the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for suvivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. a meeting of the minds with german and the white house. and russia calling for an emergency meeting of the un security council. and a massive mud slide in afghanistan, the death toll could be in the thousands. ♪

they stand united. that was the word from washington today as the president and germany's chancellor briefed reporters on the white house lawn. it was the first visit by angela merkel to the white house in three years, the two leaders discussing a wide range of issues talking about the crisis in ukraine and the nsa spy scandal that reported that perhaps her phone might have been tapped by the nsa. libby casey joins us by phone. and they seemed to be speaking from the same script. >> that's right, del. and one of the goals of this would be to portray a united front. the question is where do these countries go from here in terms of sanctions. even the new round of sanctions

took a while to hammer out. and you could tell there are some differences when it comes to germany's goals and the u.s. goals in terms of how deep sanctions could or should go. because there are such close trade ties between germany and russia, especially in the oil and gas sector, so both leaderings pointing to may 25th as a crucial date, and urging t president putin to not interfere with the elections as they go forward. >> we want to continue to keep open the possibility of resolving the issue diplomatically. but as angela merkel said, if in fact we see the disruptions and destabilization continuing so severely that it impedes elections on may 25th, we will

not have a choice but to move forward with additional more severe sanctions. >> reporter: president obama saying even during the height of the cold war that oil and gas energy did not stop flowing from the ussr west into europe, that even then there was still the exporting of energy, and so he said it's not like the tap will be turned off. he said there are other areas they need to work on, and chancellor merkel also talking about a variety of sanctions neither would pin down those sanctions. >> thank you very much. and we are following the situation right now in ukraine. we want to take you to the united nations because russia has just called an emergency meeting of the un security council. it is happening right now in new york. the nations are discussing the

rapidly escalating violence. earlier today two ukrainian army helicopters were shot down by pro-russian separatists using surface to air missiles. john terrett is live at the un headquarters now, and john the leaders reached an agreement in geneva last month, so why the emergency meeting called by russia now? >> well, good afternoon from a pretty warm united nations. the russians called this meeting and the reason as always is to get their message out, to have their say, to get their point of view in the international headlines. and the russian ambassador is saying basically all that is going on in the eastern part of the country is ukraine's fault. he said ukraine is not abiding by the geneva agreement made back in april. and this is the strategy we have

seen from the russians. their strategy is to also attack, attack first before anybody else can attack you. and he said the west needs to rethink its positions. now for the other key members of the security council, we heard from the french ambassador who said all of this was like a bad spy novel with russia deploying forces some with uniforms some not and causing trouble. he said the russians were basically opening a pandora's box. the united kingdom talked about ukraine ufring a measured response. and talked about the hypocrisy of russia being breathtaking. and the u.s. ambassador said it was remarkable almost unimaginable the way that

ukraine was keeling with this crisis, and there are 26,000 square kilometers being fought over with russia having its beety eye on and russian has done nothing but try to grab territory. >> and ban ki moon releasing a statement what did he have to say? >> he said he was very -- gravely concerned about the situation as it's unfolding in ukraine and calling on all sides to come together. >> reporter: and we're also hearing that the un secretary general has been in high-level meetings regarding the resignation of a senior diplomat, what is that about? >> two stories at the un today, both of them absolutely huge. the un special enjoy to syria,

he took over the job in 2012 from the former un secretary general, ever since he took over he has been threatening to resign, and the reason for that is it is such a thankless task. we now see the heard of syria openly and confidently talking about a third term. and the word here is he has simply had enough. so he has been meeting with the un secretary general. he is about to give a statement here. and so we'll see if he makes any resignation moves today. but experts think his next appearance for the council late in may is likely to be his last. >> john, thank you very much. again, russia's president calling for an emergency meeting

concerning the crisis in ukraine. meanwhile there are reports that many separate lists have been killed in slaviansk. >> reporter: video pur ports to show what the residents of slaviansk and the pro-russi pro-russian -- separatists woke to at dawn. the ukrainian army launched what it described as large scale anti-terrorist operation, the apparently object not to overrun the city, but to form a blockade around it. some separatists said they were ready to fight. >> translator: i will fight with whatever i have. if not a rifle, sthen i'll fight with my hands, and strangle them so they won't mess with my land. >> two helicopters were shot down allegedly using

sophisticated surface to air missiles, something that kiev points to as evidence of russian involvement. th ukrainian forces took prisoners of their own. four men arrested at a check point. in the city center the mood was extremely tense. video posted on the internet shows the self proclaimed mayor of slaviansk offering a message of support. >> translator: our town has been attacked. our town has been stormed. there are losses. i'm asking children, women, and pensioners, not to leave their homes. and men who have weapons to help do what they can. >> reporter: as armed men kept watch, defenses were reinforced

at times it seemed with the help of civilance. ahead of possible full scale attack. >> translator: we're trying to build more bier kayeds. >> reporter: this is video released by the military of defense. it is unclear how much ground the army has taken around slaviansk or how effective its attempted blockade of the city is, unclear also what it plans to do next. and we are following breaking news out of afghanistan. we have been following this story now for quite sometime. as many as 350 people have been killed in massive land side, and sadly that number is expected to grow drastically. the slide reportedly burr rig an entire village. some 250 families live in the

area. we have a reporter who is on the ground right now in afghanistan. we hope to have more information straight ahead. there's a surprising new jobs report out that shows the unemployment rate is at its lowest in five years. the unemployment rate also falling to 6.3%. that's the lowest it has been since september of 2008. but the labor participation wait is now just 63%. that means about two-thirds of all americans are working and one-third aren't, and that is the lowest it has been now in 35 years. coming up on al jazeera america -- >> i just got to do something. >> reporter: the long road to recovery, millions trying to determine what to do next after the devastating tornados.

and alarming new details about the kidnappings in nigeria. the number of girls kidnapped now higher than reported.

>> our current system has gone very far awry... >> there's huge pressure on the police to arrest and find somebody guilty >> i think the system is going to fail a lot of other people. >> you convicted the wrong person >> i find that extraordinarily disappointing... >> to keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate. >> somebody can push you in a

death chamber >> it's not a joke >> the system with joe beringer only on al jazeera america u again, we are following breaking news out of afghanistan, at least 350 people have been killed in landslide according to the united nations. the fear is the number could grow into the thousands. the slide reportedly burying an entire village in the country's northeast. we're joined by phone now from a correspondent from kaboul. what do we know of the extent of the injuries and casualties. >> reporter: the slide is believed to be been caused by heavy rainfall, and in district

[ inaudible ] bordering with china, and now local officials -- i spoke to them earlier, say that rescues have been sent to the area, but the rescue operations have been hampered by lack of machinery, they said they don't even have enough shovels to dig for the missing people. and [ inaudible ] landslides and the governor told me that supplies were sent, including medicines, blankets, food and water, to the area, but [ inaudible ] arrive tomorrow with a high level [ inaudible ]. >> abela we are hearing numbers that as many as 2,000 people may be dead. is that what you are hearing? >> reporter: speaking to different officials including the head of the state

department, including the gover's spokes concern, they believe there could be up to 2,000 people buried or missing, and the trouble [ inaudible ] 60 meters covering the entire village. and speaking to the chief earlier, he told me that the rescue teams of [ inaudible ] and they are helping, and they said that they have almost [ inaudible ] who were injured by the landslide and they have food and water supply and more bas bas basic supplies. >> as many as 300 people may be dead because of a landslide there. there are fears the death toll

will rise considerably. secretary of state john kerry is in south sudan today, announcing that the president and the rebel leader are now willing to meet. kerry warning that without an immediate solution that country could be facing genocide. anna has more. >> reporter: the conflict began back in mid-december it was a power struggle really that overspilled into conflict when the president and the former vice president split. what started as a political conflict quickly spread out across the country, and has now taken on a very ethnic complexion. there are reprisal attacks for the attacks, the whole situation is escalating rather dramatically. and that's what has brought john kerry here. he said -- he told the media that the president has agreed to

discussion the idea of a traps situational government. the president said he will travel to ethiopia and is willing to meet the leader of the rebel to discuss a transitional government. john kerry was hoping to the leader of the rebels later today. there is a united nations peace keeping force in the country now. and they are looking to increase that by a thousand soldiers. but john kerry said there needs to be a new un mandate before these forces could come in to the country. he said these forces could be on the ground to prevent what he calls a modern day catastrophe. in ukraine the president

saying that many pro-russian separatists are dead. hoda abdel hamid is in donetsk. >> reporter: it was certainly the most aggressive offensive carried out by the ukrainians ever since they said that they would carry out an anti terror operation in slaviansk. now they didn't get inside this -- the town, but they managed to capture some of those check points that were manned by the pro-russians. they also took over the tv antenna that had been used to air only russian channels, so certainly on that sense there is a -- a -- a win for them. they put a sort of a loose blockade around the town, but the challenges ahead are extremely complicated, and they have to make sure that as they carry out their anti-terror

operation, maybe probably in a more aggressive way, they minimize casualties. you were asking about how many casualties there are today. that's very difficult to figure out. we hear different numbers from both sides. but we can confirm that there have been casualties. on the ukrainian side there were two hoerpts that were downed. one poll lot was killed the other was taken away. the prorussians also said they have suffered many casualties, but they are not giving a number. >> the american president announcing a short while ago that these were not citizen soldiers as many have been reporting. has there been any explanation as to how those pro-russian forces manage to get their hands on surface to air missiles?

>> there is no explanation, nor will that give you one. but what we have seen over the past few weeks is that a certain group of them -- not all of them. some are just local people who feel alienated by the government in kiev but those who carry weapons could have had several sources. there are reports of russia providing weapons, but none of that has been confirmed simply because the ukrainian army has a lot of russian weapons. and they have been going town to town seizing police stations. they also seized armored vehicles, so they could have really got those surface to air mismiles from anywhere. >> hoda thank you very much.

a disturbing story coming out of nigeria where the numbers are rising. the government now saying 276 girls are missing, kidnapped from their school last month, and that's much higher than first reported. it happened in a northeast state. officials are con officials confirming they don't know where the girls are. >> reporter: there has been a lot of misinformation and confusion since this attack look place on the school on april 15th. initially, let's remember that the military said 129 girls had been abducted but within hours they were contradicted by family, parents and some of the school teachers who said it was much higher, it was 230 girls that were missing. and now the police saying that in fact more than 300 girls were kidnapped and 276 are still

missing. why the confusion? police say on their part it was because there were students who came just to sit for exams, they were not normally students. so they are trying to identify how many at tended full-time, and how many showed up for examines. we have one organization claiming that the girls have been taken across the nigeria border by their abjukt fors. the same organization say that the girls -- some of them have been forced into marriage, and some have been sold for as little as 12 usd. but that has not been independently a verified with the officials. we know there is an operation underway to try find them, and there's a search going on in a forrest which is not far from where the incident look place,

but no official lines about exactly where they are. when we come back, how high is too high? lawmakers in ceo c kro -- colorado taking a closer look at those edible marijuana productings.

♪ welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are your headlines at this hour. germany's chancellor, angela merkel meeting with president obama at the kwhous. the president saying most of the discussion concerned the crisis in ukraine. meanwhile ukraine's president saying many pro-russian separatists were killed in the east today. reshls shooting down two helicopters in slaviansk, two crew members died. the events prompting russia to call an emergency meeting at the un security council.

in afghanistan at least 350 people have been killed in a landslide. and that number is expected to grow dramatically. the slide reportedly burying an entire village in the country's northeast. there is concern in colorado over edible marijuana products. two recent deaths involving people who and it special candies or baked goods. paul beban has more from denver. >> reporter: in colorado you can buy legal weed the old fashioned way, by the bud, or you can buy it in bottles, in candy, or cookies. these are edibles. 10 milligrams of thc, the chemical that gets people high is the state limit per serving but one drink or one piece of

candy can contain as much as ten servings. haley warns people not to chow down. >> once you eat the cookie, you can't uneat the cookie. >> exactly. once its is in your system you are along for the ride, and you don't want to feel too stoned. >> reporter: overdoing it can do more than just make you want to curl up and sweep it off. marijuana intoxication can cause panic, paranoia, even psycho us. in march a college student jumped to his death from a denver hotel balcony after eating six times the recommended dosage in a cookie. a bigger concern is children

getting into edibles. denver hospitals have reported a surge in kids coming into the er. >> a child sees a brownie and assumes it can eat the whole thing. and we have seen children requiring life support from that. >> reporter: this store makes everything from drinks to hard candy. the marketing director says the company is serious about promoting safety. >> educating parents on how to have a product like this in the house. making sure it is out of reach and out of site, so that it is never in a kids' hands. >> reporter: a state task force is looking into resourcing all of the rules regarding edibles. they are talking about limits every item to a single dose.

this is ten servings. paul beban, al jazeera, denver. and that's going to do it for this edition of al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. "techknow" is next. ♪ i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard core nerds. dr. shini somara, life and death in the or, one woman in desperate need of a transplant. will the donor lung arrive