>> but this cutting edge technology could be the answer >> the future of fracking is about the water >> protecting the planet saving lives... >> how do you convince a big oil company to use this? techknow only on al jazeera america thanks for being with us this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. let's get you caught up on the top stories this hour. >> our hearts are aching today. we feel it physically. feel it deeply police officers turn their backs to new york city mayor as thousands honour officer rafael ramos one of al-shabab's wanted men surrender in somali more than 100,000 are

displaced in the worst floods it hit malaysia in over a decade. in "a deeper look", we investigate what a higher minimum wage would mean for america's economy. we begin this hour with breaking news. reports that an air asia has gone missing. air asia qz 8501 was travelling from indonesian city of surabaya to singapore. we understand air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft around 7:25am local time it went missing over four hours ago, more than 150 people including passengers and crew are on board. it's reported that the plane lost contact near belaton island. an air asia has gone missing.

qz8501 near belatong island. we'll update you with more information as soon as we get it. >> the other top story, fellow officers paying respects to explain n.y.p.d. officer rafael ramos. after the church service his wife and children were presented with the burial flag. vice president joe biden and new york governor cuomo were among thosualo guising the officer. new york city new york city mayor did not get a warm welcome. hundreds of officers outside the church turned their backs to his address. tensions between the n.y.p.d. union and the mayor's office are running high some accusing the mayor of not supporting local law enforcement. most put the feelings aside

while bidding officer rafael ramos well. he and officer wenjian liu were gunned down whilst sitting in their police car last saturday. courtney kealy has more. >> our father who art in heaven... >> reporter: the lord's prayer followed by the national anthem began the nearly 2-hour long service. a sea of blue filled the streets. many flew in from other parts of the country, all paying tribute to officer rafael ramos. he and his partner were shot and killed sitting in their patrol car outside a housing area. they fled into a subway station and killed themselves with a bullet to the brain. officials called for peace, not protests or retribution since. a sentiment echoed through the funeral. >> the great civil rights leader martin luther king junior.

the old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. >> leaders paid tribute to ramos's family including his two sons. >> jayden found the truth when he reminded people that police officers are the people you call when you need help and they always show up. true words were never spoken. >> the penta coastal christian service at the christ tabernacle church where officer rafael ramos attended for almost a decade and a half was attended by vice president joe biden. >> to the ramos family we are all lucky to have rafael. he didn't just have a bible in his locker he lived it in his heartment heart. he was a cop for all, all the right reasons. >> reporter: the funeral held all the hallmarks tradition of over a century old, as

dignitaries and families members paid tribute to officer rafael ramos. police officers lined up shoulder to shoulder for blocks observing a minute's silence and offered a final salute. pallbearers from the n.y.p.d. ceremonial unit carried the casket as a formation of helicopters flew over the vast crowd of mourners before officer rafael ramos was laid to rest in cypress hills cemetery in brooklyn in several cities across the country rallies were held in support of the police. the demonstrations were part of the blue lives matter campaign. more than 2,000 turned out to this gathering in cleveland ohio. it was a response to nation-wide protest against police brutality. >> they don't get up every morning and say they are going to hurt someone or kill someone. we were taught to respect police

officers, do what they say, obey the law. i don't know where we went wrong, but it's out of control right now. >> demonstrations in cleveland focussed on the shooting death of 12-year-old tamir rice, who was playing with a day gun near a community center when he was shot dead by police. >> in iowa nearly 100 gathered to support police officers wanting to dispel us versus them mantra mantra to other news the n.s.a. released a report admitting to wrongdoing, it said it: the n.s.a. admitted to major lapses in the handling of confidential documents, saying: in other cases n.s.a. employees deliberately obtained personnel

data. in an instance an analyst searched her husbands's personal directory without his knowledge. she collected names and telephone numbers of people to spy on. the n.s.a. claims other instances of wrongdoing were a result of human error, and not intentional. earlier al jazeera spoke to an analyst with the electronic frontier foundation. it's a nonprofit group that defends civil liberties in the digital world. here is what she had to say about the report and what it reveals about the agency's violation of privacy rights. >> they reveal that the n.s.a. had serious abuses internally for many years that they had known about. one of the most interesting things about the report is the n.s.a. didn't hand over the information voluntarily, it was revealed as a result of freedom of information act lawsuit by the a.c.l.u. and it was only when the n.s.a. was no longer

able to bite them in the courts that they turned this information over. when they did, they did it on christmas, hoping that everyone would be on vacation and no one would notice. >> given this information was not handed over voluntarily, and in the general climate of debate around the edward snowden reservations, are we likely to see dt greater pressure for more transparency and accountability about the way the information is collected by the n.s.a. and the way it is used. >> absolutely. notice the report was heavily redacted. we are getting a small slice of abuses in the report and i think that this absolutely does not paint the full picture. having said that the small picture we do have is disturbing and it means we should push the u.s. government harder. >> a difficult question to answer. how bad is the full picture, how much we don't know? >> every time i think i'm a

great cynic, the n.s.a. steps up and proves me wrong, i would say the full picture could be considerably worse. >> the vast majority of cases involves technical areas. in few cases was there a deliberate misuse of information. does that make a difference here? >> i would not necessarily take the n.s.a.'s word for it. general michael haden, director of the n.s.a. for years has been saying all this time that there is considerable n.s.a. oversight which prevents abuse. i think that this report shows that they absolutely knew about the oversight and abuse is not as rare as he's been trying to tell the american people we learnt that u.s. and coalition forces carried out 12 air strikes in the fight against yiing. u.s. central command said six

strikes targeted the building on the town of kobane near the turkish border. coalition struck targets in many areas. syria says it's willing to participate in preliminary confrontations in moscow and restart peace talks. syrian television quoted foreign talks, they need the aspirations of syrians. members of the western-backed opposition dismissed the plan saying there's no initiative. >> tension between the u.s. and russia of late is pushing russia closer to its neighbour china. the european asian giants put years of this trust behind them. rory challands reports from russia's far east. >> reporter: the first restaurant set up in russia is getting a renovation. these days the chinese business woman commands a local empire of

seven eateries and several construction projects. >> translation: now we see russia and china have good relations. in the last six months many wanted to invest money in russia, but they are being cautious. >> they are studying the market. i have always told my colleagues there are many opportunities and it's very profitable to invest in russia now. >> this is one of the more successful members of a chinese community that is decided that it is a place where money can be made. they have not had to come far, just across the frozen river. the mighty waterway has formed a long stretch of the russia-china border since 1858. apart from a hiatus during the sober period the two nationalities have been mingling trading and competing here. as you might expect relations between the two land empires

haven't always been cordial. in 1900s, during the boxer rebellion, chinese forces shelled, and in retaliation the russians forced some 4,000 chinese residents into the river to drown. >> long held russian fears of an invasion of chinese immigrants across the borders for the moment seem for myth than reality. the two cities are part of a special zone allowing visa free travel. crossing the border for business is as easy as taking a hover craft. as well as chinese, there are russians making a life in hay-hay. >> translation: if you look at the every day stuff, renting an apartment is cheaper here. if you want more opportunities, there's more here than in russia. china is a fast-growing economy. they can give you what you want.

you just need to know what to wish for. >> russia's cosy alliance with china is the most recent phase of on old complex relationship. sometimes friends, sometimes rivals always looking for fresh opportunities, typical neighbours tonight ukraine is suspending train and bus services to crimea the move creating a transportation blockade to and from the region annexed by moscow. the suspensions are meant to prevent sabotage groups from entering. no word on how long it will last. pro-russian separatists agreed on a prisoner exchange. ukraine is handing over 225 people. the rebels as many as 150. it's considered a major step to easing tensions. >> in the military airfield near

kiev the ukranian president welcomes home the prisoners of war. they were exchanged with hundreds of pro-russian fighters. this is a propaganda coup for por rr a leader struggling to unite a divided country. >> translation: i'm pelling you that i as a president petro porashenko have a heart full of happy possess, i promise with -- happiness, and i promise together with family and military brothers that you do what we've been waiting for so long. we are thank. ful, again -- thankful again, that we have you. >> reporter: there's relief and sadness about those still held. >> we hope our friends kept as hostages lb released in the future. >> reporter: this is where the exchange took place, in a secret location in the donetsk region.

some of the prisoners are injured and have to be carried for freedom. there are international observers, armed spiritists and soldiers watched on. they know it is a fragile ceasefire. >> there are several on the list missing. there are many on the way, and we'll complete the exchange tomorrow. >> reporter: kiev says it's fighting against what it calls russia's influence. moscow denied backing and arming the separatists who control parts of ukraine. the russian president signed a doctrine an n.a.t.o. expansion among the key external risks. the latest twist in the crisis ukraine's state rail company suspended trains to crimea blaming security concerns leaving many passengers stranded and frustrated. >> translation: it is very bad, and will affect many people. people should not be affectedly

these decisions. they should not suffer because of politics. >> this prisoner exchange is a small step towards reconciliation, and for the families of the released prisoners, it offers some hope in this bitter and deadly conflict the iranian military is conducting a test of its air defense system. military drills are taking place in the gulf of ayman. the army tested a combination of air missiles and practised hitting drone tarts at low altitudes. the missiles will be used against invading countries. >> there's a flurry of remarks and accusations after sony's release of the movie "the interview." north korea blames washington for an ongoing series of outages, and says president obama is behind sony's decision

to release the movie. in is part of a statement carried by the korean newsagency, reading: the white house's national security council declined to comment on the statement. u.s. accused north korea of hacking sony computers an update - president george h.w. bush could be heading home from a houston hospital. his doctors are discussing dates for his discharge from houston methodist. he was taken there for shortness of break as we go break, we'll update you on breaking news. reports that an air asia indonesian flight is missing. it was travelling from the indonesian city of surabaya to singapore. air traffic control tell us they lost contact with it more than four hours ago. 150 are estimated on board. once again, this air asia

indonesia flight gone missing near belitung island. as soon as we get more information we'll pass it to you also ahead - the minimum wage - many want to see it raised to $15. what is could mean for employees, business owners and the economy.

tonight we take a deeper look at the minimum wage a subject of debate. the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 was set in july 2009. the minimum wage was introduced in the 1930s adjusted to $2,012, it peaked in 1968. back then it was $1.60. the equivalent today is $10.94. a full-time working making minimum wage earns over $15,000, just above the poverty line. if that person is the soul earner for a family of three, it

puts them $3600 below the poverty line. as of january 1st, '29 states plus the distribute of columbia will have a minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25. in some states it's a quarter more. like main junior, and new mexico mexico. next year connecticut, california rhode island vermont, washington will have a minimum of $9 with the district of columbia hitting $10.25. some have gone further of the seattle in san francisco lead the way and are phasing in a $15 minimum wage. we have this report on the chicago minimum wage. >> chicago's mayor was tired of waiting for lawmakers to act on the minimum wage. me is it it himself. john reid opens local 22, claiming to have the best beer and burgers in chicago. he worried a boost in the

minimum wage will be bad for business and his employees. >> costs go up. you have to do one of two things raise prices to compensate for the increase. >> reporter: after a debate the city alderman raised a wage hike. the wage will jump to $10, going up in increments topping out in the year 2019. well above the illinois state minimum wage. >> it was a struggle for me. i can relate to some of the other parents that were coming forth, that were saying what their struggles and stuff, because i, too, face those things struggles as a single mum. alderman will burns led a task force to determine how much the minimum wage should rise and how it will affect the

businesses and workers. >> it's within historical increases, and would pump $860 million into the economy. increase the happiness of the workforce, productivity turn over and be a win/win for business and labour. >> reporter: for the chamber of commerce, a wage-hike opponent it will have to bite the bullet. >> we were hoping for a state-wide solution we thought a patch-work would make it difficult to do business in chicago. >> the mayor ron emanuel pushed through the increase because there was talk of a law being passed to stop chicago acting alone. he wanted to beat them to the punch. >> you can't have a thriving small business with a workforce living on subsistence wages. >> it's chicago, when the mayor wants to push something through, it happens. >> if there's one thing that supporters and attractors agree

on chicago mayors tend to get what they want. >> major emanuel says the bottom line is cost of living in chicago is 20% higher than the rest of illinois and his now ordnance will give about 210,000 minimum workers a raise. >> to talk about the minimum wage let's bring in ian tuttle a buckley fellow and thomas an author and labour lawyer joining us from chicago. great to have you with us. let's start with you mr tuttle. let's say everyone makes $10 an hour, $15 if you are optimistic. what does it mean for the economy? >> it's a basic principal that when you put a price floor on it demand will drop. you are doing that so you expect demand for labour to drop from employers. in simply terms, the higher you

raise the minimum raise, the likely you are so see unemployment increase because employees are going to want to compensate for the increased money they are having to put out for employees, employee salaries. >> perhaps i'll phrase to this way. what would raising the minimum raise mean to a sluggish economy, is now the right time to raise it? >> absolutely it's the right time to raise it. you are looking at the microeffects, the macro-effects to having higher wages. one of the big problems for all the economies is inadequate demand and in the united states it's very important to keep the recovery going to put money in pockets. there has been studies that show there's small marginal effects on low-wage job growths when you

have an increase in the minimum wage. the overall benefit is greater. we raised a minimum wage during recessions before and we had stim u lative effect from it. >> what about small businesses working with a smaller profit margin. well those small businesses don't necessarily work with a smaller profit margin some do some don't. the great thing about the minimum wage is it treats all companies equally. the floor goes up across the board. the studies that i'm aware of of jarrod bernstein, kruger princeton, lawrence cats at harvard, the economic policy institute. there can be install incremental effects in jobs but the standard of living - most are better off as a result of this. >> what is the difference. >> there's no accident that people ask for higher wages,

because we have done this repeatedly in the past since the 1930s. and we've had a good effect on all of this. >> what is the difference between the minimum wage and a living wage. >> it is a term that's come out to make raising the minimum wage. and it is a palatable idea. to respond to what has been said there. one of the things that is extremely important is that again, employers are the ones that are going to have to pay up if you do mandate these increases. and it's true that it will raise the floor for all employers, but it raises the floor for all minimum wage employees, and one of the things left out of the discussion is the minimum wage employees are a small portion of

the economy. if you look back there's 76 million people earning hourly wages, but only 1.6 million are earning minimum wage. if you raise the minimum wage it affects all minimum wage employees, if you look at the demographics of the small portion of the economy, it's primarily people holding second jobs for young people in lower, middle and middle class families. >> it was never intended to be a primary income standard. >> right. >> so if you raise the minimum wage you are not going to be generally benefitting the types of people that proponents of raising the minimum want to benefit which are those on or below the poverty line. >> one thing about the minimum wage is that it is not only raising the wages for low level

people and in the fast food industry, the vast majority of people who are working there are adults, and they are providing income to families but beyond that employers in the service sector were there isn't a global competition base wages off the minimum wage. that is you are working at macy selling tyres, so they'll pay the minimum wage plus they look at the minimum wage. it's a common phenomenon. raising the wage is a signal to raise signals. the other benefit is if you raise the minimum wage you do cut into the profit levels of those employers that are specialising in low-wage labour. the overall macroeffect of this is to encourage investors or

people with capital to put their money into higher wage jobs rather than lower jobs because you created a certain disincentive. when you raise the minimum wage and move out of the low wage economy like the united states has been for too long you push investment into higher wage higher value-added things. that benefits the middle class. there's a great stake that the middle class and the educated college educated people have in having a higher minimum wage in encouraging investment at the expense of higher wage jobs that should be going to graduates. >> would a higher minimum wage reduce poverty. >> absolutely. look at denmark. if you want to see - i think a goal of every develop country is how do we get to denmark.

what do they pay mcdonald's workers at denmark. they paid them $20 an hour. one of the things you do when you raise the minimum wage is you create a kind of - you reduce poverty and disorder. people don't live pay check to pay check, they don't go to pay day loans or desperate acts. it's the best single way of eliminating poverty. not the only way, but the best single way. >> are you shaking your head? >> i disagree on a couple of fronts. i don't really want a denmark. if you look at the general labour markets. they are inflexible and want to become more robust economies like the united states and part of that will be freeing up economies, which is the opposite direction that they have gone over in the past 50-plus years.

as far as raising people out of poverty, there are better ways to do it. the minimum wage again is - going back to the demographic competition group, the group that makes minimum wage the majority are not necessarily below the poverty line. there's a couple of things do do one that is important, earning an income tax credit which is a wage subsidy. those that are earning low wages already, the government will match their wages up to a point. so for a single mother with two children in 2013, she's making about 14,000. the government will pay $0.40 for every dollar she makes. she'll get 5500, $6,000. >> that's a great idea taxpayers subsidizing low-wage

employment, when we ought to encourage investment in higher wage drugs. i can't thing of anything more pernicious or disuctive to the economy. in terms of eliminating poverty, go to northern europe. you will not see poor people on the scale that we have in the united states. many of those countries, paying higher wages in manufacturing have much much much more manufacturing sector. germany's manufacturing sector accounts for something like 25% of their g.d.p. and, you know - and here in the united states it's something like 9%. we have a lot to learn. especially the germans. >> hold your thoughts i'll let you finish your thought, and i want to talk about our partners overseas. >> sure, if we talk about taxpayers subsidizing low-wage employees, or incentivization, part of the reality is raising

the minimum wage takes away money from business. if you give low waning employees, there's a -- low wage employs there's a thought they'll go out and spend the money. it's not necessarily true. there's no economic data that they'll spend it in a productive or stim u lative way than a business would, and they would likely invest in that. one more point that ought to be brought up here is taking mcdonald's as something of the prototypical example of a minimum wage job. >> if you are in the bottom 20% of wage earners in the united states by the end of your earning career you're more likely to have ended up in the top 20% than to have stayed in the bottom 20. so for those people who are earning at mcdonald's minimum wage right now, it's unlikely that it will be there for longer

than a year. it will be a sustaining stone to a higher earning job. >> stand by for a second. grievances as we mentioned over unfair wages not limited to the u.s. lawrence lee spoke to people in britain, outside of london struggling to make ends meet. >> reporter: first thing in the morning and these workers are trying to get people interested in their struggle. their factory is changing their working conditions and they don't like it. in a country which is supposed to have made an astounding recovery, that feels strange. >> most of us survive from week to week. >> do you think that situation will get better. >> no i can't see it. >> janet worries not only for herself. poverty is becoming generational. he lives a working life at the be left to a sympathetic

supervisor to help mim. not live a -- to help him live. not live a life of luxury. he doesn't have a car, he is has a bicycle. there's no prospects. >> bristol is a wealthy city 50% of children live in poverty. jobs with no guarantee of works, public sector cuts helped to feed corporate share healeders, but there's -- shareholders but there's less and less help trickling down. profits reach record levels despite low rates of investments. we see the investments falling. despite falling productivity. the only real explains we have is you pay people less and it's easier to get profits out the other side. >> reporter: this is how it pays out. volunteers packing food for those that don't have any. the government says the economic plan worked but for whom.

why are these people feeding the poorest. >> the evidence is huge. the general public is getting that. there are reforms driving poor people into destitution. >> over the course of time, it's clear that the poverty, the deeply insecure low-trade contracts that characterise works lives are here to stay. the question that many ask themselves is this. is britain a rich country. and is this so unfair where are the politicians with the will to do something about it all. >> many see the u.k. as having split into two i don't think. london with the permanent boom, and people struggling on the edges. it looks permanent, and increasingly it's all about the kindness of strangers. lawrence lee. what is global stagnation

mean. it certainly helps hold down demand here. the lack of aggregate demonstrate worldwide is causing problems in the united states as well. and the united states has to carry the load. one of the things differences between the united states and the u.k. is that when we pay low wages, we give them credit. people supplement the low wages, they run up the credit cards, they end up paying more interest to banks, it's a transfer of wealth from wage to financial sector. and eventually we have a collapse like in the boom. we all benefit by stimulating demand worldwide. martin woof has been writing about this. the big problem that the

developed world faces right now is just inadequate demand from the lack of wage growth. >> what role should the government play in providing safety nets in the final moments? >> the government has a role to play and a significant one. i think what we need to be careful about though is confusing a safety net with a disincentive and to think about the question of the way in which the government is subbedizing. one of the advantages for earning tax credit is it incentivizes work. whereas you can spend the exact same money on more - larger welfare programs which don't do that. so... >> it insent vices low wage employment which leads to huge profits that don't go back to workers. it's a terrible idea. i'm disinclined to stigmatize

profit earners in part because there's a lot of talk about it and it's more of a talking point than a reality. we look at a company like wal-mart. they make a modest 3% profit margin. if you look at microsoft on the other hand which is not suffering protests outside its corporate headquarters they are making a significant profit margin. meanwhile, wal-mart, with its even for minimum wage employees, pays, stock dividends into pensions the question of profits and its role in the minimum wage is complicated and we need to be aware of that. it's not a good versus evil story. >> we'll have to leave it there.

the debate continues. ian tuttle with the buckley review, and thomas gayingan. great to have you with us on a deeper look. >> thank you. at this hour we follow breaking news reports that an air asia flight is missing, travelling from the indonesian city of surabaya to singapore. air traffic control lost contact more than four hours ago, near belitung island. we understand 150 passengers and crew were on board. air asia released the following statement:

we understand it's an a 320200. 125 passengers and crew on board. indonesian media reported 149er three from korea, one from singapore in malaysia. i want to get to jery an aviation analyst. here we have a missing plane, where do we begin with the investigation. >> they've been searching for the aircraft the the weather was going to be a change. and then from there, we go and

look at what we can determine from what we find. their impact and that's how the investigation starts. >> so from what you understand what are the difficult weather conditions. >> i'm hearing from colleagues in air traffic control. the aircraft went missing, they had gone through turbulence. how bad, we don't know. that's what we heard. >> who would be in the investigation? >> at the moment it's under search and rescue. it will be the agency. at the moment it's done by the air force at the initial stages. the national investigator will

start the investigation. >> we are looking at a similar photo aft airbus 320-200, not the one we are talking about. what can you tell us about the aircraft. >> the aircraft is popular. over 6,000 sold over the world. safety wise it's a good aircraft. and that's been few accidents. this plane - it was one of the first ac-20s that joined indonesian air asia fleet. and that may be a factor. the last information we have is that it's serviceable. >> are you familiar with the region on bella tonne island.

the aircraft was reported some instance from the island. it was going towards the finty of the filed today's - i saw the pictures of the weather. it's not a pretty picture at the moment. >> if you can tell us how often as a pilot is a pilot in contact with air traffic control. >> it depends. near the airport they'll be in contact once every two minutes, one every five minutes or half an hour. it depends. along the route it will be every 50 minutes. >> when it's flying across the route or the ocean. are you able to contact air traffic control tower? >> yes. that is over the waters, if not

out on the ocean. the route is pretty well covered by facilities. so far, there has been few occasions of aircraft losing contact. >> appreciate it. >> normally it's failure, not because of other issues. >> thank you for the clarification on that. what do the next several hours hold? >> well now we know that the airplane must have gone down somewhere. there's only two hours 2.5, it will be carrying 3-4 hours of fuel. it's been flying for an hour. we know it's gone down somewhere. the question is where. now, the first 24 hours is key in making sure that those that survive will survive. the first 24 hours is the golden window that's why there's an emergency to find it. >> the question at this hour is

where, where is the aircraft. aviation analyst. appreciate your insight. >> once again, air asia indonesia flight dash this is qz8501 reported missing four hours ago. air asia missing. a statement posted on air asia facebook stage saying "at this time search and rescue operations are in progress. it's an air bus 32200 with 155 passengers. it was heading - this is a statement: at the present time we have no further information regarding the status of passengers and crew members. we will keep all parties informed as information becomes available:.

the airline has set up a hot line for friends and family to contact. we are continuing to follow the information. the story, air asia indonesia flight missing. stay with us more after

s

. >> welcome back to al jazeera america. we continue to follow breaking news at this hour. reports that an air asia indonesian flight is missing. you are looking at the airbus 32200. this is not the aircraft it is a similar aircraft for air-asia we understand that it was travelling from surabaya to singapore. we understand it was a distance from belitung island. 155 passengers and crew are estimated to be on board. we are going to read a statement from the airline in a moment.

earlier we spoke to a journalist based in indonesia with more on the missing air asia plane. >> so far the plane crossed at 5:35am. from java to singapore. particularly given the holiday season now. what we know also is that air traffic controller lost contact. we choose. it was unknown for more than three hours. it should have lobbed in singapore at 8:30 local time. the plane had asked before it lost contact. and reports showed that it was poor. that's what we have so far. >> 155 passengers and crew were on board. we are trying to get more information. we understand that the air released a statement. i want to get to that. this is a statement released on

the facebook page saying: search and rescue was progressing, it's believed to have lost contact. air traffic control - they are believed to have lost contact with the plane, that has not been confirmed. flight qz85 headed from surabaya to singapore reported missing more than three hours ago. we talked to an aviation expert

that told us what is in store for the next several hours from now, and that's basically a search operation to find missing aircraft. >> all right. shortly ago malaysia transport minister took to twitter to discuss the situation saying: lion lion this is an airbus 320. we are trying to get more information. we understand this took place more than four hours ago. we talked to an aviation expert across a long distance like this, sometimes you are able to contact air traffic control and sometimes it's difficult to get in contact as you go from air traffic control tower to air

traffic control tower. once again, this was reported at 7:24 hours, more than four hours ago. 150 people on board. we are continuing to follow this situation. air asia missing plane flight qz8501. as soon as we get more information, we'll pass it on. >> let's take a look at other news for a moment. in south-east asia heavy rains killing more than 30. more than 180,000 have been forced from their homes. we have this report. >> reporter: people have not seen flooding like this in decades. people had to leave in a hurry. the government sent search and rescue teams to badly affected areas, and set up relief centres for the victims, for some it's too little too late. they criticized the government for being too slow to respond and failing to declare a state

of mergeemergency. >> we come here after a few days. we are here without food. malaysian prime minister has cut short the holiday to the u.s. to deal with the emergency. he'd been in hawaii visiting president obama. it's monsoon season in the part of asia. this year's rains have been particularly heavy. many places have been affected by the worst flooding in 40 years. people in southern thailand have been told to brace for more flash floodings right up to the new year. for many the biggest worry is how to avoid the spread of disease. doctors say children and the

elderly are at risk. health problems appear after 4-6 weeks. water levels have not peaked say authorities. with more rain predicted overcoming days it will be a wet end to 2014 we want to get back to the breaking news that we are following, reports that an air indonesian flight is missing. it was travelling from surabaya to singapore. we'll show you the map there. air traffic control lost contact with the aircraft more than four hours ago near belitung island. we are not clear how close the aircraft was. 155 passengers and crew are estimated to be on board. air asia did release a statement following here on statement:

they went on to say this is a rescue operation that is currently in progress. you are looking at the air bus 320. more confirmations throughout the night here on al jazeera america