>> welcome to aljazeera america, i'm del walters, and these are the stories we're falling for you. smoke raises over a ukrainian air base and in seoul, the president says that he stands shoulder to shoulder with south korea. and the nation's largest gun lobby opens it's national convention in indiana. we examine their growing influence.

and a group of young men in illinois tackle an issue that could profoundly change college football. >> threats fly . as the situation in ukraine turns explosive on the ground. the ukrainian defense ministry says that one of their military helicopters was hit by a rocket propelled grenade today . in the country's east. and in a western town . off the black sea . another grenade attack . injuring seven people . at a government checkpoint. russia and ukraine . pointing fingers at each other. the west wants - and this is how it all began - to seize control of ukraine because of their own political ambitions, not in the interests of the ukrainian people. >> the world has not yet forgotten the second world war,

but russia is already keen on starting a third world war. all responsibility for aggression on ukrainian territory and for undermining international security and stability rests with the leadership of the russian federation. >> meanwhile russian state media is reporting that president putin is planning to expand its fleet in the black sea. yesterday russia restarted military exercises along the ukrainian border. hoda abdel-hamid reports on the build-up. >> it was a day after they vowed to leave ukraine in mid march. any russian troops that crossed into ukraine. >> i don't think anybody is going to come, but looking at

the big picture, if that kind of situation comes about, we'll be the first to meet them. we're ready to fulfill all duties before us. >> russia already has tens of thousands of troops stationed across the fields that separate the two countries. there was troop movement not far from here. moscow said that they were military exercises, and still the ukrainians have not taken any chances. they have been digging troops. the armed protesters took control of the towns in the east of the country. there's nothing they can do except monitor their movements from the sky. the sound of hospitals rumble above the borders.

he lives in one of those villages. she feels at home in both russia and ukraine, and she has been concerned didabout the military. >> my concern is in russia, my two children, if something is to happen, i don't know how i'll see them. on the way to college, i see tanks, is it scary? of course it is. >> the border has never existed for people living here. it's a fortified barrier, perhaps a symbol of an ever growing divide. >> and that's hoda reporting from russia in ukraine. and now, looking at the situation in ukraine, focusing at the violence last winter at the protests in kiev. and now there's evidence that western sanctions are taking their toll today on russia. russia's bond rating, now triple b negative, just one step above junk status.

s-and-p last downgraded russia in december 2008. it comes as money flowing out of russia soared to 50-point-six billion dollars since the start of 20-14. that's compared to 63 billion all of last year. and as patty culhane reports . more sanctions could be around the corner. >> who is to blame for this violence - now escalating in eastern ukraine. for us secretary of state john kerry - calling a late news conference -- there is no question. it's russia. >> every day since we left geneva, every day, even up to today, when russia sent armored battalions right up to the lubansk oblast border, the world has witnessed a tale of two countries, two countries with vastly different understandings of what it means to uphold an international agreement. one week later, it is clear that only one side, one country is keeping its word. russian officials are putting all of the blame on the ukranian government calling them

essentially puppets of the united states and saying the u. s. has to order them to withdraw their troops. the u.s. is making clear they have no intention to do that - but at the same time they've given no indication they will help the ukrainian military fight back - by providing guns and bullets. >> there is a doubt that the ukrainian military as currently organized, could actually use those systems in any way and they actually may become triggers for an immediate large scale invasion by russia. >> if there is an invasion - or futher unrest - the warning now from the u.s. -- russia will pay for it - with sanctions. patty culhane al jazeera washington. >> president obama met with south korean president park geun-hye in seoul today. he pledged to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with south korea against any nuclear movement from the north. but pyongyang wasn't the only issue on the table. al jazeera's mike viquiera has

more. >> the president's attention is drawn away from asia to spots such as syria and the ukraine, and sure enough, in his visit to asia and southeast asia, ukraine remains at the top of the agenda. the president is in south korea, but he announced that he will be on the phone while in seoul with european leaders, laying more possibilities of sanctions against russia, more likely in each passing day. >> vladimi vladimir putin is noa stupid man, and has already acknowledged that this has had an impact. and certainly, if it gets worse and the sanctions are broadened to an entire sector, that will have more of an impact. >> south korea is reeling from

the tragedy with the ferry. 300 sout south koreans from oneh school are found dead or presumed missing. president obama will give a symbolic gift here, a magnolia tree from the grounds of the white house, it will be planted on the grounds of the high school. but it goes on with the speeches, and north korea said to be preparing a nuclear test, it's fourth possibly during this visit while president obama is on the korean peninsula. it would be a blatantly provocative act. >> we don't reward bad behavior. we don't go through a constant cycle in which provocative actions by north korea result in dialogue that leads nowhere. >> the president wakes up on saturday morning, and he has a major speech planned with the joint military forces, both in america and south korea at their

headquarters here. mike viqueira, seoul, south korea. >> and the death toll is at 181, and more than 120 people are still missing from that ship. south korea's officials saying that the ferry was carrying three times more than it's recommended weight and cargo when it capsized. the missing liner, they plan to wrap up the search in a few days and expand it. they will release their preliminary findings next week, and that will include the plane's manifest and seating arraignment. >> the number of americans who want to buy a gun is expanding.

a computerized system, hiring more employees to speed up the application process, and to meet that demand, going production is high. 8 and have million guns are being made. and meanwhile, thousands of gun owners converging on indianapolis today, that's where the annual rifle association is holding it's convention. the numbers as you might expect make it a force in washington. recently, the white house really using that power to persuade congress to deny a white house request to study gun violence. story title: live: robert ray = = = == [live] that ten million dollar study was to have been conducted by the centers for for disease control. robert ray is at their headquarters in atlanta. robert. is there any chance the c-d-c might get that money? >> it doesn't look like it. in 2014, the committee did not make those funds available.

and recently, jack kingston came out and said in fiscal year 2015, don't count on having those funds made available either. [ applause ] in georgia this week, republican governor nathan deal signed a bill making it legal for licensed owners to have loaded weapons in bars, schools, churches and some government buildings. >> house bill 60 will protect law-abiding citizens by expanding the number of places that they can carry their guns without penalty. >> but as the national rifle association was pushing for the bill, they dismissed the president's request for the cd-rom. >> so you're a member of the nra for a long time and a gun

sportsman. >> i do it with my son and with a friend. >> they cut off the money. >> what the cdc wants to do is both protect the rights of gun owners and reduce firearm injuries. they have been miss portrayed by the nra as thing to take away everyone's guns. >> after the mass shooting at new town school in connecticut. connecticut president obama proposed giving the cdc 10 million dollars for gun studies. at the time, one of the few republicans who wanted to reconsider gun control laws was georgia republican jack kingston. "put guns on the table, also put video games on the table, put mental health on the table," those words came less than a week after newtown. today, kingston is running for

re-election and leading the effort to block the president's request for research funding. the president's request to fund propaganda for his gun-grabbing initiatives through the cdc will not be included in the fy2015 appropriations bill. among the research proposals kingston is trying to block-- firearm violence prevention and other interventions gun safety technology and the influence of video games and other media the cdc says firearms kill or injure 100 thousand people a year and cost the country 47 billion in medical and lost productivity costs. now, some gun advocates argue that president obama is an anti-gun leader who is trying to make them look bad and any government sponsered research is just going to be propaganda. that's what the head of the lobbying group georgia carry told us. >> and that's why we feel that's it best that we armed ourselves and we can protect ourselves and we can stop it and i can assure you that most places where

people know that there are armed people in that area there not going to go in there and start anything, it's not gonna happen. >> dr. mark rosenberg / the task >> the answers are within our grasp, we can make this country safe and protect the guns. >> del, this is a complex issue with a lot of moving parts as you can tell by the story. aljazeera america wants to be fair, and we pride ourselves in making sure that we tell the story from all different perspectives. i reached out to the nra multiple times in the last couple of days with phonecalls and emails, and i spoke to many people and they were polite on the phone, and i was promised that i would get a statement, a push. and i never did once get that response from the national rifle association, and i'll say, if any of the executive folks there are listening, we would like

that, and we want to be fair in our reporting, so please send us the statement so we can get the facts out. del? >> thank you, robert. still ahead, five months before kickoff. athletes in illinois taking a vote to change what we know as the business of college football.

>> some football players at northwestern university have voted today on whether they want to be part of a union a yes vote could have a major impact on the way colleges operate their athletic programs diane eastabrook is in evanston, illinois diane -- when will we know the results of today's vote? >> well, del, those votes aren't going to be tallied until the national labor board reviews the decision, to consider whether the athletes are employees, and that could take several weeks,

but clearly, this is an issue that is dividing the college sports world. northwestern's football wildcats are the talk of college sports but, freshman cornerback keith watkins had little to say about efforts to organize his team >> i'm not able to say anything everything is supposed to be kept inside of football right now >> the football wildcats stunned the sports world in january when senior quarterback kain colter announced the team would vote on union representation, claiming they were employees who made millions for the school, but were treated unfairly if they were injured while playing a regional director of the national labor relations board said the team could organize >> since then colter's been lobbying lawmakers on capitol hill on behalf of all college athletes >> its time for players to have a seat at the table and you can't run from it and you can't meet us with closed doors any more its time for players to be part of the discussion and i think that's huge >> opponents, including the former president of northwestern says organizing could jeopardize

division one sports there in a statement the university said: "we strongly believe that unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address these concerns the head coach pat fitzgerald has been discouraging the team from organizing >> now it's our time to educate them we have to educate them to help them understand the whole aspect of what this decision is >> the team's current quarterback has also taken a vocal stand against the union >> i don't support it i think at this university i am extremely lucky to be in the position that i am at i don't need a union to answer for my time >> but opinion is clearly split - kari lyderson-a former member of northwestern's swim team-says there's value to having a union and points to what she calls rigid n-c-double-a rules - including one she violated in

the '90s. i just wrote an article for a swimming magazine and it was a really glowing article about one of my teammates and it turned out that violated an ncaa policy against athletes working >> regardless of what happens at northwestern, the vote is triggering conversations that could change the relationship between schools and student athletes everywhere diane eastabrook = = = == evanston, illinois. and there have been a handful of northwestern football players who have come out in favor of a union. >> are they addressing this as well? >> they are considering a plan for schools like northwestern to have more autonomy to make their own rules as far as medical aid and tickets home for kids to see their families over the holidays and during the break. the exact issues that the cap a.

the group that is representing these students is addressing. >> diane, thank you very much. and a reminder, aljazeera taking you beyond immigration with our new series, border land. thousands of people do it every day. risking it all to ride the beast. >> 27-year-old john has tried and failed to cross the u.s. border many times. he wants to reunite with his mother, who abandoned him when he was just two years old. [ foreign dialogue ]

he's from el salvador and taken the death train four times, and has experienced the brutality of the criminal gangs. [ speaking spanish ]

>> so there are criminals or gangs on the train that are preying upon the migrants as they go? [ speaking spanish ] >> i have mixed feelings here, because i certainly feel for the people and what they're trying to achieve, but i'm really pissed off at the mexican government. i mean, this train leaves every day packed with 300 people. they have immigration, and they could stop it all along the way. so we have the government of mexico enabling this whole situation, where they're funneling thousands of people a week into our borders, and then they face horrendous conditions, so i'm just really not happy with what's going on here. >> riding the beast, by the way,

the third episode of border land on sunday, 9 p.m., must see tv. coming up on aljazeera america, you're going to meet a man who tells us about the miracle in his life. well it's official...

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>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters, and here are today's headlines at this hour: the ukrainian defense ministry says that one of their military helicopters was hit by a rocket propelled grenade today in the country's east the president spoke earlier with the western leaders regarding the situation, and they said that they will work together for more targeted sanctions against russia. and the president visited south korea today and warned that threats from the north will only lead to isolation. standing by the ferry disaster.

the roman catholic church is set to make two former popes saints on sunday the first-ever twin canonization will honor popes john paul the second and john the twenty-third critics say its too early to make john paul the second a saint he died just nine years ago and is widely accused of protecting preists who sexually abused children but others say they *know he's a saint nick schifrin reports >> gianni vecchio has always known what he wanted to be he's been cutting hair. shampooing. shaving for 60 years and he's only 66 >> this is my work, my job my life >> he fills his barber shop with a lifetime of memories - and mementos some are ancient. some a mere half century old.

and there's one memory he cherishes most. most. >> the ones that you used on john paul ii? >> yes, he became john paul 2nd. >> he was definitely a saint, even before he was a pope. >> but to be a roman catholic, a person has to perform miracles, and johnny said that a miracle was performed on him. when he was 62, he herniated a disc his life's work was suddenly at risk doctors said he needed surgery but in the hospital, gianni says he saw a john paul photo in black and white - like this one that he took he says it spoke to him and just a few days later, he was miraculously cured

>> when i went to the hospital i could barely walk i looked like an old man but after five days i checked out, and i was running >> the vatican never confirmed gianni's recovery as a miracle but in come informal polls of his customers - all called john paul saintly >> many young people, including me, approached the church thanks to him this very fact is a good reason to declare him a saint he was very special >> john paul has his critics some say he shielded abusive priests others argue it's too quick to canonization for gianni, the answer is simple: john paul saved - and keeps saving - his life >> to me, it is like he was my father i don't call him pope, but father when i am in need, he is always there

>> and thanks to john paul, gianni is aways here, for his customers nick schifrin, al jazeera, >> thank you for watching al jazeera america i'm del walters "inside story" is next for a long time these e cigarettes existed in a very lightly regulated world. now the fda is proposing new rules. it's the inside story. does a cigarette stop being a cigarette when