with films like life on the border, this year's film festival is providing a reminder the conditions many of those refugees have left behind. al jazeera, berlin. that news from berlin ends this bulletin. led me remind you of our website, aljazeera.com. the final stretch, donald trump and ted cruz facing barbs as voters in south carolina head at the polls. a colorado hospital gave hackers big money trying to get its computers back on line. containing the zika virus outbreak, rio and olympic organizers saying it is safe to go to the games, but the world health organization saying the

danger is very real. this is aljazeera america live in new york city. i'm del walters. we are now two days from the next contest in the presidential race, the republican primary in south carolina and the democratic caucus ins nevada. the candidates aren't backing down as they try to win over those last minute votes. the latest poll showing ted cruz inched ahead of donald trump. that is the first time that has happened. a cbs news poll giving trump a commanding lead double that of cruz. last night, both men were two of the candidates facing of in a series of town hall meetings. john men smith has more. >> the republican candidates, each had the stage to himself during town halls on cnn and msnbc but they still took shots and defended against attacks from each other as if they were in debate.

>> on pro life, he said he is pro life. he can't say that. >> little the most ridiculous theory that telling the voters what donald trump's actual record isis deceitful and lying. >> and cruz versus rubio. >> both donald trump and marco rubio are following this pattern, whenever anybody points to their actual record, what they said to what they've voted on and done, they start screaming liar liar liar. >> i don't know. this back and forth is silly. >> with a spotlight on only one candidate at a time came more pointed questions. >> are you qualified to be commander-in-chief and to deem with these national security threats? >> i obviously think so or i wouldn't be running for president. you know, it's the political class that has tried to convince everybody that they're the only ones who can solve our problems. >> i think my biggest strength --

>> jeb bush would disagree. lindsey graham would disagree. >> jeb is a sad case. it's sad. >> see, there you go again! >> no one running for president on the republican side has more experience on national security or foreign policy than i do. >> on the issue of appointing a replacement for late supreme court justice antonin scalia, dr. carson broke with his republican competitors. >> i would probably take the opportunity to nominate someone. >> the other candidates said it should be up to whoever wins in november to name the next justice. donald trump brushed off that new nbc wall street journal poll that puts him behind ted cruz nationwide. >> i think somebody at wall street journal doesn't like me but i never do well with the wall street journal. those town hall meetings come hours after south carolina governor nikki haley announced she is supporting marco rubio in the state's primary, seen as a a major boost for rubio's campaign after a disappointing showing in

new hampshire last week. she describes rubio as humble and bringing back a conscious to the gop. >> i wanted somebody that had convictions to do the right thing, but i wanted somebody humble enough that remembers that you work for all the people, and i wanted somebody that was going to go and show my parents that the best decision they ever made for their children was coming to america. >> she is seen as a rising star in the party and joins our leading south carolina republicans who endorsed rubio, including tim scott and craig dowdy. the republicans are in nevada today ahead of that state caucus, trying to win over african-american voters there. hillary clinton was in chick on wednesday, talking about race and police shootings. we have more. >> at a rally to get out the vote in the city's historic bronzeville neighborhood, hillary clinton found support

from a grieving mother. >> from now until november, let's fiercely support this lady. i present to you secretary hillary rodham clinton, our next president. >> her daughter, sandra bland, was arrested in waller county texas in july after an altercation with a police officer during a traffic stop. she was later found hanged in her jail cell. >> we owe it to them to reform police practices, to make sure that no other young woman like sandra bland is ever pulled out of a car for no good reason and thrown into a jail where she is found dead. >> while clinton is polling strongly among black voters in chicago, some are still on the fence. >> my mind has not been made up, but i feel as though her heart is in it. >> after a narrow victory in iowa and double digit loss to bernie sanders in new hampshire, clinton looks to shore up support among black voters ahead of the primary in south carolina, where they make up more than 50% of democratic voters.

>> to outline what i intend to do to break down the barriers, it's important that we look at everything that holds people back and yesterday my core emphasis and commitment was to knocking down the barriers and holding back african-americans. >> clinton and sanders have been criticized by the black lives matter movement. still, clinton has rebounded with support from others, like the civil rights legend representative john lewis. >> clinton aligned herself with president obama who has a 90% approval rating with african-americans. >> she rebuked sanders for not standing strongly with the president. >> today, senator sanders said that president obama failed the presidential leadership test. this is not the first time that he has criticized president obama. in the past, he's called him weak, called him a disappointment. >> one of us ran against barack

obama. i was not that candidate. >> it's a strategy some political watchers say could help her win the support of black voters here in the primary a month from now. >> it's not lost on chicago voters specifically african americans that he chose her to be his first secretary of state, so that association is very strong, a very wise strategy for her to cue closely to the president's agenda and policies, and this is a winning strategy. >> for now, clinton maintains a huge edge going into the next primary. among likely african-american primary voters, clinton polls at 63% to sanders 23% in south carolina. maintaining high support of african-american voters is important for the democratic candidate date to be well beyond the primaries. al jazeera, chicago. cooper-owens is a professor of african-american history at queens college.

it was started on social media in 2012 by three clear identified black young women and they then moved from kind of arm chair activism to galvanizing of movement of younger folk, so i think once you had the interruption that happened with a few of the members at his campaign rally, he had to take very seriously that there was intersectionality, which was a huge term they use within the movement, that race and class are intersectional, that they are linked. >> in the 1960's, the battle cry was don't trust anybody over 30. now it seems it is don't trust the establishment, regardless of who the establishment might be. in this case, it would seem to be hillary clinton. >> right. >> and even though bernie sanders is an older person, he seems to be the one that is anti

is that a safe way of putting it? >> i think that's the perception, right? he's still a career politician, in many ways, so he is inside the establishment. i think his democratic socialist orientation makes him seem at least for a lot of these younger voters a little more authentic. >> eric garner's daughter has been campaigning for sanders in south carolina. he is the person who said i can't breathe before he died at the hands of police. president obama says he's not going to attend the funeral of supreme court justice antonin scalia. some conservatives not happy about that. the president will pay his respects at the supreme court friday when his body will be lying in repose. have been will attended the funeral. sandra day o'connor weighing in on who she believes will be scalia's appointment.

e justice dean heller of nevada saying the president should nominate someone to fill scalia's seat. his office later back tracked. texas senator john cordon, second in command to mitch mcconnell colin saying he is open to hearings. president obama is going to be the first u.s. president visiting cuba in almost 90 years, tweeting that announcement just moments ago. the white house says he and the first lady are going to spend

march 21 and 22 in havana. days ago, the u.s. and cuba agreed to restore passenger flights between the two countries. that is one of the latest steps as they continue to normalize relations. >> turkey's president vowing to retaliate after a deadly car bombing attack went off during the morning russia in ankara wednesday. 28 were killed. a convoy of military personal necessarily near the parliament was the target. turkish leaders say it was kurdish rebels from syria that are to blame. >> the p.y.g. and y.p.g. have links to the p.k.k. in turkey we have touched upon. we have said repeatedly there is a strong link between them. this attack will help our allies understand. we've been saying this that sooner or our allies will understand and those that support them will be judged. >> president erdogan has launched airstrikes against kurdish positions in iraq. the strikes have killed 70 fighters. we have a report from ankara.

>> strong words from the turkish government, both the president erdogan and prime minister pointed the finger at the y.p.g., a syrian based kurdish armed group which the west, the u.s. and allies claim is fighting isil. turkey believe it is an off shoot of the p.k.k., the kurdish separatist group at war for decades now and it considers them a terrorist organization. this angers turkey, because it says the u.s. and allies because turkey is a nato member should not be dealing with the y.p.g. and consider it as a terrorist organization. the turkish authorities identified a 24-year-old syrian occurred as the perpetrator behind wednesday's attack, saying it has detained 14 our culprits it claims were responsible for this. in the past 12 hours, turkish air force planes have bombed

kurdish sites in northern iraq as well as shelling sites inside syria. turkey said this latest attack should serve as a wake up calm should serve as a wake up call to the international community that a buffer zone needs to be created inside syria, that it needs ground troops under the umbrella of an international coalition, that it's not enough to fight isil, some action has to be taken against the kurdish groups which the governments using the kurdish groups as a proxy in its fight against ankara. this can't happen as long as russia continues to control the skies. the russian air force has been bombing parts of syria for several weeks, if not months now. unless nato backs up turkey and goes into confrontation with russia or some sort of international agreement can be forged whereby some sort of buffer zone can be formed, these attacks could well continue for weeks and months to come. >> the u.s. and nato condemned

the attack in ankara. european leaders who are against an open door plan for migrants are now concerned an attack like that could happen in their country, as well. many of them meeting in brussels today talking about immigration. german chancellor angela merkel leading the charge for a plan that release on all of the e.u. countries sharing the load. there is growing resistance to the policy. >> it is the eastern block nations trying to push against angela merkel. she was supposed to hold a meeting with some of them earlier today, but what happened in ankara has prevented that going ahead. we've heard in the last half hour or so about hungary saying it wants to build a fence along its border to keep migrants out.

it already has several border fences, and it is interesting to think at this moment here in europe, we are talking about integration, but also talking about building fences. support for german chancellor angela merkel's policies is waning among earlier supporters. a house committee passing a measure on wednesday in arizona. the state receiving more than $13 million in federal grants to help with the transition of refugees. stopping the virus, rio olympic organizers talk to us about protecting thousands of athletes from zika. a hospital hacked, the medical center that was held for ransom and why officials there paid to regain control of their computer system.

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look. the scc is voting on new regulations that could cut your cable bill, allowing customers to buy cable boxes from google and amazon. the fcc hopes the move will help them low either prices. president obama creating a new commission to handle cyber security. a former i.b.m. executive to the team, the task is to issue guidelines on how the nation should protect itself.

a hospital in california defending how it ended a hacking attack on its serve everies, paying thousands to end a cyber attack. >> hollywood presbyterian medical center paid up after hackers held them up for ransom. the cyber thieves took control of the california hospital computers demanding a payment of $17,000 in digital currency called bit coins. >> once they infect your system, it's contagious and they in infect file after file after file. it's a key to undo it, like a virus and an antidote. the key is the antidote. >> the hospital says the quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key. the hacked computers had been off line for a week, including those needed for the emergency

room. all the signs said do not use the computers. i'm like what's going on with the computers? they said we got hacked. >> inn email to al jazeera, the f.b.i. confirmed it is investigating a cyber compromise at the hospital in order to determine the person or group responsible, but due to the ongoing investigation, we're not at liberty to provide specific details. a similar attack happened to a south florida plastic surgeon two years ago. >> all we knew was that there were these internet blackmailers saying we have to pay them in bit coin immediately or we would lose all our files forever. >> the doctor said it took about a week, but after paying the ransom in bit coin, he received the codes and regained control of his files. i.t. experts warn we are likely to see more affection like this. >> it's a form of the easiest armed robbery that you can have. we are not fast enough in curbing this down. this will happen and unfortunately more and more. >> according to a global network

security report, there was a 25% increase in ransom for attacks last year. >> the world health organization on wednesday asked the international community for $56 million to combat zika. the funds would be used to fast track vaccines, diagnose and research on how the mosquito borne virus is spread. >> the government is working very hard and pulling out all the stops, working with the international olympic committee and brazil is also working with them to look at what are the appropriate measures we could put in place to ensure visitors and athletes have a safe and enjoyable olympic games in rio de janeiro. mario is the communications director or rio 2016.

he told stephanie sy exactly what the committee is doing to ease concerns. jewel we are checking the soccer venues like we check all the venues. anyway, we are not leaving anything to chance and we are checking all the venues the same way on a daily basis, because checking the venues and areas for stagnant water is still the fastest way to curb the evolution of the mosquito, the reproduction of the mosquito, so it's the safest way to protect the athletes. >> some health experts worry that the olympic games could actually spread zika globally as

visitors to rio return home. some say the games should be postponed or canceled. have you thought about what you would do if that happens? >> we have to focus on what we can do. zika crisis in a global crisis, it affects everyone on the planet and we are working under the guidance of the world health organization. i think it's too soon for to us to think and speculate what could be done with the games. we need to work to protect athletes, to protect our guests and to guarantee the games will be safe. that's what we are doing. i can see brazil dispatched soldiers and health care workers to educates residents about stopping the mosquitoes approximate transmit the virus. they are armed with insecticides to spray areas where mosquitoes lay eggs. the popes emotional message about immigration that he delivered along the texas-mexico border.

pope francis is back in rome after his historic trip to mexico, taking part in a brief farewell ceremony before boarding his plane last night. it came hours after going to the u.s. mexico border in juarez. heidi zhou castro has more. >> the vatican down played the potential controversy of the pope's visit to the border by saying he cares for the welfare of migrants and refugees from

around the world, not just here at the u.s.-mexican border. the pope's message was one of compassion, allowing your fellow man to seek a life of dignity and of peace. >> a historic image with his feet planted in mexico, pope francis issued his blessing across the border, over the u.s. border fence and into the immigrant community on the american side of the rio grande. the plight of the migrant was a centerpiece of the pope's mass. >> in this place, i want to implore divine mercy. i want to give the gift of tears, the gift of conversion. >> juarez is at the center of the human trafficking trade, a midway point for hundreds of thousand was central american migrants on their way to the united states. the pope acknowledged the suffering endured on those journeys, the hundreds of miles traveled over deserts and mountains. >> a path burdened by terrible injustice, enslaved, kidnapped,

extorted. >> it was a huge message, because a lot of times, a lot of us come and we just want to cross over. it brings us a good life. we make money but do it at the risk of our own safety. >> francis asked for compassion and compared the plight of african-american migrants to that of refugees around the world, calling the situation not only a humanitarian crisis, but a humanitarian tragedy. >> we don't want statistics. we want to measure by names, by stories. >> meanwhile, on the american side, the pope's message was filtered through a simulcast at the sun bowl stadium. road blocks prevented people from broaching the border fence to see the pope with their own eyes. >> that's absurd. we can't even go to the street, the walls or nothing to see the pope. >> too near and too far. >> the reality of a divided border that even the pope could not erase. >> here in juarez, a crowd of

about 200,000 people did gather to hear the pope's message in person. his message bringing many in the audience to tears. pope francis is not only the first latin america pope, but the first pope to visit this border region. during his visit, the pope also focusing on mexico's drug cartels, urging the young people to resist the temptation to work with them. the actors behind the 1970's good times getting back together they hope with help from the public. the surviving stars launching a kickstarter campaign. they want to shoot a new who moe that will catch up with the family in the future. it aired 1970-our 1979 and lives on in syndication. they've raised $5,000 so far. their goal, $1 million. thank you for joining us, the news continues live, next.

stay with us. >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello, i'm jane dunton, you are watching al jazeera's news hour. turkey blames kurdish groups for a bomb attack in ankara, and says bashar al-assad is behind it. 16 more isil members are sentenced to death. claims of voting irregularities in uganda, as the president seeks to extend his 30-year rule