a. >> now to a story that's getting a lot of attention. shocking abuse around corruption at rykers island, the city's prison system. we will talk to the former commissioner there but first

david shuster has the facts and the figures. >> john, the focus is on rykers island, the second largest jail in america and it is plagued by scandal abuse corruption and tragedy. in february, jerome a homeless worker died in his cell where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. he was there for hours before officials found his body. he was on suicide watch and was supposed to be checked every 15 minutes. that death led to a demotion and suspension of the warden. in 2012 annal inmate died after ingesting a toxic detergent. of the twe,000 inmates just 40% of the inmates at rykers are mentally ill. at the same time, violent use of force by correction officers have gone up 240% in the past decade. in 2008, an 18-year-old inmate

was beaten to death, in what's known as glad 88thor training, where extraction of money from other prisoners. >> thanks daniel shuster. joining me is bernard kerik. mr. kerik later served as new york's police commissioner, a position he held on 9/11. he was nominated to be secretary of homeland security, in 2009 he pled guilty to tax fraud and other charges and served three years in federal prison. thanks for being with us. >> thanks john. >> let me start with this question and sort of get this out of the way. there may be people who watch this and say what sort of credibility does bernard kerik have when he's gone to prison and served in a federal prison to talk about this issue?

>> when i took over at rykers as the first deputy, over a six year period, i reduced violence by 93% and took from it one of the worst jails in the nation to an international model. of safety and security. >> in fact an iron hand at rykers island drastically reduces violence. that was in 1999. what did you do to reduce violence at rykers? >> most importantly it was accountability. it was accountability, it was leadership it was getting the staff the resources they needed, the equipment they needed to do the job. implementing policies and procedures to ensure internal accountability and also holding the inmates accountable for their own actions. rykers at one time was a criminal empire, almost, stabbings and slashings. we averaged 150 a month when i took over. on the month i became police

commissioner six years later i had one. >> how does a homeless mentally ill veteran end up in an over 100° sell -- cell. >> one, how did he end up in the cell where it was over 100°. the second issue was why wasn't he found earlier? to my understanding he was either in a segregation sell or a mental imness cell and in my understanding there are 15 minute watches on these cells. the officers have to be in and out of there every 15 minutes. >> what's going on? >> when you look at all the scandals the last six, eight, ten years since i left, it is an enormous failure in leadership and enormous lack of accountability. there is none. you have commanders today that are still at rykers that were in charge of some of these areas during some of these greatest

scandals. >> another inmate died after ingesting toxic detergent considered a homicide. >> right. >> again, how does this happen? >> that's another incident where there's just a lack of accountability. i mean you had a correction officer to my understanding called a first line supervisor which is a captain and told him this inmate was sick, violently sick. and basically, the captain did nothing. you know, so you have two issues. one, the captain did nothing. but two, the co was mandated to.do something as well. >> has rykers been too soft on inmates? >> it's not about being too soft, john, it's about internal accountability. the incidents over the last few years, you're only talking about two. you had one of the most substantial breaches of history in corrections anywhere in this country when you had some guy go

on the island, go into different facilities who was not a staff member, interview inmates, went to the manhattan detention facility, got in and out, that's a stuff that's outrageous, a major failure in leadership. >> when you became commissioner you came in and started using solitary confinement, pepper spray, you started to crack down on inmates -- >> we cracked down on the violent but we also did a number of things to assist the inmates. >> what else? >> it took them four to six hours to get to a medical clinic for an inmate. i got it down to under an hour. it took you four to six hours to see your attorney. i got it down to 45 minutes. the food was horrendous, by the time i left we did 7500 meals a day. and one inmates out of 70,000 meals if he didn't get his meals hot palatable and crunchy i

would know about it. >> 30% of the inmates are mentally ill. when you were a commissioner, it was a much smaller number i believe. what's happened in those years? >> honestly john i read that piece in the times, 30 to 40% mental observation inmates. i don't know if that number is real. to me it doesn't sound -- >> there are a lot of mentally y ill people in the prison. >> that goes to the overall criminal justice system, now we are using prisons and jails we are holding mentally ill patients there and we shouldn't be. >> how would you clean it up? >> first of all you have to completely revamp the leadership and the agency. i know mayor deblasio just appointed a new commissioner, i'm confident he's going to be looking at this but the command staff that's been there over the

last several years they've got to go. >> let me talk about a couple of other issues in the news lately. albuquerque new mexico, you might have heard about the police shootings, fatal police shootings, the worst in the country over the past few years. are police getting a bad rap in albuquerque? >> i really haven't followed it. i've been involved as gun battles as a cop. i don't like to monday morn quarterbacking those things if i wasn't there. every one of these incidents has to be looked at separately. >> let me ask you about people who came after you in the job of police chief, commissioner kelly and commissioner bratton, what sort of job do you see them doing on have done? >> i think commissioner kelly had a lot of success. i think one of the most important things is he kept the city safe and protected it from

terrorist events. we had i think my number's right i think there were 13 different events in and around new york city that were prevented. and you know, he had a lot of success. as far as bratton goes he just got there. but he is personally one of my favorite police commissioners. he was a police commissioner when i thought he was a cop. i thought he did a great job then irthink he's going -- i think he's going to do a phenomenal job now. >> i've got more questions. can you stick arounds? around? >> yes. >> signals, detected from deep in the indian ocean. an update on the search for flight 370 when we come back.

>> and welcome back to al jazeera america.

i'm john siegenthaler in new york. we've got a lot to cover this half hour. undocumented immigration. an act of love? jeb bush thinks so. plus the republican business people who worry immigration reform will be too tough. a drug available for years could help prevent the spread of hiv but few people are actually taking it. we'll explain why. and cash is king. how increased competition from abroad is making it tougher for some americans to buy homes. but first, richelle carey is back with tonight's briefing, richelle. >> john i'll start in ukraine where escalating tension is happening in the east. declared the city of donetske an independent republic. u.s. secretary of state john kerry talked with his russian counterpart. america is threatening sanctions if russia intervenes.

800,000 people were killed in rwanda in genocide. stopped the killings led today's memorial events. and protesters have gathered in albuquerque at a town hall meeting to both criticize and support the police. after an officer shot and killed a homeless man last month. the justice department has released findings. john. >> in our po power politician tonight. jeb bush set in certain circumstances illegal immigration should be viewed as an act of love not a felony. could have implications in a race for president and david shuster has the story. >> reporter: former gop

governor of florida jeb bush said he will make the decision based on two primary factors. >> can one do it joyfully without tied to all of the convention of the politics of the here and now and the other is, is it okay for my family? is it something that isn't a huge sacrifice for our family? >> reporter: bush's family knows well the wear and tear of presidential campaigns. father is george h.w. bush. president in 1978 and his brother older brother by seven years, george w. bush. he is one of the more mode rat of brothers. a more viable candidate than scandal-plagues new jersey governor chris christie. >> not running has generated more interest than if i said i was running. kind of weird.

i'm not that smart i promise you. >> reporter: but he appears to understand that someone has to heal the fractious gop to recapture the white house. >> we need to elect candidates that have a vision that is bigger and broader. and candidates that are organized around winning the election. not making a point. winning the election should be what we're about. >> reporter: when term limits moved bush out of the florida governor's office in he 2007 he joined the board of directors for tenant health care, a $15 billion dollars company. also the board of lehman brothers, but f the former governor has stayed involved in national discussions about education and has repeatedly taken a strong stand on immigration. supporting comprehensive reform and speaking passionately about

illegal immigrants. >> when they cross the border when they have no other means to work and provide for their family yes, they broke the law but it's not a felony. it's an act of love. it's an act of commitment to your family. >> in that interview bush described the state of politics right now as crazy and said one factor in his decision would be if he feels he could run without getting drawn into a political mud fight. that may not be easy on the republican side given his stance on immigration. another member of the bush family considering a race for the white house. david shuster, al jazeera. >> once again is bernard kerik, joining us as new york's former police commissioner. we've got a new correction commissioner that started in the state of new york. known as a reformer, wants to

cut back on solitary confinement. what do you think of that? >> i think both of those are good, both important to focus on. one, the mental health issue. like i said we have a tendency in this country today to use prisons to hold mental health patients when we should not be. on the solitary issue to me that's an extremely important issue. and you know for my own personal reasons. most importantly don't abuse it. solitary should be used for problematic inmates that create a threat to the institution, a threat to staff. a threat to other inmates. but to use solitary confinement for minor infractions, for suicidal inmates, for inmates with mental health problems. that is a major, major problem. and it could be detrimental to the system. it could be -- you know people kill themselves. when you go into solitary you

hallucinate, you talk to yourself, you -- you know it's a bad, bad thing. it should be only used for the worst of the worst inmates. we have a tendency in this country today to use it inappropriately. >> can you talk a little bit about you learned while you were in prison? >> well, where i was, i was in a very different setting. i was in a minimum security prison camp. but most importantly what i learned is that in the federal prison system, we are sentencing -- in the criminal justice, the federal criminal justice system we are sentencing young men and women who are nonviolence first time offenses, many of them -- >> drug crimes? >> -- drug crimes to several years in prison and it's draconian. the mandatory minimums and sentencing guidelines are completely outrageous. and i know the old lock 'em up

and throw away the key mentality you know makes people feel good. the really is, you cannot send these kids to prison for ten or 15 years, give them no rehabilitation, no education, no life improvement skills send them back into society and by some dilution think they're going to be better people. you turn them into monsters you treat them like animals and then you turn them back into the society. you got to get them out of the system faster. in many cases they don't need prison. they need life improvement skills and to be taught respect and self discipline. you have to give them community service, in the most important thing about the federal criminal justice system that i saw, and i have a problem with, no matter how long you're sentenced, if you're sentenced to a year, it's not really a year.

it's a life sentence. you are sentenced to life of collateral damage with that label of being a convicted felon. >> you were probably one of the best known political figures in the city much new york or around the country because you were on your way to possibly being the head of homeland security when you got into trouble. what are you doing now but how has your life changed? >> how has my life changed? it's changed pretty dramatically. you know right now i'm focused on you know, learning more about my kids that i haven't seen in three years. i'm working on a book. i'm doing a couple, you know, hope to be doing some consulting things. and most importantly i'm talking about criminal justice reform. if there's anything that's coming out of my going away and i wouldn't say any, but was good, but if there's anything

that can come out of it, it's me having a very unique and one of a kind perspective that nobody has. nobody in the history of our country in this country has ever been in the system, that has my experience and education, about the system, and my successes, when you look at what i did at rykers when you look at what i did in the nypd it's unparalleled. i know the system. i know what it does. i know what it's supposed to do. i know what it's supposed to accomplish and i know how to fix it. the criminal justice system is broken and it's got to get fixed. >> bernie kerik, is thanks for coming on the show. you're welcome. a town hall meeting is underway where dozens of citizens have given impassioned pleas to the city council. jim high schooli high hoolie re.

>> i want every apd officer that has been involved in a debt by apd to be carndle with murder. >> many angry with the police and the deadly shootings, some charging the department is out of control. >> our city is too beautiful to be portrayed as an unsafe place, unsafe at the hands of the people who came here to protect us. >> it's not apd who threatened this system. >> the outrage was sparked when a mentally ill homeless man james boyd was gunned down. a few days later, alfred redwine was shot and killed. his family said he was unarmed. >> i seen him bleeding from his

chest and all i wanted to do was get to my brother and hold him. >> tammy redwine's brother was the eighth killed. >> she need to know how to talk to people and deal with people and calm down a situation using their mouth and talking to them as human beings rather than right away firing their guns. >> the city council will consider all of the public's comments in attempts to growing the public's concerns. a proposal to establish a commission to monitor the police department. >> i would like to see possibly a retired police chief with great credentials, a federal or district court judge that is retired and also a civil rights attorney to work on that commission just to assure that the public has a confidence in the leadership of the albuquerque police department. >> a review is underway with the albuquerque police leadership,

the fbi has opened up their own investigation of the albuquerque police department. we have just learned that the department of justice has wrapped up its investigation and ready to release those results. that will happen at ten a.m. thursday, john. >> thank you we'll watch that. a pill that is 90% effective against hiv, is barrel used, truvada, approved by the fda almost ten years ago. but those who it would before most are not using it. roxana saberi reports. >> gay men are using condoms less and less, 20% less in 20 years, damon jacobs is gay, he's doing something many aren't,

taking a pill named truvada. >> here is this medication that could be more than 90% effective if taken every day. >> he's such a fan he started this facebook page promoting it. >> has been shown to be effective -- >> other gay men are less enthusiastic about truvada also called prep. dr. janine murray has offered the bill to her patients but only one has accepted it. >> they have a spirit of being invincible, it's not going to happen to me. >> most are her patients at the drop in clinic are low income. they haven't even heard about truvada, not only low income gay men but also upper and middle classmen who aren't taking

truvada, we went into this manhattan gay bar to ask about it. >> if you thought you could use this to prevent getting hiv would you take it? >> that would definitely help. i don't know if i would spend the money to take a drug like that knowing with preventive behavior i could handle that myself. >> for now, getting people to know more about truvada is clearly an uphill battle. two of his friends died of hiv-aids and he doesn't want to be one of them. >> ththe snohomish county medicl officer says 30 have been identified in the landslide in

washington state. 15 are still missing. signals consistent with an airline black box. now crews are once again searching for the signal days before the black box batteries are set to expire. lisa stark has the latest. >> it's being called the most promising lead yet. the australian ship, is using an underwater pinger locator from the u.s. navy and they have heard two distinctive pinging sounds and they heard them for more than two hours. still officials in australia are urging caution saying, quote, we have not found the aircraft yet. >> what i'd like to see now is us find some wreckage because that will -- that will basically help solve the mystery. and i would ask you to respect that. because fundamentally, without wreckage, we can't say it's

definitely here. we've got to go down and have a look. and hopefully, we'll find it somewhere in the area that we've narrowed to. >> there is still an active search on the water using planes and ships to try to find any debris and the ocean shield will continue now underwater listening for that pinging sound again. if it can hear the noise they will send down an underwater sub, a remote drone that can go down possibly with cameras and sow thasonar. see if they can locate any of the black boxes. this is a very deep part of the indian ocean. they are running out of time. , those pingers only good for 30 days. they could go any day now. >> the senate has voted to approve a bill that would provide five months of emergency benefits for the long term

unemployed. these come after those benefits have expired. libby casey reports. >> some states it's a little more like montana, some states it's less like north carolina. during the presidency of george w. bush, congress and the warehouse put forward an emergency to extend these benefits for up to 99 weeks, for americans to continue to look for work. that program's been extended 11 times until december 28th of last year. congress went on its winter holiday without extending this program and now democrats are trying to get it reinstated. what they passed on the senate on monday evening is retroactive, so the benefits would kick in through may. now it's april, we're just talking about a five month period through next month.

senator carl levin gave his perspective. >> for all but a handful of recipients unemployment is not a free pass from working but the economic life line that keeps them going, while severalling for the job they desperately want and need. >> you still have to look for work even though you're getting these long term benefits. they come from states like nevada and ohio that were especially hard hit during the recession, still wrestling from the unemployment numbers. passage in the house far from certain. john boehner says we are willing to look at extending unemployment benefits. as long as they include jobs. like building the keystone pipeline. the same form as the senate bill

so the long term unemployed are not likely to see those benefits kick in any time soon. >> libby casey reporting. the recover of the real estate marmt is one of the most important and visible signs of economic rebound from the great recession. but rising prices for homes along with tougher lending standards have made it hard are for americans to get a piece of the american dream. mary stone has that story. >> from multimillion dollar homes in new york to las vegas, cash is king in the real estate market. realtime track finds 43% of all residential properties in february were purchased with cash. that's up from 20% a year earlier. it's an astounding number and many of those buyers are from overseas. canada and china have been topping the list of international buyers. but realty track has a bigger

story of what potential homeowners are facing in the housing market. >> there are many multiple-offer situations on a property. a lot of times that cash buyer who may be a foreign buyer is winning out. and so it's really becoming a much more prominent part of what's driving this u.s. real estate recovery. >> buyers from canada, china, mexico india and the u.k. top the list. the top five states where they are buying properties are florida, california, arizona, texas and new york. most of these buyers are doling out cash to buy properties because they see u.s. real estate as a good investment or they're buying vacation homes. here in new york some realtors now report seeing a new trend of international buyers eyeing wealthy suburbs because they are bringing their families here. apartments and condos and realty track says it doesn't see

interest from overseas waning at any time soon. mary snow, al jazeera. >> coming up. our pick of the day. plus mickey rooney. his career started when movies were stilt silent.

>> i'm meteorologist rebecca stevenson. all the rainfall from mississippi, alabama, on the east coast to china, tornado reports in parts of north carolina earlier in the evening. now things are settling down. we still have tornado watches and the potential for severe weather coming in for parts of the south, southeast. but most of that rain and cool temperatures will continue through the day even to our highs. note the high temperatures we have for memphis and atlanta into the low 60s but then to the southwest, boy we have heat

here, los angeles another 90° day for you and the highs even working that warm air into seattle into the mid 60s. we have another day wednesday for parts of the southwest, we are all going to feel this nice warmup and the temperatures will track into the mid atlantic where folks have been kind of chilly or even chicago you're going to enjoy a nice wednesday finally. here is your high temperatures for tuesday, note they're in the 70s, nice change of pace. we'll continue showers and thunderstorms right where we don't need it over mississippi and alabama today.

>> mickey rooney wasn't born famous but pretty close to it. this is a picture of rooney when he was just five years old, 1925 when the child star was just beginning his hollywood career, one that would last nearly 90 years. rooney died yesterday at the age of 73 and stephanie sy has his

story. >> what mickey rooney lacked in stature, he made up in talent. the 5'3" actor no nominated once and then again 40 years later. he became famous with the andy hardy series. his role in boys town at 19. his popularity declined after world war ii he never stopped acting. he received an honorary oscar in 1953 for his versatility in film. he was married eight times including to actress ava gardner. his fifth wife was murdered by another actor. rooney had financial problems but persevered, outliving most

of his wives and contemporaries. >> it's always a thrill to be on stage. the ham bone in me doesn't exist unless i'm on stage. that's where i live because my family is the audience. >> he spoakd out against age -- spoke out against age bias. and he remained active until the end writing and producing. stephanie sy, al jazeera. >> the ncaa men's basketball championship, former presidents bill clinton, george w. bush getting a little face time on the at&t stadium in arlington, texas, that is the cowboys quarterback, tony row romo in ft of them. the headlines are next.

>> america tonight next only on al jazeera america

>> this takes guts... >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. here ever tonight's top stories. growing tension in eastern ukraine. pro-western protesters declared the city of donetske an

independent republic. westerners accused russia of sanctioning. signals from what might be the black box from missing mh370 airliner. it's been 31 days since the plane disappeared with 239 people aboard. thousands gathered in rwanda to remember the genocide much 20 years ago. leaving 800,000 people dead and many more dead and traumatized. pawg kagami led the ceremonies marking the event. protesters for and against the albuquerque police department, officers shot and killed a homeless man last month. the justice department has launched a criminal investigation into the

shootings. that's the headlines. remember can you get the latest on our website, aljazeera.com. thank for your time, do keep it here. drilling for oil in southeast florida and the anger growing in this coastal paradise. >> would we drill in the grand canyon? is nowhere sacred?