the rivers; they are a fantastical biological sort of indicator to tell us how important the rivers are. >> welcome to al jazeera america america. i'm michael eaves in new york. here are the stories we're following for you this hour. boko haram offers to set free some of those kidnapped girls in exchange for prisoners. donetske wants to become part of the motherland and snow in the west and tornadoes in the midwest.

>> boko haram a radical armed group from nigeria has released video showing what it says is the first pictures of the more than 200 girls kid madam more than a month ago. dressed in muslim clothing. the leader of boko haram says the girls have converted to islam. willing to free them in exchange for prisoners hemmed by the government. rawya rageh has more from abuja. >> likely to cause further distress. in the 17 minute video releaseby their boko haram kidnappers the girls are heard speaking in arabic, reciting lines from the koran. third says she's muslim. it's hard to determine from the video the location where it was shot. boko haram leader also makes a separate appearance. he says he will not let the girls go unless incarcerated

members of the group are set free. as every day goes by confidence in the nigerian authorities has been steadily eroding. video, undoubtedly a new cause for anger grief and frustration, rawya rageh al jazeera abuja. >> j.j. green joins us. j.j. i imagine the first thing would be to authentic this tape. >> what they're going to be doing is looking for any kind of clues, any kind of digital signatures or electronic signatures that might be in this video. they're also going to be looking to figure out who's in it, how it was done, when it was done. writ was done. and how -- where it was done. and how it was passed on. those are things that can give them some information and suggestions as to how to treat this particular video that comes from boko haram at this point.

and they are going to be doing this fairly slowly and fairly deliberately to make sure they don't overlook anything that you can certainly see in the tape or that you can hear. >> well, boko haram claims that these are the girls they kidnapped but based on what they're wearing, you can only see their face. how difficult would it be to correctly identify these girls from that school or is this simply a ploy from boko haram for prisoner release? >> abouthe people i have spokeno indicate this is indeed authentic. boko haram wouldn't have much to gain by claiming these were indeed the imirls the girls the. if they wanted to negotiate then putting up this kind of farce if it were indeed not true wouldn't bode well for them being table seriously by the people that they want to negotiate with. so the folks i'm speaking to have told me this is significant

because it is, indeed, series. -series. i'm told the hostage negotiatessors, all those involved are going to be talking to those who lost children and scouring these videos to be sure these are indeed the children. i'm told there are about 100 in the video, making sure these are the young ladies that are concerned are missing. >> j.j, we have seen videos from terrorist groups, and found the victims were under duress at the time of the taping. the one girl looked off to the left very quickly and looked back. she appeared if she was petrified if at least under duress, is that your take? >> you have to be clear about what you are seeing here. these are young girls, these are scared girls who basically are

expected to be under duress. it is fright fling for them and for everybody. i can only imagine what these young sisters are going through so -- youngsters are going through. fear is probably putting it mildly when you think of what's going through their young minds at this point. and as far as the duress goes, boko haram is claiming that these girls, some of them are converting to islam. but the thing they're not mentioning is that these girls were taken from an area that is already heavily muslim. so there's doubt whether or not they actually convertor not michael. >> worldwide awareness is spread about these young girls. now that this video's been released and if it is indeed authenticated and if these girls are from that school does that put more pressure on the nigerian government to find and rescue these girls? >> absolutely, without a doubt. and some of that pressure is

essentially surfacing today is self-inflicted today because i'm told that nigerian president god luck jonathan is actually planning to leave the country to go to the democratic republic of congo for three days. he's supposedly going to be talking about regional security issues but i can imagine that there is no security issue that's greater than the one that's unfolding in his country at this point. there are a lot of people as i understand it in nigeria today that are upset about this plan whether or not this happens or not. there are some that are very concerned about whether or not the government actually -- he goes through with this tip. and the government has some with this trip. >> they are having to do convincing to do what they can do to make this turn out better. apparently at this point, it is going to be difficult for them to make this turnout perfectly and to get all these girls perfectsly. engaged in a process to get some

of these girls back. the government is kind of far along, far away from that, arriving at that point at this time. >> and from what we've learned that security meeting will definitely deal with the rescue of those girls. al jazeera security contributor j.j. green live in washington, d.c, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> pro-russian separatists are celebrating. in both luhansk and donetske claim they overwhelmingly credit voted for sovereignty, asking to be a part of russia. meanwhile, russia is talking for talks between kyiv and representatives from those 60s. but kyiv and western leaders don't accept the results. british foreign secretary william haig say the results are suspect. >> they are illegal, don't mead standard not the single standard of be objectivity or fairness

and properly conducted and the public referendum and election and the people organizing them didn't really even pretend to meet any of those standards. the important thing is that the ukrainian elections go ahead on the 25th of may. >> there were some violent exchanges during sunday's vote. some ukraine yarian voters prevd some from going to vote. several people were injured in the clashes. pro-russian separatists say are self-rule is what they want ant continue to guard their new territory. jonah hull has are more. >> the donetske people's republic, on his wall, a crude hint of things to come. borders redrawn in marker-pen. huge chunks of the south and

eastern ukraine infield by russia. >> they were trying to -- enveloped by russia. >> they told us it should not be like that. one people and the border should be open. i think in the nearest future there will be some cierpd of kin here. >> and outside of his office in the occupied local administration building in donetske the dpu peopl few peopg about were pleased with the referendum result. >> translator: the newly formed republic will be a free republic free of the kyiv >> the idea of separation has taken root moongt the violence.

>> translator: i'm 100% sure the people have made the right decision. before i was in doubt, thinking, maybe we don't need it, maybe it's not worth it but now it's 100% right. >> the referendum has delivered a giant positive intoarm endors. for the people's republic of donetske. the poll shows a great many people. >> i just want this to end. i don't want to go anywhere. i like it here. i've liked it for 21 years. >> reporter: but with voters in two eastern regions now claiming near total support for separation, the voices of opposition have effectively been silenced. jonah hull, al jazeera,

donetske. >> and while ukraine is dealing with the crisis in the eastern regions the country may soon be out of gas. gazprom says it will give the country a bill for the month of june tomorrow. gazprom officials say if they don't get paid by june 3 russia will cut off gas sports. they say ukraine owes them more than $3.5 billion. log on to aljazeera.com, show a time line of evangelists there, all at aljazeera.com. turn to relentless severe weather, tornadoes ripping through the nation's heart land. meteorology dave warren, dave are we going to see more and more of these storms? >> yes, as a matter of fact we already have severe weather moving through. severe weather area which was here yesterday, this is radar

from yesterday afternoon and evening. 36 tornado reports l coming in from the storm prediction center, maybe a few less tornadoes but you get a number of reports from the same storm. this area had the tornadoes yesterday. now the current radar sees a line of severe weather right near chicago, not tornadic but a severe storm watch, warnings, impacting parts of illinois and wisconsin, moving towards the great lakes there and that's continuing to push off torts northeast over the next few hours. little further west on the western side of the storm causing all this wet we're noticing the snow, break apart, the snow moves out of dry air comes in but winter storm warnings in effect not nearly as many as there were but the pink area, winter storm warning with heavy snow still coming down. green indicates there could be

flooding, heavy rain coming down in a short period of time could cause flash flooding or general river flooding. that is the problem, storm continues to push east and big impact on areas as well. some areas summer, some winter, not far distance in between. >> dave thanks a lot. president obama met with uruguay's president moheka earlier today. praised uruguay, for their support in haiti and africa. 70-year-old president mohika said he wishes he could visit other parts of the country but he's growing old and doesn't traft so much. from secretary of state john kerry, kerry told syrian opposition leaders that it waiswaistwasted a year without g

can syrian president bashar al-assad. in washington the secret service is underfire. a washington post report claims, welfare checks at the expense of guiding the white house. the secret service has denied claims that patrols went on for two months for the former secret service aide who was in dispute with a neighbor. a spokesman for the agency say daily patrols were sent to the home while the president was at camp david. the agency says the home checks only lasted four days. coming up on al jazeera america, one of the most elusive men on the planet. what's being done to find joseph coney. coney. f

real reporting that brings you the world. >> this is a pretty dangerous trip. >> security in beirut is tight. >> more reporters. >> they don't have the resources to take the fight to al shabaab. >> more bureaus, more stories. >> this is where the typhoon came ashore. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. >> al jazeera, nairobi. >> on the turkey-syria border. >> venezuela. >> beijing. >> kabul. >> hong kong. >> ukraine. >> the artic. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. joseph. >> people have been voting

across india in the past five weeks in the country's largest election. 800 million eligible voters in india. cast their ballots in the final day of voting. the main hindu opposition party bjp, and ruling congress party has been plagued by scandals. final results expected on may 16th. protesters came out in thailand. vowing to take down the current government in place. current administration is still in support eve of yingwat chinw. vietnam's government rarely tolerates protests like these.

the fact that it has is perhaps the measure of the deepening official age are that china taps maritime ambitions in the south china sea. >> china not only violates vietnam's territory says this territory but it also shows its ambitions to invade the entire sea. shaky video shows a recent confrontation in these troubled waters. a chinese ship rams a vietnamese coast guard vessel. there have been skirmishes going on for the past week. they have been going on since a deep water rig was parked in the waters. beijing insists the oil rig is staying put. >> we have no choice but to increase our security. this extremely restrain. our only aim is to guarantee our reasonable legal normal drilling

operations. >> china claims sovereignty almost over all of the south china sea, putting it in conflict with not only vietnam but the philippines as well. this area is thought to be rich in oil deposits. the worry is high seas brinksmanship could get out of control. >> there is a possibility of miscalculation. things getting out of hand. a rogue general or a mistake being made on the ground by someone who is a bit trigger happy. >> the issue has overshadowed a gathering of southeast asian leaders in myanmar. the asean group discord. even if the claims involve islands that are little more than specs on a map. even though china and vietnam

are nowhere near a war. >> uganda's joseph kony is said to be the most wanted man in the world, accused of crimes against humanity. as al jazeera's stephanie decker reports. >> this is a rare glimpse of joyce ef kony. joseph kony, he's been indicted for war crimes in the international criminal court. stemming from a war he waged for nearly two decades. tens of thousands of people were killed, over a million displaced, many raped and maimed. countless children were forced to kill and mutilate their own families. and then turned into kony's personal soldiers.

>> thrvmentra is really responsible for just about every -- the lra is responsible for just about every war crime and atrocity in the book. but really in the past three to four years, what we've seen is that the tactics of the lra have changed quite a bit. the violence has decreased. significantly. in the past few years. but they're history shows what they're still capable of. >> reporter: an african union task force with 5,000 sol engineered backed by 100 u.s. special forces has been trying to find him for years. and in march the u.s. sent four aircraft to help find him. covers areas of south sudan the central african republic and the republic of congo. it's inhospitable area that kony and his men know well. >> it is hard to estimate by

conventional means. we estimate that the lra only has about 160 actual combatants from uganda left. but even though the numbers don't seem that imposing, compared to other armed groups in the region, the lra is able to do much damage with relatively few fighters. >> reporter: so whereas the lra isn't quite the force that it once was, there is a real fear that the group could take advantage of unrest in places like the central african republic and south sudan to further destabilize the region. and for many who have survived his unimaginable tactics, the name joseph kony still reveals an unmistakable fear. stephanie decker, al jazeera. >> being oscar pistorius,

possible anxiety disorder led to the are killing. >> it is my notion that oscar pistorius has an acts it a disorder. work hard to control the environment and be very prepared in order to alleviate their levels of anxiety. >> now prosecutors say they will ask the olympic runner to undergo a psychiatric examination. >> this robotic arm will hopefully be used in space. we'll tell you about it next on al jazeera.

true business-grade internet comes with secure wifi for your business. it also comes with public wifi for your customers. not so with internet from the phone company. i would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. but that would require wifi. switch to comcast business internet and get two wifi networks included. comcast business built for business.

$. >> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm michael eaves. here are the top stories this hour. boko haram, releases video of

what they say are the kidnapped girls. pro-russian separatists declare victory in parts of the eastern ukraine. donetske separatists say donetske is a sovereign state and asks to be part of russia. meanwhile, kyiv declares it illegal. dozen tornadoes ripped through the heart land over the weekend destroying businesses and homes. but tornadoes aren't the only concern. some states are suffering through snow storms while other states are fighting with wildfires. dave warren. >> it is moving but slowly. centered over the middle of the country, western side getting that cold air, snow coming down in parts of colorado. severe weather expected in texas to chicago. warnings in effect around

chicago with severe weather approaching that area. temperatures will be climbing in this region, upper 80s close to 90, as the storm lifts north across the great lakes. clearly seeing where the warm air stops and cold air moves in. right over texas and oklahoma now. what to expect today, from texas to chicago, severe weather with damaging wind storms and hail as these storms begin to develop. they're already happening around chicago. anywhere around this front we could see severe weather developing. be careful these storms could pop up quickly. winter weather continues to come down, starting to taper down just a bit are winter weather and here is the severe weather from texas up to chicago. we are seeing storms develop. they do have the ability to present damaging winds, winds up to 60, severe winds around chicago and small hail is possible about golf ball size

hail. look at these temperatures here, close to 80, mid 80s in memphis but 34 in denver, not a lot of distance between the two. so the temperatures will continue to climb here, in fact the highs today upper 80s but only 40 in denver. this storm begins to head east, ahead of that storm the temperatures will continue to climb. washington, d.c, 88 today, 90 tomorrow then that front comes through and it drops to the 70s. this will be the case on the east coast. hot day on tuesday, dropping with some rain possibly thunderstorms wednesday into thursday. where we do need the rain not getting it, it's across the southwest, still drought will continue to piss there and the wind picking up with the dry air across texas. that's where we have fire dangers today, the moisture will begin to push up to the north here, so ahead of that front you could see the possibility for some flooding where we're

getting these strong storms developing, flash flooding, quick rise in the water. >> we had such a long winter maybe mother nature will give us a great summer. dave warren, thanks a lot. well, the washington monument is finally reopening, after three years of repairs. the obelisk was badly damaged after an earthquake. private donations paid for the $15 million rehab. s. researcher are in switzerland, revolutionize space, cleanup as a grappling device plucking space debris right out of orbit. pretty aplaysing. thank you for watching this edition of credit al jazeera

america. i'll be back later. until then, "techknow." and throughout the day on all your news stories just go to our website, aljazeera.com. >> hello and welcome i'm phil torres here to talk about invocations that can change lives. the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. marita davidson is a biologist specializing inning innings innd evolution. kosta grammatis is an engineer