>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are the stories we are following for you. crowds cheer russian president vladimir putin in crimea. his first trip to the region since it seceded from ukraine. there is a new report says nigerian authorities were warned of attack on the school.

killed . ranging from two to twenty. more are injured. it happened as the ukrianian military tried to take back control of the police headquarters . from russian supporters.

>> in nigeria- chilling new evidence says the military knew about boko haram's plan to attack a school in the north borno state. but failed to act. a report by amnesty international . says the nigerian military had a four-hours warning about the planned offensive. the kidnapping of more than 270 girls from a boarding school last month. followed that warning. british and u-s teams are in nigeria helping the government search for the girls. meanwhile. schools where the kidnappings took place. are closed for fear of more violence. ahmed idris reports >> the students were taking their final examinations, and this is when the schools in nigeria are preparing. preparing boko haram was [ unintelligible ] several schools have been burned down by boko haram fighters, who are against western education and anything that's western. burned down by the attacks, by the state government.

and then went back to the schools and burned them again. this is making the parents more afraid. the attacks still continue. >> the u.n. announcing that it's sending a high-level on vie to nigeria to help it attack it's internal problems. >> it's stilling worked on. and ultimately, it would help with issues of counter terrorism. and issues of human rights. >> the demonstrations for the girls continue around the globe, protesting what they say is the government of nigeria's slow response. and protesters in london making

a human demand, bring back our girls. the number is now eight. house republicans. launching a new investigation into the 20-12 attack on the u-s consulate in benghazi, libya. they say they're unhappy with the first seven probes. and that there is new information to look at. but as stephanie sy tells us. most democrats say it's all about politics. >> on this vote, the yeas are 232, the nays are 186 and the resolution is adopted. >> the newly created house panel. will include --- seven republicans and five democrats house speaker john boehner says the committee-- armed with new information --will get to the bottom of what happened in benghazi, libya in 2012. and whether there was an obama administration cover-up. >> our committee sought the full truth and the (obama) administration tried to make sure they wouldn't find it" but the white house says congress has already thoroughly investigated the attack--which killed u-s ambassador christopher stevens---and three other americans. >> the facts of yesterday are the facts today and they will be the facts no matter how often or for how long republicans engage in highly partisan efforts to

politicize what was a tragedy. >> democrats--- mulling whether or not to boycott the committee--- say republicans are playing politics -- trying to gain an advantage in an election year -- while attempting to damage hillary clinton's potential 20-16 presidential run. clinton who was secretary of state during the benghazi attacks recently said there's nothing left to find. >> that's their choice, and i do not believe there's any reason to continue in this way, but they get to call the shots in the congress. >> the state department initially blamed the attacks on protests sparked by a you-tube video mocking the prophet muhammad. but newly released white house e-mails raise more questions say republicans. they instructed then u.s. ambassador to the u-n susan rice to underscore that these protests are rooted in an internet video, and not a broader failure of policy. republicans call this a "smoking

gun" since rice in a round of interviews in the days after the attack said she recieved that information from the intelligence community. stephanie sy, al jazeera >> both sides in south sudan's civil war are meeting in ethiopia today. supporters greeted rebel leader riek machar in addis ababa this morning. he's there for a sit-down with the president of south sudan. salva kiir. it will be their first face to face meeting since the conflict began last year. the u-n says the fighting has left thousands dead and forced over a million people from their homes. the results are nearly in for south africa's first election since nelson mandela's death. with 99-percent of the ballots counted. the party once led by mandela appears to be headed for an easy re-election win. the african national congress currently has over 62-percent of the vote. the main opposition group. the democratic alliance. is at 22-percent. the final results will be announced tomorrow. political assaults in thailand,

to break up anti-government protesters, florence louis reports. >> they have called this the final push. he said this before. and the tactics are the same. the prime minister offices and several television stations. >> i'm here to kick them all out because the cabinet ministers are still here, i want them all gone. >> the protests have been largely peaceful, despite as a group, they're trying to force their way into a government compound in north bangkok. forcing him to step down as prime minister, after finding her guilty of abuse of power. one of her deputies has replaced

her as leader. the brother and former premier was ousted in 2006. they have been holding demonstrations in the capital for the past six months. bangkok's largest park has been turned into a camp, home of protesters from all over the country. some of the protesters have been camping here since early this year. many say they will stay as long as it takes, until they see a change in government. the caretaker government wants to hold elections in july. since 2001, largely because of its populist policies. protesters say that it won't solve the crisis. before the elections are held.

pro government supporters say that's undemocratic, and they will hold a counter-rally on saturday, raising the stakes in the power play. aljazeera, bangkok. >> still ahead, they have been fighting a war against the drug cartels in mexico and they're being told to lay down their arms, and they fled their homes in africa for what they thought was a better life in italy. but the dream is not coming true. those stories next on aljazeera.

>> a south korean court will decide if the c-e-o of the company that owns the capsized ferry -- can be formally charged. authorities say he knew the boat was overloaded when it left the port - but didn't do anything about it. he is currently in custody along with the 15 surviving crew members.

273 people died and 31 others are still unaccounted for. families of the ferry victims staged a sit-in in seoul. many clutching photos of their loved ones. and some could even be heard begging for just 'ten seconds' with the president. relatives want more answers from president park geun-hye about the search operations. a presidential aide plans to meet with the families later today. in italy . silvio berlusconi is performing community service. the former prime minister . began his court-mandated service work today. the court ordered the 77 year old to help alzheimers patients. berlusconi was ousted from government and convicted of tax fraud last year. tensions in albuquerque are high. shootings since 2010, 39 shootings in that period. they are concluding that the

police are using excessive force, and to learn more about the story in albuquerque, go to aljazeera.com, and there you'll learn more about the prior shootings, and more change in the city of albuquerque, new mexico. there is a new partnership is changing the landscape in mexico's drug wars. vigalantes have until tomorrow to put their guns away and join their local police forces. as adam raney reports. some are embracing the idea -- but others are not. >> slugs shot, collected and saved. all part of an official gun registration. vigilantes amassed all this firepower for a war against one of mexico's fiercest cartels but now that the knights templar has largely disappeared from michoacan, the government is telling the vigilantes to stand down. once registered, vigilantes can keep their guns / but starting this saturday, they can no longer patrol as so called self defense units.

they have to be folded into a new police force. >> we are going to keep working as rural police, as rural defense forces. we are the people, legal and uniformed. >> the security commissioner for michoacan says anyone patrolling without official authority after saturday will be arrested. >> from may 11th any self defense member carrying a gun, patrolling and trying to rid the streets of criminals on their own without being in an official uniform or without the authority from the state will be detained. >> some self defense units are wary though of disarming especially in light of reports that a new cartel is forming from the ashes of the knights templar. earlier this year michoacan was enmeshed entangled in an open war involving the cartel, vigilantes and security forces. some called it a failed state. fearing they could lose their guns - thousands have chosen to follow the government's plan.

after operating for so long outside the law, now these vigilantes are putting their faith in it. such scenes of mutual trust were unimaginable only months ago. steps away from the registration vigilantes are sitting for competency tests for the new force. some 2,200 have already applied. >> this a battle that neither the government nor we in the movement could carry out alone. but together, we can both fight organized crime. a sense of growing faith in the government. >> clashes between police and students in caracas, venezuela have left one dead and four injured. it began early thursday morning national guard troops rounded up hundreds of young anti-government protesters and dismantled their camps. demonstrators filled the streets of caracas following the raid -- and a police officer was shot to death.

for four years since the spring of 2010, migrants have been fleeing to europe. nick schifrin explains how migrants in rome feel forsaken by italy and the rest of europe. >> look at this street. look again. now consider, this is rome. in one of the world's great cities, in one the world's wealthiest countries, asylum seekers say their lives are worse here than in the country they fled. we don't have homes. we are homeless, jobless. everyone here is from eritrea. they left behind terrible violence looking for a better life. they didn't expect this. >> we don't have no real place to eat. it's not ordinary life. it's bad.

>> his room is about 160 square feet. he shares it with 4 people. he's lived here for almost 5 years. ever since a harrowing 72-hour boat ride across the mediterranean. >> we arrive in the night, at least at 2am, we go to the land, and we distribute in every direction. >> the island of lampedusa has always been migrants' most appealing target. it's only 70 miles from the african coast, it's the closest entryway to europe. but last october, a boat full of people dreaming of a european future capsized, and nearly 400 died. in his first official visit outside of rome, pope francis made migrant deaths a rallying cry. in his first official visit outside of rome, he urged the world to see the immigrant as our neighbor. >> i needed to come here to pray, to carry out a gesture of closeness. the coast guard expanded its patrols. today, fewer are dying. survivors are thrown into this detention center. they're offered asylum. but many refuse - so they can move on to a country they

consider more welcoming. >> you've been here 6 months. how long into the future will you stay? >> they will move to other countries. >> kibron berhane accepted asylum. he says that was just the beginning of his problems. >> we are not integrated into society. that's why we cannot get the job. we can't communicate. and we can't survive. >> he and about 450 migrants occupied this building. it used to be a government office. but then it was deserted - until these families moved into every single room. >> they let me free // just to the jungle. i came to the city, to the roma center. but it was jungle for me. >> he tried to flee. but under european law, because he'd landed in italy, every other country he asked for asylum rejected him - and threw him in jail. >> how many jails in europe have you had to go to?

it's above 10. >> he works a few hours a week as a gardener. unable to achieve his dream. >> professional advancement, to continue masters degree, something like that, to change my life. >> i need to change the life. but here in italy - i don't think so. >> and so they are stuck. they can't change their lives here - but they're not allowed to leave. nick schifrin, al jazeera, rome >> al jazeera america has also been taking a closer look at the immigration controversy here at home. our ground breaking series "borderland" had six americans retrace the steps of migrants who died trying to get to the u-s. this weekend the group will reunite to share their stories about the experience. you can see the borderland reunion right here on al jazeera america on sunday night at 9 eastern time. from a military tool to commercial delivery. thousands of drones could fill american skies in just a few years. the question is. will they crash into each other in the skies overhead.

the details straight ahead.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are today's headlines at this hour. russia celebrates victory day . honoring the end of world war two. president putin visits crimea. his first visit to that region since it seceded from ukraine. and there's more deadly clashes between ukrainian forces and russian separatists in the south east. s this disturbing evidence that the government new about the plan to attack the school. they had a four-hour warning, and then the lack of response led to the mass kidnapping. the president of south sudan, meeting in ethiopia, coming together to end the months of bloodshed there that has left thousands dead and more than 1 million people without homes. if you went outside in the

northeast today, it was raining earlier, but there might be a glimmer of hope on the horizon. ebony is here. >> it's certainly going to warm up. maybe of not as warm as dc. but getting to where it should be. looking at the temperatures where we currently stand because you can clearly see that the warm account is spreading across the u.s., and where we have the cold air, a passing cold front is pushing off to the northeast. but it's a slow mover, but we're also dealing with a lot of moisture. coming in from the gulf of mexico. so with the advance of the cold front we willish dealing with severe weather in memphis and shreveport down to san antonio, where we have been dealing with a few storms in the southern area of texas that are starting to pop. but the bulk of the rain, moving into the mississippi valley. it looks pretty decent in texas to oklahoma.

but this batch here that we have seen, thunderstorm warnings being prompted by the storms and the prediction center with the thunderstorm watch. so this area needs to be monitored, the possibility of large hail and damaging winds, and we have a severe thunderstorm warning for this area as the storms move off to the east and lots of rainfall expected in that area. in parts of the midwest, clearing skies behind that front, but around minneapolis, we could see a shower or two, and yesterday, we had reports of tornadoes just south of the twin cities, and today, a shower or two should wind down. as that pushes off to the east, we'll be watching the west. with a spring storm system. this is monday around denver, temperatures close to 70° on saturday. and then temperatures will tumble. and the slow snow levels will be

switching over from rain to snow sunday during the day. >> i'm going to pretend that i didn't hear that. ebony, thank you very much. >> president obama is in northern california -- he's attending democratic fundraisers. but he also plans to unveil several executive actions regarding solar energy. today the president will visit a walmart store in mountain view, california. he'll announce a private-public partnership with more than 300 u-s companies committed to cleaner, more efficient energy. the president has also ordered a new job training plan to educate 50-thousand new workers in the solar energy field -- and a two billion dollar investment to make federal buildings more energy efficient. lots of businesses are lining up to capitalize on emerging drone technology. but as david shuster reports . before anyone a drone takes flight. a lot of work has to be done to see how they'll co-exist with other flying machines. >> out here on the seemingly endless plains of south texas, where wind turbines easily

outnumber people - many are counting on a new industry to take flight. >> it's been a lot of work, sometimes it's been a major headache but it's been fun because i'm on the leading edge here at the university of this. >> david bridges runs the unmanned aerial systems program at texas a&m corpus christi university - the lead organization behind one of the drone test sites set up by the faa this past january. out of 25 fiercely competitive bids submitted by states hoping to become the silicon valley of drones, these six sites have been selected to make what may seem fantastical today. into a safe everyday reality of the near future. >> a lot of people are familiar with amazon video, it's rather cute. what that video didn't show was how the amazon helicopter was going to avoid colliding with the domino's helicopter which is bringing your pizza and the target helicopter which is bringing your groceries >> it's called sense and avoid and is just one of the still unperfected technologies in

drones that researchers at corpus christi, and the other test sites, will need to improve in order for civilian use to grow. the faa estimates as many as 7,500 commercial uavs could be flying by 2018. >> here we have two unmanned aircraft, the rs-16 and the rs-20. >> entrepreneur david yoel's company american aerospace advisors works with texas a&m corpus christi on their drone operations. while door drop deliveries may still be years away, yoel says lucrative applications already exist - from drones that detect exactly when and where a field might need fertilizer or water, to unmanned planes performing risky search and rescue operations, to even energy grid and pipeline monitoring. >> unmanned aircraft can be flown without putting a pilot in harms way. then there is another benefit with endurance. these aircraft behind us for example can fly for 12 to 16 hours on a gallon and a half of gasoline.

betting that the faa test sites will soon become drone boomtowns, pennsylvania-based yoel has already set up shop in corpus christi.the start of what school officials hope will be an enduring, well-paying industry in a historically blue-collar region. but until they open the airspace, the industry remains grounded with possible delays to come. >> finally, the big loser may be the most polarized in the draft. johnny manziel. forbes estimates the slide cost manzeil 12 million dollars. round two of the draft is tonight. thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters.

"inside story" is next. for news updates through the day head to al jazeera dot com. happy mother's day to my mom, barbara walters and my mother-in-law, paula walker. see you then. william faulkner wrote the past is not dead, it isn't even past. northern ireland still lives in 30 years of deadly strife, known as the troubles. recorded reminiscence of the bad old days become the subject of a legal battle and it's the inside story.