>> thank you all for joining us. until next time, waj and i will see you online another aljazeera.com/ajamstream. ♪ . welcome to al jazeera america, i'm del walters these are the stories we're following for you. thailand is now under military control. and hurricane season almost upon us. forecasters telling us their predictions for the upcoming here. ♪

thailand's military chief declaring a military coup data in that country. there have been almost daily protests against the former prime minister since late last year. the head of the army saying the military takeover was necessary to bring stable to thailand. >> reporter: the chief of the armed forces and his comrades in uniform have taken over all functions of government. a full reversal of what he said when he announced marital law. all radio and television stations have been ordered to only broadcast army material. they are playing cold war era national anthems. citizens have been ordered to stay in their homes after 10:00 p.m. a curfew is in place from 10:00

pm to 5:00 am. the justification is to restore peace and order after spore -- sore radek violence. the prime minister was ousted when a judge said she acted illegally when she fired an official. the yellow shirts threatened mass strikes and major disruption. the red shirts who support the administration insisted elections be held to resolve the political crisis. the general called for all parties to join talks at an army location. that's where they were when the troops took over and brought them to an undisclosed location. simultaneously announcing the coup to the nation. thighland enters another era of military rule.

tensions between north and south korea getting worse. north korea firing shots near a south korean patrol. the incident comes after a north korean ship crossed the mare maritime line on tuesday. harry fawcett has more. >> reporter: the south korean ministry says two shells fell within 150 meters of one of its patrol boats about 10 kilometers north of the limit line. a border that north korea does not recognize. the south koreans say it appeared to be land-based military fired here an island. south korean officials say that they ordered the evacuation of locals in bomb shelters, and they fired back five warning shots landing within the same

kind of range. this is interesting because earlier this week three north korean patrol boats came south of the maritime border. they were forced back by south korean boats. warning shots were fired. north korea says it was policing illegal chinese fishing vessels in the area. south koreans have contacted north korea saying they will hold north korea responsible for any further such action and warned that will retall if attacked. a city in china, where several deadly attacks have taken place in recent weeks.

now in the past an ethnic group called the weeingers have been suspected of attacks in china. j.j. green joins us now live from washington. j.j. let's begin with the basic we, who are the weeingers? >> the weeingers? are a group of people. there are about 11 million of them in the world and 10 million live in china in this region, and the others are spread out there turkey, kazakhstan, and some other places, and most of them are muslims. and that is a part of the reason why they are having these problems with the chinese government, over their ethnicity. >> this unrest has been going on for years. >> yeah, in fact, the problem for the -- the weegers is they believe they are the original

inh inhabitants of this area for 9,000 years or so. they believe they are the originals there. the chinese government say they are envieders from mongolia. and the weegers believe the chinese government have helped the haan to suppress their culture. so they have been fighting back over their ethnicity, who they are, and what they believe is rightfully theirs. and the opportunity to practice whatever religion they prefer. and they believe the chinese government has impacted their ability to do that. >> as we pointed out 30 dead, more than 100 injured this time. what has been the chinese response this time? >> the chinese have been pretty heavy handed so far. and it's not likely they are

going to change course here. they have had opportunities to engage in dialogue with them in the past, but the chinese have this policy that they don't believe in allowing or sanctioning any kind of religious express that didn't on the chinese books, and when they have attacked or launched rep contribution against the chinese government's policies, the chinese have been very heavy handed. in fact they launched out and killed them when they didn't have to when they launched protests. so the weegers recognize they could face significant repercussions for these attacks. >> you have been tracking these groups for quite sometime. we haven't talked so much about the common threads between these groups. is there a common denominator?

>> most recognize they have significant opportunities now in this day and age to get their message, to get their ideas, to get their plans out there to the general public in the hopes of generating support. social media is the primary vehicle for that. and today's era, where we have so much information going on so quickly, and the pace of change in the world where things happen so quickly, all of these groups like the weegers, boko haram, al-qaeda, they always realize this is an opportunity to get their message out, because they all want change. >> j.j. green joining us from washington, d.c. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. and also breaking news to report. three bombings in bagdad killing more than 30 people today. more than 60 others are said to

have been injured. the targets seem to be shiite pilgr pilgrims. turning to nigeria, boko haram now believed to be behind three attacks on villages. those following back-to-back car bombings. mohammed has our story. we should warn you some of the content is disturbing. >> reporter: the bodies keep arriving. one after another. mourners are here to bury the bodies of their relatives who died in two bomb attacks on tuesday. this sister was one of the many people killed. >> i lost her just like that. we just able to get her -- just part of her body. this is very unfortunate. >> reporter: at the main market red cross officials were still

looking for body parts. in the hours after the attack they found complete bodies thrown by the force of the explosion. irene was lucky to have survived. she was buying food when the bomb was designated. she said i might be save, but i'm so unhappy for all of those that died. this is the devastation caused by the blast. the goods remain strewn all around. fire gutted parts of the market, and police are saying they will have to go in to see whether there are any bodies still under the rebel. across the city at hospitals the injured received treatment. >> i don't know what happened.

i just -- i just found myself in the fire. everywhere was dark. i was running in the fire, and i just don't know -- i didn't know it was real at first, so when i realized pain that i was in the fire, and i said no, i can't die here. >> i was thinking that it was a [ inaudible ] that hit me. then i realized it was a bomb. i started screaming. >> reporter: there has been no claim of responsibility, but many suspect that boko haram behind the attacks. there are now fears they are spreading their campaign of violence. >> what is happening in the north is already taking shape here. we'll have to improve our vigilance. yeah, i'm afraid [ inaudible ]. >> reporter: back at the cemetery, the mourners have

finished with the first burial. may god punish those who are killing our people he prays. with so will boko haram attacks in recent days and months, it's no surprise people here seem to have more trust in god than in the government. meanwhile it has been five weeks now since the girls were kidnapped at their girl by boko haram. 276 still missing. the first lady addressing that issue speaking out at an event. >> it couldn't be better timing for worse rereasasons. what has been going on in nigeria is a reminder of the struggles young girls all over the world are facing to try to get an education. and now that we have attention on this issue, we have to seize

on the moment to take the opportunity to really push to make some significant changes. the u.s., uk, and several other countries are helping search for those girls. congress taking one step to reign in the national security agency. they passed the freedom act. critics say the act has been strict of its most important provisions. libby last year people were outraged when they learned the extent of the spying. what changes would the bill make? >> yes, edward snowden turned over information one of the key elements that the nsa was collecting phone records of u.s. citizens. under this law no longer could the nsa keep that information. instead it would stay in the hands of telecommunications companies and the government could request it for up to 18

months, but they would have to first go through the fisa court. but some who were really pushing for this law said that it got significantly watered down. so the chief architect of wisconsin, he went on the floor today to try to make a last-minute pitch for support, which was ultimately successful. >> and i don't blame people for losing trust in their government because the government has violated their trust. let me be clear, i wish this bill did more. to my colleagues who lament the changes, i agree with you. the privacy groups who are upset about lost provisions, i share your disappointment. the negotiations for this bill were intense, but this bill still does deserve support. >> and it passed 303 to 121 in think house. and jim was also a chief ashth

-- architect of the patriot bill. >> and some privacy advocates and tech companies are also pulling their support for the bill because they say it doesn't go far enough. >> that's right. and we're hearing from voices that were cheering this on a couple of weeks ago. today we heard from congressman rush hult, he is liberal and really pushing for privacy and advocating for that. here are some of his criticisms. >> this legislation still allows the government to collect everything they want against americans to treat americans as suspects first and citizens second. it still allows decisions about whom to target and how aggressively to go after acquaintances of acquaintances.

>> on that fisa court, the law was supposed to have representative of the american people. and now there can only be friend of the court brief. the bill isn't law yet. it has to pass through the senate. and we'll see how it fairs there. because there are some libertarians who may like this version. we got a sense of the debate that may unfold because the chairman of the judiciary put out a statement supporting reform generally, but saying he was disappointed by some of the last-minute changes. also in washington, 50 members of the senate urging the national football league to force the washington redskins to change their name citing the recent decision in the nba to

ban los angeles clippers owner to donald sterling. they say racism and bigotry have no place in national sports. the letter was not offered up to republicans for their signatures. hurricane season just around the corner, we're learning what we can expect in the upcoming here. plus we'll hear from the men and women who fly into the heart of the hurricanes. those stories are next. you are watching al jazeera america.

♪ it has been a ruf start to spring in the u.s. with tornados decimating parts of the south but there is some good news. the east coast likely to be typical and possibly below normal conditions for the rest of the year. they say there is only a 10% chance, a 1 in 10 chance of worse than normal conditions.

they expect only one or two major hurricanes. along with the forecast there are some new tools that will help people who live in hurricane prone areas get ready for those storms and we turn to dave warren for the latest. >> yeah, this is a great new tool. and the forecast was issued out of brooklyn. because of sandy. now we're going to see new maps coming out with the forecast. color coated, showing what neighborhoods will be effected the most by storm surge. that is a big problem, because typically we haven't issued storm surge maps. all of these will go into that storm surge forecast. over the past few years it has just been the wind speed. these are the actual numbers coming from the forecast. we're looking at average or slightly below average.

and one to two major hurricanes. 2010 had 19 main storms, but no u.s. landfalls. 1996 had only one landfall. these are the names that we may encounter this year going from arthur to willfred. we're talking about our national weather now. there is still that draught situation. very severe draught conditions there. but the temperatures have cooled off a bit and now we have forecasted rain. the radar and clouds showing there is some rain popping up here. and over the next 48 hours we'll see inches of rain. won't end the drought but over today and tomorrow, very heavy rainfall is forecasted for that

area, the texas panhandle and parts of oklahoma. the northeast developing now along with a severe thunderstorm watch are strong storms along pennsylvania and new york. dave warren thank you very much. talking again about those hurricanes to make those forecasts there are teams of highly trained scientists with extensive equipment. we followed the flight team as they traveled to cities along the gulf coast to see how they track the storms. >> i'm a navigator on the airplane. >> what is right here are all of the hurricanes this aircraft has penetrated starting in 1976 and all the way to ingrid last year in 2013. i would say maybe a third i have been on. >> i'm the flight meteorologist.

it's my responsibility to direct the pilots towards the center of the storm. >> this is day three of the hurricane awareness tour. we're showcasing the aircraft behind me. this is one of two that we have that fly directly into a hurricane. >> this is the gps drop zone that we deploy from aircraft. we get two measurements every second as it falls down to the ocean surface. and that information gives us a vertical profile of the storm and gives us an idea of what the strength of the storm is. this is where i sit during the flight. i'm looking at all of the monsters, at the display from the nose radar, the navigator sits beside me and between the two of us, we're directing the

pilots. >> the eye wall is only 20 to 30 miles an hour. >> we're only going to be there a couple of minutes. it may seem like an eternity at the time, but once we get through it things calm down. >> it's our way to look out the window, which is our way in making the first forecast. we're nowhere near being able to tell people where the hurricanes and tropical storms are going to go. there are many hurricane prone areas in the u.s., louisiana, new orleans, no exception. and we want people to understand what they are vulnerable to. >> this is mother nature at its fury. and it's our job to fly these storms and gather the information for the scientists so they can do their analysis,

and hopefully four or five years down the road come up with better waysover predicting what they are going to do. >> and our own meteorologist nicole mitchell is usually on one of those flights. the performance review.

that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. >> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. these are our top stories at that hour. thailand's army chief now

declaring himself the country's new prime minister. that announcement after a few yours after announcing a coup. they also announced a suspension of the constitution, and ordering anti-government protesters to leave the square. north and south korean ships exchanging fire today. this is the latest in the round of tensions in the north sea this week. and we have been watching the traumatic upheavel in ukraine. ukrainian filmmakers are hoping you are wanting to see the story again and again. >> reporter: it has been the place for protests, now it is fuelling film. what happened in kiev square has filled news bulltons for months, but now it is filling theaters

too. >> translator: i believe that what happened in ukraine teaches a lesson to the whole world, because the people who died there paid with their lives. >> reporter: there are four ukrainian movies on show this year. same story, same goal. get them out there to a wider audience. but there's a slight problem in doing so. cash. or more to the point, a lack of it. this is number 102. this is the official ukrainian residence here. but it nearly never happened. the government in kiev has cut the amount of money it is spending on the film industry, and it shows. all of these countries have got their doors open. they are trying to sell their films. the ukrainian office is different. this place has got absolutely nobody inside. it's locked up. it has been like this for much

of the time. it seems this often can only open on a part-time basis. >> they have cut the part of the budget for the [ inaudible ] it costs about 17,000 euros, so they have cut it, and we have brought froms the money from directors. >> reporter: up the road russia's sales office is open for business. last week russian film bosses came by to say hi. where politics divides, it seems cinema unites. >> everybody is expecting when this political issue will stop. >> reporter: conflict and reality are two of the big themes at can this year. ukraine's hope here is that the reality of conflict will bring the crowds in.

and we want to thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. talk to al jazeera is next. and you can check us out 24 hours a day just by going to our website, aljazeera.com. >> this is an area where our government discriminates against its own citizens leading trial lawyer david boies is fighting to bring marriage equality to every state. a battle he says is akin to the black civil rights movement. >> in the '60s, you had businesses saying we don't want to serve fragr fran americans. >> boies along with ted olson took on proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.