>> good morning, to you, and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york and here are the stories we are following right now. a rescue operation is underway as a massive landslide wipes out a village in afghanistan and killing over 2000 people. >> i'm not worried about the germs but you read this and you get nervous. >> this morning a deadly virus lands on american soil. >> it is an end of 8 days of

captivity of hostages in ukraine. >> plus, putting pep in the step, we tell you about this state of the art research designed to make your shoes more comfortable. >> we begin this morning in afghanistan where a landslide buried an entire town yesterday and the rescue operations are underway and it is feared that 2000 people are already dead. the u.n., that is overseeing the operations can't confirm that number. we have the latest. >> they spent the night in the open and near freezing temperatures looking over what used to be their homes and praying. for any sign of life. >> 7 members of my family here

when the landslide happened and five were killed here. what can i do? >> i urge the government to help take the bodies out. we managed to take 10-15 and the rest are trapped here. >> days of reconspiratourse andl of mud and rocks swept to the village below and destroys the homes below and homes are buried with the people inside. >> until now we found a body, and with aid, we have used all of the resources in the province. >> volunteers are coming to the err of northern afghanistan with the shovels to help the rescuers but the focus shifted from trying to find the survivors to keeping those that did alive. what we are doing now is helping to facilitate the needs of

around 700 families, more than 4,000 people displaced directly or indirectly by what's happened. the needs are food and water, of course, to medical help as well as shelter needs. >> it is hard for the teams to reach the site. the gnash row roads are damaged by rain and can't take the heavy machinery used for recovery efforts and the hillside is unstable adding to the fears that another part may cave in. al jazeera. >> a deadly virus is coming state side mers is already infected 370 people in saudia and there are number of cases arriving to the middle east and it is only a matter of time before reaching the american shores. healthcare officials are

scrambling to track down the people that recently travelled the same route as a man who according to the cdd tested positive for the deadly mers virus. it is a healthcare person. he connected through london and finally landed in chicago. he fen took a bus to indiana and felsic and ended up in the hospital. the deadly virus hit the healthcare in the middle east hard and the fatality rate is high and the risk of an outbreak is low. >> not a clear case of person to person transmission outside of the healthcare setting yet, so i think we need to keep this in perspective. >> health o if i recalls say that the virus started in the middle east first in camels and spread to the middle eastern countries and 200 deaths. right now no specific treatment,

cure or vaccination. >> most of the cases, a vast amount of the cares are in the middle case and it progresses fast and most of the people die. 1% for the seasonal flu. you see how severe that the infection can be. >> it is similar to the deadly sars virus that killed hundreds in the early 2000s. >> the nba playoffs five games this weekend and the action on the court is being overshadowed by the donald sterling saga. we are joined now with the discussion on sports. >> yes, donald sterling and the discussion is beginning with him, sterling has been pat

battling prostrate cancer and now the woman that started this fire storm, she gave her first tv interview and it is all happened while the ncaa plays on. the spotlight should be on the excitement of the playoffs and saturday is the first time ever that three game 7s are played on the same day and the drama for the grizzlies without zach randolph. he becomes the first player ever to miss a game 7 for any reason after leading the team in scoring. instead the focus back to disgraced clippers owner donald sterling after the woman with sterling in the audio released talked on camera for the first time since sterling was not

finded saying she was not the girlfriend but a personal assistant and doesn't think he's a racist. >> don't the comments sound racist to you? >> the things he says are not what he feels. >> asked where sterling should apoll jiez absolutely. he told the l.a. magazine i wish i would have paid her off. thursday's nhl playoffs saw bruins fans getting nasty on twitter after a black player scored two goals including the game winner. there was a statement sent out from the club saying that the views expressed by the ignorant group of individuals following

the game are in way a reflection of anyone associated with the bruins organization. now the n word was trending yesterday with 17,000 twitters c connected to his name. he's yet to respond to the bruins. you can expect the play to do the talking. they are in boston today for game two. that is interesting. >> yes, that is interesting and another story blowing up the twitter world. >> yes, i gave you the list of the odds to see the names, and i will tell you what i checked off, general a-rod. and when i cicked strong. i'm going go a big or go home harry's holiday. >> candy boy. >> i remember that. >> candy boy.

>> the favorite is california crows, 5-2 the winners. $600,000 is the big purse for the race. >> remember the boy that flew all the way to hawaii tucked in a wheel well of a plane. the 15-year-old travelled from california to hawaii on april 20th tucked inside of the landing gear comportment partment. he has since recovered and his father believes he was trying to get to his moth in ethiopia. >> they are looking for hundreds of girls abducted from a school in nigeria. it is believed there is a group behind the missing. as we report relatives are

criticizing the authorities and saying they are left with more questions than answers. >> the confusion is continuing over a how many girls were abducted by armed men from a school northeast of nigeria two weeks ago and the police are saying 276 girls are still missing, out of 300 that were initially taken. a figure far higher than what was previously reported by the government and military. the police say it is because they were visiting students from other schools who are initially unaccounted for. some relatives say it could be true, several of his nieces w e ducted and still missing. >> [indiscernible] from a war zone area.

all secondary schools come to do an exam and asparents we are called to write down the children's name that may be lost. those people were not informed. >> they are taking part in the protests over too government and the military's rescuing of the girls. but nobody knows for certain where they are. they believed an armed group kidnapped them. they have attacked schools before like in february. it is against western education. the government insists over a the number of girls missing it is doing all it can to find them and going after the group. >> unfortunately i think it is

far from the truth saying that the government. >> the families of the missing girls and supporters are worried that the girls will never be found. various security agencies are involved in trying to find the missing girls that could be contributing to the confusion over how many are missing. they are demanding a response to the abductions from the authorities. al jazeera nigeria. >> today is world press freedom day and honoring the journalists for freedom of expression and we are urging to release our colleagues in prison for 126 days. >> for more than four months now the colleagues have had their freedoms denied and appeared in court on saturday and the judge denied the bail once again and adjourned the court until if

15th of may. it is a case gaining worldwide attention. they were challenged by the issue. >> we are concerned about this. >> i appreciate that. you haven't done this in even in your system. sent letters to the families of two of the accused. >> i'm aware of that. >> even though he's a judge, he wanted to assure them one, that there would be -- he couldn't interfere in the process, but again the case is before the court and i can't comment on it. >> i tell you again, if a journalist commits a crime, he doesn't have immunity. >> but the prosecution can't prove any wrong doing so far. >> the evidence so far is uncontroversial and unfinished news reports by al jazeera and some footage that has nothing do

with the case whatsoever. the footage with the bbc and the audio recordings that can't be made out in the courtroom, this is the landmark and key evidence of the prosecution has presented. >> the court appearance on saturday went along with world press freedom day. a fourth journalist has been detained without a trial since last august and on a hunger strike for over a hundred days. >> we have not seen this globally, any government go after an international news network for nothing more than doing their work and also using terrorist related charges to keep them in custody without the evidence. >> al jazeera is rejecting the charges against the staff and continues to call for the immediate and unconditional release. and urging the egypt government

to take the opportunity of world press freedom a day to do the right thing to release the journalists. >> sfratists have freed the european mediators and they have retaken the security headquarters and in the west blaming the russian supporters for the violence that happened there yesterday. and 30 people have been left dead and hundreds were aest ared. we are joined by the heart of the protest region in the east, paul, this is a win for the ukrainian officials and is it a real victory and facing the pressure from the other side of the border and have the problems just begun? >> it is clear from the incidents the attention focussed on the east should not be, it is

not the only problem that the kiev government is facing. we have this region it is largely russian speaking, it is part of mulldova and close to the western city and the allegation that is made in the wake of that violence that we saw, that tragedy in odessa yesterday was sparked by mixture of pro russian sifrp

time. >> on a roadside they embrace and bringing an end to the 8th day of captivity. >> you can't imagine having this, deep relief. it was really tough. the last two nights as we saw the situation developing and every minute it gets longer and finally with the cooperation of all of the key players went perfectly and thank you very much. >> the men looked calm and tired and the nerves as the freedom came closer is obvious to see. they had been detained by a

separatist group and the released men said they kept the proms to protect them from the harm and other outcomes were unthinkable. >> taking people working for international organizations as hostages is unacceptable. so it was extremely important to get through this mission. >> the mission was made more intricate by the military going on. there is fierce fighting. the ukrainian military personnel achaked a pro russian check point. organizing a hostage handover in this environment was far from straightforward. it is taking days to reach this point, including the final say from the men, but the men and

the osc are free and returning home. now they have returned here and the freedom of those men actually opened the possibility that the oesc could be invited back in an expanded role and the observers could hope the way to calm the situation here in the east. >> on may 11th, the people are going to vote on a referendum to declare them a sovereign republic and what does it mean for the region overall? >> well, that's, well, that is one question, if goes ahead is another question. the authorities are not recognizing this referendum as legitimate. that being said, if they manage to get a referendum here that would certainly express the

opinion of the east, but not legitimately recognized by the kiev government in the west. >> all right, thank you for joining us. >> coming up, researchers are looking at what really makes a good pair of shoes.

>> researchers are studying shoes, but not focussed on the latest styles instead trying to make it more comfort based on science. we have the report. >> buying a new pair of shoes has always been a gamble, with the latest designs comfortable and fashional and older and traditional styles. but now a team of researchers in spain is hoping to remove the guess work and they have been

using the latest in technology to match what people say are comfort >> shoes with certain physical attributes in the footwear. >> things in the shoe monitor the force to the feet into the shoe itself and then to the floor. they are using 14 infrared cameras tracking the movement. now taking this data, they are able to work an out using a number of computer models just what features of a particular shoe make it comfortable. >> so a we found that women prefer shoes with space in the toes and they like shoes with flexible insoles and the men is the weight of the shoe. light shoes affect less the way they walk. >> not all shoes are getting the same attention. he spent his life helping people

with foot problems and the results of poor fittings or badly designed shoes. >> a good pair of shoes is fundamental avoiding the injuries and formation injuries. in a bad pair of shoes it is not functioning the way it should. >> spain's dun turn has affixed to the nation's feet. shoes need to be seen as an investment and health and happiness could depend on the next purchase. >> rare footage of one of the darkest moments in baseball has come a to light. the 1919 world series going down in history as the black sox scandal when 8 members of the white sox banned from baseball for life for accepting bribes

and throwing the series and now five minutes of game footage is found in canada and no sound. >> coming up on al jazeera america, despite the efforts to stop it, elephants are hunted. now a new shelter is providing a safe haven.

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>> good morning to you, welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm morgan radford live in new york. here is today's top stories, a rescue operation is abandoned after the landslide buried a town. afghan officials are saying over 200 people are dead. >> in ukraine, separatists freed the mediators that were being held and the second day of military is under place as kiev is trying to take back. >> first case of mers is confirmed and the patient is an

indiana man that spent time in the middle east. the virus kills 30% of those affected. >> good saturday to you, we have been tracking the soggy conditions across the southeast and the rain is still coming down across florida and coastal areas of georgia the showers are trying to pop up thanks to a fra frontal boundary. it is bringing the rain into the tampa area. this is an area that saw the record rainfall yesterday. we have video to show you where the streets are covered in water and more rain is set to fall and could be seeing three quarter an inch in the same area, so a not a good idea to do any type of travelling in this general area because we are going to see the heavy rainfall throughout much

of the afternoon and into the evening rain chances are starting to taper off but few now stay off the roads to be an the safe side. the rain is pushing south of tampa and expected to see isolated showers throughout later tonight and more flooding concerns. the flood is remaining in effect until 4:00 in tampa and a number of areas with the flood warnings in the panhandle. behind it high pressure is starting to build in, it is dry and very hot across the southern plains where we are expecting to see the 90s. >> thank you. a new shelter in northern india is giving the elephants a safe haven. the rescued elephants can roam freely 24 hours a day and receive baths and food. they need it. there are less than 30,000 elephants left in india because

humans kill 40 a year. thanks for watching al jazeera america. inside story is coming up next. follow us at al jazeera.com. in ukraine things sped past the stage where two groups of heavily armed men glare at each other of the now they are killing each other and eastern ukraine is looking more ungovernable. it's "inside story." ♪ music ] hello, i'm ray