crowd what we should think that we're not thinking critically ourselves. >> thanks to all of our guests font. great show, we'll see you online. >> good evening, everyone. welcome to aljazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. crisis in ukraine, hostages taken, and russian activists. russia warns that civil war could be next. conflict, international sanctions are taking on russia's economy. equal pay. the white house with a defensive over a gender wage gap. wrongful deaths. hundreds of millions of dollars paid out for misdiagnosis and mistreatment of veterans. and suspended animation.

the new technology saving the lives of the critically injured. >> ukraine's new government is facing a crisis of control. pro russian demonstrators center seized buildings in a city in its eastern region. and demonstrators are holding dozens of people hostage. >> three days in donetsk, they're reinforcing their barricades, ukraine's prime minister with negotiations between politicians and police is hoping that a deal can be reached. what can be difficult is different leaders now speaking from different factions. >> there are private talks, and

private talks between influential people. but no one is speaking with the people of the republic. >> activists receiving calls to join russia. they are prepared for a showdown. >> they are at the ready. and people tell us that if forces from kiev do move in, they are prepared to use them. they say donetsk is now a republic. it was about to be dissolved, but they remain unioned. >> the authority that came to power in tv is illegal. it's not a sign of separatetism, and we're not destroying anything. >> reporter: the people are

now in power, but they fear it could be a target for kiev. and he says they will ask moscow for protection if ukrainian authorities launch an attack. crisis is causing tension in parliament too, where a fist fight broke out where the communist leaders accused them. >> wasn't it you? we're not following an american plan, but a russian one on how to destroy the independence of ukraine. >> continued calls for referendum on joining russia, they say it should be listened to. if they wait for the ukrainian authorities to make their move. as night fell in donetsk, the situation has become more tense. control of the administration building, they look very much like they're preparing for an assault which they expect overnight.

they expect security foxes to move in. they have molotov cocktails, and barricades and tires and barbed wire, and they are prepared for a fight. the russian authorities are being ramped up by russia, and there are people here paid by russia to act abs the raconteurs if you like, but they say it's not the case, they say that they're very much prepared to stand up and fight until they're being listened to. >> that's kim reporting from donetsk in ukraine. turning to the crisis in ukraine today, secretary john kerry warns that russia's moves now could be the signs of more to come. >> reporter: secretary kerry

minces no words over ukraine. >> russia's clear and unmistakable involvement in destabilizing ukraine is more than deeply disturbing >> reporter: kerry warned raconteurs of chaos and military intervention. >> our allies will not hesitate to use 21st century tools to hold russia responsible for 19th century behavior. >> reporter: kerry has a white house plan to step up pressure. >> we now have announced the possibility of using sector sanctions, and that's serious business. serious business. it's banking, it's energy, it's mining, it's arms, it's other things. >> reporter: kerry's tough talk did not convince the foreign relations committee that the u.s. is adequately engaged. >> on the issue of ukraine,

teddy roosevelt urged talk softly and carry a big stick, but what you're doing is talking strongly and carrying a small stick, a twig. >> reporter: he says russia and iran are driving policy in syria, and the senator wants to know exactly what kerry thinks the u.s. should do. >> i guess we'll tell, when you write your memoirs, whether you support the policy of the administration or not, but we certainly get a lot of conflicting reports. >> reporter: kerry used the obama administration's perspective, and said it's trying to change the perspective of the syrian regime. >> how do you get the parties both to a place where they both understand that there isn't going to be a military solution that doesn't destroy the country absolutely, but could ultimately be negotiated >> reporter: kerry went to his

old stomping grounds of capitol hill, 13 days overseas, a stalled peace process, but he kept a positive tone >> the two parties are talking to see if they can get over this hurdle and make that happen. >> reporter: a wait-and-see message for congress, repeated on a number of fronts. libby casey, aljazeera, washington. >> retired army major, mike lyons, joins us. and what else could the u.s. do if >?>> put more focus on the business side here. russia, all it does is export natural gas, and have the countries stand up and have that energy independence that it really needs. that's what the fear is in western europe right now, if that gets cut off, they're in

trouble. and they have to go toward the business. >> we heard john mccain saying that the u.s. needs to carry a big stick, and they're carrying a little tick, a twig, he called it, and is he talking about military? >> yes, with over 40,000 troops on the ukraine/russian border that putin has, russia could easily take over the eastern part of ukraine, create that land bridge to crimea, which is what he needs in order to redo energy grids and bring crimea into russia itself. so i think it's going to take more than the fifth fleet moving into the black sea if we're doing anything militarily. >> is there anything that ukraine can do? >> they don't have enough forces and russia is going to be looking over the horizon. heavy conventional force that's they move are the only thing that would cause a lot of

bloodshed. and russia loses any other credibility that they have in the world trying to protect russian nationals >> so you were saying that's the only reason that russia wouldn't intervene momentarily? >> if they got there under the cover of darkness, it's one thing, but russia knows that they have a very high weapon advantage on the ground. and they have to fight these somehow protesters with these militia forces that they have right now, because if they bring in the larger forces, it's going to provoke bigger. >> what do you make of john kerry saying that there are provocateurs propping eastern ukraine causing trouble. >> i wouldn't be surprised if both sides are fueling the protests, but the ukrainian government brings confidence from soldiers, people working in places that were once black

water in iraq and afghanistan. tremendous experience with crowds, tremendous experience with security. and i wouldn't be surprised if they're in helping the ukraine government establish the right type of security perimeters and environment to make sure that they're keeping casualties to a minute >> so you wouldn't be surprised if u.s. forces are there trying to help ukraine? >> i wouldn'ten surprised. with over 100,000 of them in the iraq conflict, there's tremendous experience and appetite to have that level of confidence help the ukrainian government help in a tense situation in ukraine. >> thank you very much. and now, the international response in the crisis in ukraine is already beginning to impact rush's economy. and richelle is here with that. >> ever since russian trops crossed the border into crimea, the russian stocks have been

falling, and it must be improved. the international monetary fund is pasting russia's economic growth. and the outlook is bleak. they predicted that the economy would grow by 2% this year, and now the prediction is 3%. the kurt is ban and services on russia, and asset frees and ban on senior officials. penalties on russian energy and banking and mining. the forecast could dip below 1% as the conflict continues and more sanctions are put in place. russian president, vladimir putin, is set to meet with his cabinet tomorrow to look at the new economic challenges. they will likely discuss petroleum and natural gas, since major importers from the west may soon look elsewhere for

energy. it makes up half of russia's budget and though russia has high exports to ukraine, still vladimir putin may not show so much concern. >> the russians are known to be chess players, and put inis a strategic player, so he may risk an economic slowdown to get what he wants. >> reporter: the imf is not on the only one with the outlook. deutsche bank is encouraging it's clients to stay out of russia, and visa and mastercard are ending relationships with key russian banks. looking to the first quarter of 2014, russia's economy already appears to be in a tailspin. ruble is down between 7 and 9%, and that means that food prices are up by the same amount, and other items cost about 5% more for consumers.

the conflict with ukraine will push investors away. >> those sanctions have a negative impact on what is happening in the russian economy. when events on the ground are changing every couple of days, you can't get compensated properly, and capital is going to stay away. >> secretary kerry will be meeting next week with russian and ukrainian officials. he says that russia has a choice to prevent more economic trouble. >> yeah, the economic participate very important. today is equal payday. according to the government, the average woman would have had to work all last year and up until today to earn what the average manmade in 2013. president obama picked today to push for higher women's wages, and mike viqueira has that it story. >> reporter: surrounded by advocates for women in the workplace, president obama raid against the gender gap in pay.

>> a woman has to work about three more months in order to get what a man got because she's paid less. that's not fair. >> reporter: the president signed two executive orders, one banning federal contractors from retaliating employees who openly discuss their pay rates, and the other requiring them to have open data, more transparency leading to pay parody. >> they say that it doesn't exist, they say it's a myth. but it's not a myth. it's man. >> the census bureau says that women who work full-time earn 7 7 cents for every dollar earned by a man. gap is greater for minority women. but the gap is everywhere, even in the white house. women in the obama white house

earn 788 cents for every dollar that a man earns. jake carney defended the record. >> it's the case that there's equal pay for equal work. >> so why the gap? disparents. different occupational choices. women tend to enter lower paying fields, and more time away from work for pregnancy and childcare. but those factors don't have the whole story, and part of the wage gap is due to discrimination. there was a political gap on the pined of the president. mr. obama beat mr. romney by 11%. he was accused of pandering to women. >> the democrats chose to ignore serious job creation ideas to blow kisses to their powerful pals on the left.

>> reporter: the senate takes up a bill on wednesday that would apply the new rules for federal contractors and make it easier to file a complaint to allege bias in pay. it's not likely to go anywhere, dead on arrival in a republican-controlled house. another issue that the voters will have to consider when they go to the polls in november. nike sickerra, aljazeera, the white house. and president obama is traveling tomorrow to attend a memorial service for the victims of the shooting in fort hood. and later this month, he'll go to the washington state mudslide to inspect the damage. the body of another victim was recovered today. putting the total at 34, and 12 people remain missing. crews looking for flight 370 have not been able to locate the

sounds heard deep in the indian ocean over the weekend. $344 million has been spent already looking for the plane, and it may be the most expensive search in aviation history. >> reporter: the $44 million includes paying for military ships and aircraft by the united states and australia and vietnam. the pentagon sent $3.4 million to help out. and the white house plans to double its original budget. half of the $4 million so far has been contradicted by australia. and china is not saying how much it has spent on the search, but beijing has sent eight ships, hospitals, and three aircraft. the price tag does not include all of the defense assets being used by britain, france and south korea. whenever the search for flight 370 does end, the cost is expected to be in the hundreds

of millions of dollars. >> coming up next, the $200 million pay out. the veterans affairs department settling hundreds of wrongful death suits. and it sounds like sci-fi, but it's modern medicine, how suspended animation can help to save the lives of goodness victims, and it's the end of the road for windows xp. but a move by microsoft raises cyber security concerns.

>> i major cyber security flaw as they are telling people to change all of their passwords. a potential serious vulnerability called heart bleed. flew in encryption technology lets hackers steal information from supposedly secure contexts. user names, and passwords and bank details and trade secrets are all vulnerable. an internet provider is upgrading the software to fix that issue. and more on how to protect yourself online from the heart bleed bug. after today, microsoft will no longer support its

13-year-old operating system, windows xp. that means no more security updates for three out of every 10pcs out there. >> microsoft says it's up to each bank and financial institution to make sure that it's atms are cyber safe. and that's about to get a lot harder if they still use, as most do, the windows xp operating system. >> the majority of financial systems, we work with them, and they have to upgrade their devices. >> christina says microsoft has no way of knowing if people withdraw money at atms and at companies may be at greater risk. >> that's the way to keep yourself safe. ask your banking institutions, are their machines vulnerable because of windows xp? >> he helps to secure online operations. and he says using atms and banking on line is fairly safe

now, but it could get riskier as microsoft stops providing security upgrades. they announced that the long-running xp would expire. >> people should have upgraded to windows 7 a long time ago, and a few did, but most didn't because of the cost and complexity. >> users can provide their own security or pay to upgrade their current systems. pay microsoft in many cases. it could cost businesses $1,000 per computer. for consumers who have used xp for 12 years, there's to upgrade. but microsoft is moving on, and for those who don't want to move with them, it could adaghvation and added costs. and for those who want to keep their xp computers going while they migrate to other stops, your best option is to upgrade

new or have security problems alert. >> it's probably safer to buy a new computer and move all of your data over through an external hard drive. my main advice, if you're going to upgrade to a windows version, go to windows 7, and windows 8 is a giant leap. >> but the owner of geek wire.com, paying for personal computers, the biggest leap in coming months may be the leap of faith that they have to make, taking extra care running any data through windows xt. >> it's something that security experts will be watching very closely in the days and weeks ahead. >> unfortunately, hackers and online crook will be watching closely to see how the weaknesses develop. >> a medical break through giving hope to paraplegics

tonight, giving hope for volunteer movement for paralyzed men. after putting being electricity through their spines, they said they could feel parts of their lower body for the first time in years. they are recruiting a second round of volunteers for testing. researchers at the university of arizona and pittsburgh have developed a way to put critically injured patients into suspended animation, and it could be the difference between life and death. >> reporter: right now, if you were to die in an emergency room from a gunshot wound, you would stand less than a 7% chance of being revived. so the doctors of the university of pittsburgh, arizona and elsewhere have developed a means of cooing patients to 10° celsius, that's just 15° maren height, by neither alive or

dead. they can in theory come back to life after two hours of this state of suspended animation. in a new fda trial this month, ten gunshot victims will receive the treatment in a pittsburgh hospital. and if all goes well, five more will test the technique later this year. dr. relieve, who saved gabby giffords, has tested the procedure on pigs >> so they're dead and you brought them back. >> for hours, 10°, full of potassium. dead. dead. dead. >> bringing a patient down to 10° celsius, can in theory give them a couple of hours to bring them back. the patients are brought down to 96° selsious, hoping that the doctors will be able to revive them. most famous and mocked for

having preserved ted williams' head along with 120 other people in this way. but the technology is similar up to a point. >> it's very closely related. our initial procedures, we're removing the blood and body fluids, representing them with a washout solution. >> they are entombed in liquid nitrogen, and the whole process is based on future advances, but dr. reed's work has caused him to share a similar fate. that he can bring back more people. >> i think about this for space travel. and cryogenic freezing. >> it's crazy, i went through everything that you had, and everything that you mentioned. my brain has wondered about going to mars, taking people with cancer, and suspending them until we have the cancer cures going on. i think if you brought in

somebody that was shot and died yesterday, that scenario is not going to change. but for the people who came in and died within 5, 10 men's of them hitting my bed here, i think we can get from 2% to 50% in a few years. >> hydrotherapy may be the new treatment for people badly injured by car accident in a few years, and if that happens, we'll have we written yet again the clinical definition of death. >> and coming up next, losing confidence. the bridge closing scandal taking a political toll on new jersey governor, chris christie. and plus, mending fences, the irish president and a former commandish of the ira, invited to dine at windsor castle. and it has been called the holy grail for chinese art collectors.

aiming dynasty art glass.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america, and i'm john seigenthaler in ne in new york,d there's much more to come in this hour. including wrongful death settlements. paying $2 million to thousands of families. and invitation escaped. a former ira leader at a banquet hosted by queen elizabeth. and the show will go on. ending killer whale shows is put on hold. and richelle has the briefing. >> the surgery in pro russian demonstrations. the latest demonstrations in the eastern part of the country. demonstrators have taken over government buildings in three cities there. and special forces have been deployed and are taking back

property. but separatists say that they're still holding 60 people hostage. secretary of state john kerry is saying that russia is trying to destabilize ukraine. a pretext. >> a woman has to. >> the women in the white house face an income gap, making 88

cents for every dollar that a man earns. >> thank you very much. and tonight, a startling report about the department of vet an's affairs. the va paid $2 million over two years to families of veterans who took their own lives or were misdiagnosed or mistreated. that settled 1,000 death suits. tomorrow, how the va handles illness and preventible death. aaron broke this, and he joins us tonight. and welcome. >> good to be with you. >> 1,000 military families impacted. and you talked to several of those families, and what in those stories stood out? >> well, it's just heartbreaking when you look at the 1,000 veterans who died needlessly over the past decade. they range from a veteran who came home from massachusetts to iraq, turned away from the va

there, and hung himself in his parent's basement. and another iraq war veteran, who went to the va in los angeles for treatment of substance abuse, ptsd and we have world war ii veterans, alone in their rooms and fall and break their skull and die of brain hemorrhage, and we have veterans of the vietnam era, developing cancer because of the agent orange that's being untrapped by the va even after their own doctors notice a tumor in a medical test. and to see so many of these cases over such a long period of time, and to wonder,. >> the length of time that the

families get sufficient corpsation, why is that? >> the va has it's own rules that are different than any other hospital system in this country because it's part of the federal government. so if you feel like you've been wronged by your local hospital, you can walk into court and sue them. and we're all familiar with ambulance chasing lawyers, but with the va, there's a lengthy process that you have to go through, and even after that is exhausted, and some lawyers aring to take these cases and it takes years to get justice. an iraq veteran that i mentioned before in massachusetts who hung himself after he was turned away from the va there, it took five years for his family to get compensation.

and another veteran that we featured in our story, scott from tennessee, he shot himself in interstate. and he killed himself after the va said that he did not have post-traumatic stress, and his widow is still fighting for compensation what, seven years later. >> does it appear that this is a problem that can be fixed with money. >> money is an important component because there has to be some cost to the agency for making these mistakes, or they won't fix them in the future. and for the families who have lost loved ones, money is also important. because for example, tracy, whose husband scott committed suicide, she's left with three children, and she has lost his veterans benefits, and lost any income that he might have provided to the family, that's gone for the rest of her life.

and money doesn't solve everything, but to the families who lost loved ones as a result of this malpractice by the agency that's supposed to help veterans recover from war, it's an important component. >> eric, thank you for sharing this. >> absolutely. >> aljazeera has learned a federal investigation of the bridge closing scandal surrounding new jersey governor, chris christie, is gaining momentum in tonight's power politics. a look at the potential political fallout. and david schuster has that story. >> republican operators say that the newest developments are shaking the confidence of potential strategists and fundraisers who might commit to chris christie's presidential campaign. latest fears stem from the report that paul fishen in the latest george washington bridge scandal recently doubled the number of investigators on the case. dized wild steen, the executive

who orchestrated the closures is cooperating with the organization, and wildstein told investigators that he told them about the event. and it ended long before the governor says that he learned about them. now federal prosecutors are bringing witnesses before the federal grand jury to decide if there will be in the trial. a new phase in the investigation, and in january, the normal rules do not apply, leaving questions allowed, and testimony is often allowed and encouraged and a witness cannot have his attorney in the room. the panel does not determine innocence or guilt, on you only if probable cause exists if a felony was committed. at a northern, christie

certified again that he was not involved in the lane closure and ex pressed confidence this itself not hurt him. >> if i ran for re-election tomorrow, i already ran for election, and got 61% of the vote. and if i was running for something else in the future? you know what i care about? the ones a few days before the election, and not the ones now. they don't anyone anything. >> the iowa presidential caucuses are still 21 months away, but if you look at other presidential candidates, including jeb bush, and marco rubio, their pop advisers are building political organizes and already getting commitments from ad makers. the outreach from christie's team has been met with nervousness, and as one would put it, an active grand jury doesn't help. >> more headaches for general motors. the company is being find $7,000 a day for failing to provide

information to federal officials about its faulty ignition switches by april 1st. it's 71,000 pages related to recalls, but officials say that gm has yet to respond to more than one-third of the document requests. it's a foreign visit for two powers. the first time dining with the queen of england. a relationship once dominated by repression and rebellion. >> the pomp and circumstance of a british state dinner. irish president is the guest of honor, all of it overshadowed by one man. martin mcguinness, now deputy minister of british ireland. but more importantly, the

commander of the irish republican army. the ira caused attacks on loyalists for three decades. the violence, the ira claimed in the name of irish independence from the couple, after 1,000 years of occupation, but for many, including british soldiers wounded in the fighting, mcguinness should be facing a courtroom, and not dinner with the queen. >> for many people, they have been injured. and lots have been hurt by the ira, and mcagain es represents the political winning of the ire a. so let's have some accountability. >> the queen herself had family killed by the ira. her cousin died in an ira bombing in 1979.

the classes clashes with the authorities characterize the 30 years of troubles, and the ira brought the violence to mainland britain, using bombs and assassinations. it resulted in a good friday agreement. and the fighting subsided. tensions still exist between the communities, and they do they're. nearly three years, queen elizabeth laid flowers at the memorial for those who fought to gain independence from britain. peace is possible even in an old fight. >> to receive the deputy first minister, martin mcguinness who was in the ira, is a mark of just how far we have come, in ire andand in its relationship with great britain. >> there's hope that it marks a peaceful relationship between i were land and great britain. something that has taken centuries to occur. there there's a lot of history between ireland and britain.

certainly not something that a meal can wipe away. they want more accountability for crimes committed during the fighting, but when an ex-ira leader sitting down with the monarch, it's clear that these two former enemies are moving on. >> well, soccer's world cup is just two months away. but one of the legends say that the host country, brazil, is far from ready. this is the big concern. >> it's a huge concern. as if the multiple incomplete stadiums weren't enough, we have to think about that. the news that the host country is not even finishing the upgrades to the airports that they promised when they bid the world cup in 2007. it is a hail now that we have the world cup and we have problems. and the biggest mistake was to forget the world cup and the olympics opening the doors in brazil for tourists, and we didn't take advantage of this opportunity. earlier, i spoke with martin rogers of yahoo sports, and

asked how embarrassing it is for the ambassador publicly say that the host country has dropped the ball? >> yeah, it is embarrassing, and this country will ultimately be judged for how it performs in june and july this year. it's such a figurehead for the world of soccer and brazil. and this couldn't come at a worst time, because brazil is racing to get ready for this massive worldwide competition that's about to land on its doorstep, and there are real fears that things are not going to be in place in time. >> right now, two of the 13 airports are finished with the improvements right now, and what does this mean for fans? >> it's a huge task. a lot of the places in brazil where there are going to be world cup matches, they're not equipped structure wise that come with the volume of traffic with the world cup.

more like airfields than airports, and it's a problem. remember these fans from around the world have spent huge amounts of money to get to brazil. flights that after the world cup would only go from 50 to $100, are more like 500 to $600 during the world cup itself. and it would be tragic if they went to that level of commitment to get down to brazil and would miss out on games. >> the poll released today says that only 48% of brazilians are in favor of hosting the world cup. and what does this mean now? >> it's incredible that that figure would come out. you have to remember that brazil showing the level of problems that are in brazil right now. it has been a huge economic boom

over the last five or six years, but that hasn't filtered down. there are problems with education and social problems, and this is the way that the brazilian public are voicing their displeasure, and that's why this world cup is proving sadly to be to unpopular. >> heading into the games, how do you think this is going to affect the future world cup bids? >> i think its something that we must look at very very carefully. especially when you're talking about countries that are so large geographically. it has been held in big countries, the united states, and japan, and both of those have big travel. if you're going to have 12 venues, fans and teams have to be able to get around from place to place. >> the airports are not the only thing keeping them up at night. of the 12 venues, three are yet

to be declared ready for the event. and they will have to wait to see if they can get fans if there, if chef seats, standing room only, i guess. >> coming up, a contentious debate over killer whales being banned at sea world. and it's the most expensive piece of chinese porcelain ever sold.

>> we have this ridge of high pressure dominating down the eastern board and when that happens, all of the temperatures have been well above average. san francisco saw 10 above average, and you notice it keeps most of the rain and the clouds around as well. only seattle has seen clouds. and what we see over the next couple of days, very warm temperatures, and by the time we get to midweek, the temperatures are going to begin to flip a little bit. today, 67°, and los angeles, 90. more inland, palm springs, 96°, so we're talking 15-20° above average. as we go to the rest of the week, l.a. will look like this, and we'll begin to see the

temperatures drop down slightly. saturday, a high of 72° there, and over here to miami, beautiful weather. but we have a lot of things to talk about, especially up in boston. temperatures there, 64°, a much nicer scenario than last week. that's the national weather. and news is after this.

>> in california, lawmakers began debate today on a measure to outlaw amusement park shows featuring killer whales. jennifer london has the story. >> reporter: for decades, sea world's shamu shows featuring killer whales have made a huge splash with animals. but not with activists. saying that orcas are too large and too intelligent to be forced into captivity. and to perform. some lawmakers agree.

in march, legislation that would ban captive orca performances and make it illegal to hold orcas in captivity for entertainment purposes, and its will disallows captive breeding programs. >> the law for arc as for human amusement must end. >> tuesday at the state capital, it faced it's first legislative test, at a wildlife committee hearing. >> make this the last generation of captivity. >> that would be a game changer for sea world. orcas perform in sold out shows. at sea world in california, ten orcas perform, and losing them would be like disneyland losing mickey mouse. sea world defended them. >> the killer whales at sea world receive the highest level of care available. >> the loss of continuing access

to this diverse and thriving group of animals would have a devastating effect. >> san diego's mayor agrees. >> it provides thousands of jobs. good paying jobs, and they have been such an incredibly strong fabric of the san diego community for generations. >> but it appears that sea world could be losing some of the strongest supporters. young children pushing their parents. these girls delivered symbolic boxes to the state capital, representing 1.2 million signatures supporting the proposed ban. ten-year-old kara cutler succeeded in getting her school to cancel it's annual trip to sea world. she plains it this way. >> wouldn't you rather see whales not treated right or would you rather see real whales in the organization and go whale watching. >> watching and now waiting, as

california lawmakers decide to look more closely at the issue, before determining whether captive whales will go free in california or if the shamu show will go on. aljazeera, los angeles. >> it's not big enough to hold a cup of coffee, but at auction, a piece of pottery known as the chicken cup, sold for $36 million. >> reporter: from any angle, this cup from the 15th century is remarkable, only for how ordinary it looks, unless of course you're a collector. it first came up for auction in 1999 where it fetched $3 million. at the time, the highest paid for a piece of chinese art. >> it goes well beyond it's historical importance. it's an object that emperors

adored and it was copied many times throughout history. >> the cup is the first of april's spring sales. with auction houses around the world selling everything from fine wine to ace contemporary art. like this painting, called bloodline big team number three, which just sold for $12 million, 50% more than it's base estimate. gone are the days when london and new york dominated the world's art auctioned. since sotherby's first moved here four years ago, hong kong has grown to be the largest art center. rive ling sales at christy's. it accounts for one-third of its global business, and that figure on rising year by year, 30%. >> the global economy by asia, so we see very strong growth from china, and we see money coming in from southeast asia.

>> much of the quick growth has come from mainland china. where investors drive up prices. >> these are competitors, and they bring loads of cash onto the auction floor. i want to have it. >> since the 1990s, mainland chinese buyers have redefined the marketplace from price to what's hot. >> reporter: of course there the are a lot of questions, are they buying for ininvestments, for museums? they're questions that are difficult to answer, but they're the great force now. >> but china's market has its pitfalls. a slowing economy, and numerous works not paid for means auction houses must look across the region for stability. today, there are 100 art galleries in hong kong. and hong kong's global reputation as asia's art center is well established.

aljazeera, hong kong. >> and coming up all new tonight at 11:00 eastern time. a devastating computer virus, making passwords and other sensitive data easy to steal. and what you can do to protect yourself. and plus, the author of the book turned movie, the perfect storm. my conversation with sebastian younger about the humanity of people caught up in the war. those stories and more tonight. 11:00 eastern and 8:00 pacific time. an image that caught our attentioned it, bat kid is back, and stars in tonight's freeze frame. miles scott, making his way to the mobbed with pitcher, matt caine, through out the first pitch in the opening day. >> techknow our experts take you beyond the lab >> there's about five million points of data >> and explore the technology changing our world.

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conservansy >> on "america tonight" - infatuated and in consolable. the blade runner. final morifying moments of his -- horrifying moments of his girlfriend's life, and how his testimony might save or seal his fate. >> never thought it could happen - the vicious spiral swallowing up many middle class and midd