Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20140310

Prisons. We begin this sunday night in ukraine where divisions over crimea has led to street violence. And there has been little progress on the diplomatic front. Ukraines Prime Minister will travel to the white house on wednesday. They will discuss the standoff in crimea days before a referendum there. Today, rallies took across across the country. Scuffles broke out where demonstrators raised a russian flag over a government building. In the crimean city of sevastopol, people pushed to join russia. In some places protesters supporting ukraine were physically attacked. Tennessee of thousands gather in kiev rallying for a unified kiev. Russian forces are keeping up the pressure on ukraines military. Jennifer glasse has more on the tension thats keeping both sides on edge reporter its a crainiukraip with nothing to do. The armed boards are a sign all is not well here Ukrainian Navy cant go anywhere. Its blockaded by the russians. This is where the sea blockade gets up close and personal. That is a ukrainian gun ship, and that is a russian minesweeper brought in just a few days ago because the previous russian crew got too friendly with ukrainians. The commander of the black sea fleet came on board and demanded the issors sever their relationship with ukraine and be part of prorussian crimean forces. The sailors refused. The deputy captain said there has been other pressure from moscow. Representatives of the putin offered us food and supplies. We refused. We thanked them for their offer of cooperation, but we dont need their help. Wives and girlfriends come to the ship to talk to the sailors. She is worried maxim, her boyfriend of three years could end up in odessa, nearly 200 miles by sea where some of the fleet has gone. I think the government of ukraine already cant do anything here it will all be in the hands of crimean authorities and crimea will be with russia and ukraine cant do anything about it. In the crimean capital, a prorussian demonstration attracted thousands. A week before the referendum on whether crimea crimea should join russia or stay in ukraine. They believe next week crimea will be russian. Some have already been to moscow. If you could only know and feel what it was like in moscow. If you could feel how happy the russian government was, i thought it was not us joining russia but russia joining crimea. Russia continues to consolidate military gains. Last week, it captured this base in malaclova bay. They took what ships and vehicles they could and fled by sea. On sunday morning, Russian Forces took another base like it in western ukraine. Life in this resort town is largely uninterested by the milwaukee and military maneuvering. He says he will state no matter how the vote goes next week. Tranchees translator i love it here, the sea, the nature. I want to live here. If the majority decides to be with russia, then we will be with russia but we will be ukrainians. Back here, the blockade makes chores like taking out the trash arduous no one knows what will happen to the ukrainian black sea fleet and its sailors. Gener jennifer glasse, sevastopol ukraine al jazeera. It is scheduled to take place a week from today but the question is is it even constitutional. Phil itner is in kiev with a closer look at that reporter the prorussian marchers support the coming refer endsum on rejoining russia saying it is their legal right to Self Determination. The prowestern movement in kiev also says it acted legally in overthrowing the Ukrainian Government and taking power. All sides in the crisis are trying to justify their actions by sighting law books and the ukrainian constitution. Moscow says the mydon movement is i will legitimate because it acted outside the law. I said this before but i want to repeat it the only legal president is the yanukovych. There are only a few reasons why a president would be changed his death, i am paetschment or resignation reporter one of the problems with the ukrainian constitution is that it has been changed repeatedly since the fall of the soviet union. Most recently under now ousted victor yanukovych. When the courts reinstated an earlier version making his office much more powerful. That was one of the source of anger that led to the protests in kiev. In the latest constitutional argument over crimea, the new government in kiev and many in the west including president obama say crimeas decision to hold a refer endsum on joining russia is unconstitutional. Professor vladimir vasalinko is a constitutional lawyer who says the parliament in siecimerpol wd be unacceptable anywhere in the world. Can you imagine that why reaching this point, the population will demand cessation from the United States. Russias intervention has sparked an International Crisis that has drawn in more than just regional players and as all sides talk about what is legal and what is not, all the ts while, Russian Troops consolidate their hold on crimea. Certainly, there will have to be a Legal Framework for government here, but right now, this country is in real upheaval with pressing threats both internal and he can term. The words written down in this constitution may be little more than a tool to justify either sides claim on legitimacy, phil it ner,aj, kiev. Vice President Joe Biden is cutting short his trip to attend thepeti pete meeting with presi obama and the craukrainian prim minister. The Obama Administration is signalling strong support for the new Prime Minister of ukraine here in washington. The president is continue can to work with european allies imposing economic sanctions or at least setting the work for imposing those sanctions and, also, isolating russiap politically. President obama has expended a piece a ban and the Deputy National security advisor says the steps are already having an impact on russia. First of all, if there is an annexation that moves crimea from ukraine to russia, we wont recognize it, nor will most of the world. Second, the pressure that we have already exerted in cooperation with our partners and al lurks will go up. The pet made it clear in announcing our sanctions as did the europeans the other day that this was a first step and we put in place a very flexible and very tough mechanism to increase the pressure, to increase sanctions dependingly upon events, depending upon what happens going forward. And so if russia makes the wrong choice going forward, we have the ability to exert significant pressure on russia as do our partners. Again, the hope is russia wont make that choice. Theres a way to resolve this in a way that takes into account russias concerns, but, also, critically restores ukraines so far r so far rent tee. Russia appears to be achieving its objectives militarily on the ground in crimea. In fact, today, the former u. S. Defense secretary robert bates who served president s obama and george w. Bush says he does not think russia will relinquish patrol of crimea. He thinks putin has objectives far beyond the crimean peninsula. I think its part of a Long Term Strategy on poonts part on recreate a russian sphere of influence where russia has economic, political and security relationships with these countries that make them all lean toward or do the bidding of moscow. With the Russian Military in control of crimea and proresidents supporting the upcoming refer end um, the next step is to vote next weekend. Former vansian Prime Minister says the world should do more to help ukraine. On tonights talk to al jazeera she talks to john hendron and said the west should block a refer endsum in cripple. They must not lose time and leave ukraine on its own. Every ukrainian beliefs today that the world will not leave ukraine on its on to face the agress who are violating treaties applicable to this situation. The critical date is the refer end ums date on joining russia. If the International Community allows this referendum to be held, their struggle would be much more difficult. I call to all International Leaders not to allow this refer endsum to be conducted and not to allow this brutal destabilization of the world. Stay tuned to talk to al jazeera after this newscast to see the full interview with yulia k. Mioshinko all eyes on russian president Vladimir Putin and what his next step might be in this crisis. A better look to understand his motivations. Tran Vladimir Putin has ruled russia directly or indirectly for a dozen years and could conceivably rule for a do you recognize more. He was born after the 900 day long nazi sieges ended. The soviet unions baby boom generation not unlike that of the United States was very much shaped by the stories that they heard from their parents, the Popular Culture at the time which was all war movies, gloriglor glorification and leningrad was it. He was too rowdy to join the youth organization. Some described him as a thug in his youth. He spent the early years working for the kgb stationed in east germany, a trusted position in the former soviet spy agency. After winning the presidency in 2000, he crushed the sep rat Test Movement in chech checnyac . He views himself as being a man of law and order in his experience. He is the ultimate cop in a sense, the creator of the power vertical, the dictatorship of laws and highly effective. He has portrayed himself as a tough, unflinching sportsman. In 2004, he ordered Russian Troops to rescue 11 on 0 hostages held by armed chechenca rebels 700 were saved. The incidents and its political aftermath led to reforms that helped poont consolidate power. Some wonder if he has over played his confident hand. The Biggest Country in europe, 45 Million People in ukraine, extremely important poten potential to the future. Poont has gambled and lost it. Many says it has forced western leaders to rethink what they thought they knew about poont and if his hotty about the u. S. And its allies rungs much deet everyone previously thought. He described u. S. Officials as mad scientists doing experiments. Its a huge country and a vitally important player. How do you move forward on syria, iran, north korea where you have to work with the russians. With the referendum coming up, it remains unclear what putins next move willing. The week ahead, we will further examine the growing crisis in ukraine. Respecting world order is our topic. Its coming up in a few minutes at 11 30 eastern, 8 30 pacific. More half a dozen countries are searching for the missing malaysian airliner that disappeared more than two days ago now. Authorities in vietnam had earlier seen an octoberject that could belong to that passenger plain. There has been no confirmed sitings of the wreckage yet. Entinterpol is trying to figuret the true identities of who 2 pass engers who boarded with stolen passports. Al jazeera Florence Louie has the latest from ken lamke. There is no confirmation of what the mysterious object floating in the South China Sea is. There is speculation that it may be part of the missing aircraft. But the Vietnamese Navy plane that supported it had to turn back because it was too dark to investigate. Once its light, the Search Mission by air is expected to resume. And hopefully, we will have that information in a couple of hours reporter a day after two large oil slicks were spotted in the South China Sea comes another Development Reports say vietnamese aircraft have spotted what may be parts of the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in waters off southern vietnam. The navy planes have now returned to base and will only resume the search on monday. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the flight has deepened. Malaysian authorities believe the plane may have deviated from its course and turned back. It never issued a distress signal. Questions are also being asked as to how two passengers traveling on stolen passports could have boarded the flight. Behind me is where passengers leaving kuala lumpur enter immigration. No officials checked the organizations database for the stolen austrian and italian passports since those thefts were reported. This means interpol cant tell whether those travel documents were ever used before to board other flights or cross borders. Interpol said its now checking all other passports used to board the missing plane against its record of stolen or lost travel documents. Malaysian investigators say they are looking at footage in particular of the two men travel with stolen passports. We are not ruling any possibility o possibility. However, important to sait our main ken is to focus our effort in finding the missing aircraft reporter relatives of passengers on board that missing plane have been anxiously waiting for news. But until the aircraft has been found, there will be no answers. Only questions and anning a onizing wait. Interpol said its investigation has revealed that there are other rather suspicious documents that were used to board flight mh370 and that they are investigating that at the moment. In a rather sharply worded statement, its secretary general said he had hoped that a situation like this would never happen and he didnt understand why it had to take a tragedy before countries would take more prudent security measures. Now, of course, there are no links or conclusive proof yet that the people who traveled on the stolen documents could be behind the flight. Security experts pointed out its not just people who want to carry out terrorist attacks but smugglers and Illegal Immigrants do it. Until that plane is found or the Real Identities are covered, we will not be any closer to finding the answer. Florence louie. Lets bring in todd concerns. A lot of people are concerned about this for obvious r. N. S. One question is why it is taking so long to find this modern jumbo jet. Well, its taking a long time because of the circumstances of this event. Presumably, the aircraft might be at the bottom of the ocean but whats not known, its precise location, either its last location in the air or for that matter, its location on the bottom of the ocean. Why dont we . Todd, why dont we know the exact location of that plane especially with gps and all of the modern technology we have, it seems that these planes would be tracked 24 7. Yes . Well, certainly. Every modern airliner has this kind of navigation capability. It knows exactly its position at any given time. What isnt standard in the industry is a method by which this information, this Location Information is continuously broadcast, either back to the manufacturer or back to the airline or to the air Traffic Control authorities. The system thats in place is largely the same one thats been in place for several decades. And one of the weaknesses of that system is if you are over a large body of water, you are out of radar range because air Traffic Control rad arizona are all landbased. If you are beyond line of sight, you are simply in a zone that cant be seen by radar. You disappear as what we saw here i know you worked on this particular train, the 777 made by boeing during your time with that company. What can you tell us about that plane and about some of the emer emerge mergency beak options it comes with . This aircraft has two basic kind of beacons to be in place, the elt, the emergency locator trans ponder that has a radio signal that goes out. Typically if an airplane has a crash on land, its automatically triggered. This is a radio signal that can be picked up from hundreds of miles away, can en be picked up by specialized satellites in space and typically, when this beacon is activated, its a very short turnaround between the act investigatevation and search parties looking for this beacon and finding it. Okay. If this aircraft is in the ocean, that beacon doesnt work. There is, however, a sonar. Finger thats on the black boxes which will activate when those boxes are inundated with water but unlike go ahead. I was going to ask you about that because i find that fascinating that they have the beacons that would work on land. Why would the beacon not work in water . A couple of reasons. The biggest being the radio signal cant penetrate the water if its under water any considerable distance which is why you have the sonar. Finger on the black boxes but one has to have the proper detection equipment. It has be relatively close to that finger to get a good fix on the location. Ho so how optimistic are you they are going to find this plane within the next day, next couple of hours . How long do you think this search is going to take . I am very unoptimistic that it will be found in the next day or so simply because the search area is, in fact, increasing, they are not only searching the South China Sea but it has been extended to the west coast of malaysia closer tost departurary. Keep in minds this aircraft had enough fuel on board at the time it lost contact with radar. It could have flown several Thousands Miles it could be in china, india, large parts of australia, the philippiness, indonesia. Theoretically, the search area could be much wider, much greater than the area of the United States of america. It could take some time to find something in an area that big. Sobering news for so many people desperately wait tool find out what happened to the plane. Todd curtis, our transportation contributor thank you for your time tonight . Thanks for having me. By the way, we are awaiting a News Conference scheduled to begin just before midnight with the latest on the disappearance. Al Jazeera America plans to bring that to live. Stay with us tonight. Still ahead on al Jazeera America, mexican Officials Say a high profile drug lord has been killed. A compelling video is calling attention to how the syrian war is affecting children and campaign has gone viral. Details next. See what life is like on the waters of bangladesh. Its absolutely filthy. He learns how difficult working ther can be. How do you say. Get out the way . Shoro can this brittish man find Common Ground with his local host . Must really take it out of mr. Loteef. Toughest place to be a ferryman on al Jazeera America the charity save the children released a video four days ago with over 20 million views. Its quickly going viral. It aims to show viewers how the war in syria is affecting children. Until one second clips and images what would happen to a british childs life if a war broke out in the u. K. The video ends with the words just because it isnt happening here does not mean it isnt happening. Save the children also released a new report tonight highlighting issues currently facing syrias children. Franchisee a newma joins us from washington, d. C. With more on that. Francine, what did you find most alarming about this report . I think we have seen over the last three years of this crisis is that the Health System has been completely devastated. Its not just the bullets and the shells that are killing children inside of syria. Its lack of even the most basic medical care. So we are seeing a reservicing of vaccine prevouchedable diseases that had once been eradicated. There is a lack of medicine, a lack of anesthesia and all of the horror that that entails and children cannot get treatment even for treat a. M. Diseases. We heard from a father whose son died of lueukemileukemia. We wanted to bring attention at the threeyear mark to the complete and utter devastation of healthcare for syrians. Give us some examples of what children there are facing. I was reading the report earlier. It was really terrifying, parents having to treat their own children because there is no anesthesia for patients, no doctors. What else . I have talked to children who have fled syria living in lebanon and jordan and iraq and so many of these children will tell you what they have seen violence against a family member, a parent who had violence inflicted upon nem. Sometimes themselves. The amount of violence they have seen affects them not only psychologically and we have to provide the Psychosocial Support to recover from that but there is a great deal of physical effects from this conflict. We mentioned a video showing the british child. What was the message of that short fi short film . Syria was a middle income, in many ways comfortable country. We wanted to make this relatable to a wider audience to take away geography, language, all of those barriers that make people numb to this crisis and make it seem far away and show them what its like. Its symbolic but we drew from experiences we had heard from families in building this video how over the course of three years, children who had normal lives, bit by bit, the entire structure of their lives has been torn down. Do you worry too many people across the world are not connecting with whats happening in syria and it may be there should be more of an International Response to the conflict . Absolutely. I think thats why we tried to bring it home and say that it is something that is happening on a very real level every day and as we get distracted by things like their politics, we wanted to remind people that its children who have paid the price. What we are calling for is to be able to access those children, to get aid to them because we have seen the difference, the concrete difference it can make when they are reached with humanitarian assistance. Francine, thank you for your time tonight . Thank you sunday segment, the week ahead beyond the borders of ukraine. We take an in deposit account look of what the heated conflict means for International Security. Thats next. And welcome back to al Jazeera America. Here are the top stories this half hour. Dozens of planes and ships are searching for a missing malaysian airliner. The plane was carrying 239 people when it disappeared off the cost of vietnam on saturday. Ukraines Prime Minister will meet with president obama on wednesday. The white house says the visit will highlight the strong u. S. Support for the people of ukraine. Divisions over the fate of crimea let to street violence. Region is set to hold a referendum to break away from ukraine. We look at the crisis in ukraine. Why russia is responding the way it is and why the United States even has a stake. Before we begin our discussion, Nick Schifrin updates us on the struggle for crimea reporter in crimeas capitol under the watchful eye of vladimir lenin, they wave the flag of the country though hope to join and praise the city they hope will be their capitol. The song is one the Old Soviet Union might have used to send children to war and these ukrainians who are ethnic russians are ready to enlist. From the youngest and the smallest to the resident willing to go to war in a motorcycle helmet. I have to defend our land to keep peace, he says. I will spare no effort even though i am 50 and no longer that young. Or the man whose medal dates back to the 1940s, 89yearold and his Seven Brothers fought in world war ii. He thinks this one is already won. Putin helped us. He deployed people who didnt fire a single shot. Its calm. In one week, well vote and we will be with moscow. After the soviet union collapsed, most of crimea never wanted to be part of ukraine. This screwed hopes next tweweek referendum is their independence day. In kiev power was taken by bandits who are robbing people at the point of a gun. We are against them. Today, that prowestern government mourned a National Hero who fought for united ukraine. For this crowd, next weeks referendum threatens the unity they feel their ancestors died for. Our parents and grandparents stilled their blood for this land, he says. We wont give up a single centimeter of ukrainian land. Certaininga kovoleska doesnt have to look to history to agree. Last month, next to his father, he fought the old government in index square. This morning, he says his father was kidnapped by a prorussian militia. There has been no word on his whereabouts. Certaini sergei wants to fight that with force. We are not going anywhere, he says. We will keep fighting for crimea to stay inside ukraine. Both groups are digging in and ready to fight for land that each side feels belongs to them nick sheeve iran, ukraine. Russias vast and weak border cuts through hundreds of regions and culture and geography defines many of the goals. The location near europe and on the black sea has made a key to russias regional power. Geography is an asset for the United States separated from enemies by the occasions and boarded by two strong allies. Despite geographic differences, neither the United States nor russia have been consistent with it comes to sovereignty. The crisis in ukraine highlighted a tension between washington that dates back to american support for kosovos index. Now, in cripple, putin says the situation is no different. Earlier, i speak with steve wall, and robert kaplin, the chief geopolitical strategist for strat for. I asked them how geography is affecting russias Foreign Policy. Russia comprises half the longitudes of the earth. Yet it has less people than bangladesh. Land powers are insecure and russia is the ultimate land power. Putin is small enough to know that the soviet union collapsed because of the financial burden of actually rouling places like ukraine and the warsaw packet states in eastern europe. What he wants is to recreate the soviet sphere of influence. They can have their freedom, their own economy which wont be putins problem but they cannot take Foreign Policy decisions that are inconvenient to russia. Steve, why is nato a concern for russia. I think a lot of people dont understand what kind of threat it poses. No one thinks nato would invade russia or ukraine. We dont have any intentions of doing such a thing. But if you are russia, you cant assume that. You certainly couldnt assume that would be true for the next 20, 30, or 40 years. If you are if you are looking at russian history, you would always be worried if the worlds most powerful country, the United States, was alive with a group of countries that were right on your borders, countries from which you have been invaded many times in the past. If you are a prudent russian leader, you would worry about that and you would want to put a limit on nato expansion. Robert, as we look at this crisis in crimea, do you think its a wise approach for nato to build up assets and resources in some of those kuntz trees, those former soviet republics like latvia . Yes. First of all, crimea is gone. Crimea is prorussian. Its heavily ethnic russian. When you are there, you feel like you are back in russia. So, crimea is easy pickings for putin, and the west should have seen this all along when they were encouraging ukrainian index. However, what this is about is not just crimea. Its about strengthening the baltics and the north european plain, about strengthening poland and particularly moldova and romania. Because whats really been causing this, that hasnt been reported in the news much is the ongoing half decade long economic crisis of the european union. The eu has lost a lot of geo political band width in central and eastern europe. This has emboldened putin with the eu weak with the russians buying up assets here, there, and everywhere, in central and eastern europe, the United States needs to needs to fashion a stronger bulwark to make sure that crimea, like georgia are one off, that they dont indicate a trend. Robert, i want to get back to that point you made about crimea being gone and this idea of Self Determination for regions inside different countries. You know, pooped, himself, called kosovos independence in the late 90s a terrible precedence which will de facto blow part the system. Back then, russia was very upset kosovo was split from serbia although the United States was in favor of that. Now we are seeing kind of a reversal here is it fair, steve, for russia to want to take crimea especially since they are calling this refer endsum . You have to understand great powers are very creative in finding rationale for what they want to do at any point in time. The United States came up with a clever set of rationales for why we could liberate kosovo. Russia is repaying the favor. Its unclear to a lot of people, steve, what the United States interest is in crimea. Why should we bother, especially when russia seems to have so much leverage at this point . First of all, the United States should have thought much more carefully before we backed the protesters that ousted yanukovych, the previous Prime Minister. He was not a particularly effective leader. He wasnt popular but we should have weighed for him to be voted out of office and for us to tilt in favor of the protesters was a mistake, particularly because we didnt anticipate what putin was likely to do. You think so its unexpected . It must have been because we certainly shouldnt have done it understanding that putin had far more cards to play there than we did. At this point, we have to also recognize that russias interest in this region is much greater than ours. We are a much more powerful country but in this case, they care much more about the outcome, are going to be willing to pay a bigger price to make sure that their interests are protected. The american objective at this point should be to try to stabilize the situation, make sure things dont go any further, make sure putin doesnt try to grab any other portions of ukraine and make sure that we dont push him into doing steps like that as well. Robert, i want to get your thoughts on that, but you first, the scope of the American Military around the world. Its got regional commands pretty much in every continent, it seems. It allows u. S. To quickly deploy resources anywhere in the world from 10 active aircraft carriers and more than a thousand military basis. The u. S. Also spends more on military than anybody else, close to 500,000,000,000 this year. Thats about a third of the worlds total spending. In this day and age, is this the smart approach for the United States to be involved in so many con conflicts in so many places around the world . You know, the fact is the United States is the greatest global power, and without and without the u. S. Military, without the u. S. Navy and air force deployed as it is around the world, a lot of our a a lot of our allies would simply not be able to make it to the degree that thing. The key thing is to have the navy and air force roaming the globe but to be very, very cautious where you put down ground troops. The big question, i guess, basically is, should the u. S. Be involved in conflicts where it does not have an apparent vital interest . Absolutely not except in very rare cases of, say, a genocide where we do have military options that could prevent it. What we want to make sure is that we dont get military power bogged down in places that dont really matter so that when something does challenge International Security in a much more fundamental way does, in fact, affect the global balance of pour in ways that might affect American Security directly. We want to make sure we have the capability of meeting that challenge, and we are not trapped somewhere else. Report kaplin, steve wolt, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Nice talking with you. Before we wrap up, here are a few other events in the week ahead. Al sharpon will lead a stand your ground rally in tallahassee, and parents of tray von martin and davis are there . President of chile will be inaugurated and next sunday, boston hosted Saint Patricks day parade. Gay and lesbian parade can march for in that prayed for the first time in 20 years. Mexico won a key battle in the bloody drug war. The government is confirming the death of the knights of templar drug cartel. Adam rainey has more from mexico city. In western mexico t it comes a little two weeks after the government announced the arrest of shorty in spanish, the head of the biggest most powerful criminal organization notice world. Now that they have announced the killing of moreno, the government is trying to show that they clearly have control of this ongoing drug war thats been carrying on for several years. Its also a way to try to show the previous government that being inefficient, the previous government said they killed morino in 2010. They said people involved in the fire fight and witnesses could assure it. Now, we see that just wasnt the case. Morino was a mystical figure for many mexicans he wrote a bible of sorts. He indoctriniated many of the nights templar cartel. The government made no doubts about did. He said this is the man who led that cartel, which is also saying it was not latutus, gomez who many believe was running that organization. They are saying the man on top of it was believed dead but they killed him. The search for the missing malaysian airliner, teams are scouring the sea for signs of the missing aircraft. A Vietnamese Navy plane found objects that could belong to the jet liner. They are trying to determine the identity of two passengers who boarded with stolen passports. Scott hideler, do you get the impression that authorities are feeling confident that they are moving at least in the right direction with their search . Reporter well, they hope so. And we are going to get a press briefing in the next hour from malaysian government officials here at this hotel on the campus in kaula lumpur. There are lost. There are no definitive answers to where this aircraft might have gone down. We had two oil slicks discovered a couple of days ago. The oil from that is being tested here in malaysia. We are expecting that to come on monday evening local time. There is this footage of what an aircraft from vietnam said could possibly be a piece from the aircraft. , too, again is going to have to be retrieved they spotted it late sunday night before the sun set. They were going to have to go out this morning, retrieve it. Obviously, thats going to have to be tested and verified. The malaysian government are very concerned that any possible debris they find on the water is verified, verified, verified. Thats because they want to make sure before they say anything here at these press conferences that it is definitely from the aircraft. Thats mainly because the aircraft now, the search for it is such gone to such a wide area because information came out late sunday from the air force, that the aircraft could have possibly made a u turn maybe to come back here because of some type of emergency. But there was no distress call from the aircraft, nor was there any kind of mayday or any kind of communication from the aircraft. Thats why they have had to broad en the search for the aircraft. Now, many nations are involved in the search for it. The United States, seventh fleet is involved with aircraft as well as ships because this area went from 20 nautical miles. Now all the way to the other side so the search is ongoing. A lot of answers a lot of questions unanswered at this hour. Scott hideler, live for us in kaula lumpur. The News Conference is supposed to start in about 10 minutes with the latest information on the missing airliner. Stay tuned to al jazeera. Still ahead former f. B. I. Agent Robert Levinson went missing in iran seven years ago today. We will hear from his wife after the break. Scan sc take a new look at news. Stodd marks seven years since former f. B. I. Act and cia contractor Robert Levinson went missing in iran. His family wants the u. S. To work with iran to bring him home. Kimberly duke hart has the story. Robert levin son accident happened here on kish island off of the Southern Coast of iran. At the time, the u. S. Government said he was working as a private investigator looking into cigarette smuggling and avoided claims he worked for the cia. His wife and their eldest son went to iran in search of answers. It doesnt get any easier after seven years. We have two new grandchildren. One is just three weeks old. The other is four months. Its just very difficult because i know how much he would love to be able to see them and put them on his lap. Levinson was last seen in this photograph sent to his family by a private investigator in 2011. The levinson family also released this video. I have been held here for three and a half years. Last year, an Associated Press investigation reported he had been working on a mission for the cia, spying on the iranian government. His family confirmed his cia employment but exactly what he was doing in iran remains unclear. Seven years later, levinsons wife, christine, still holds out hope. I think cooperation between the two current trees can resolve bobs case. I would hope that the iranians will cooperate and help us get bob home safely. Sunday, secretary of state john kerry released this statement the rannian government denies holding levinson and says they are unaware of his whereabouts. Syrian rebels today release 13 greek orth dodge nuns who had been captured in a monastery three months ago. They were released as part of a deal struck with the syrian government. It released about 150 female prisoners in exchange for the nuns freedom. The uae amend saudi arabia ordered all working foqatari Media Outlets to resign immediately. This, according to the peninsula, a doha basedno newspaper. Former ambassador to the United States says it has nothing to do with the issues between katar and those kuntz trees but it does have to do with egypt. Katar is saying i have nothing to do with egypt. I will never support dictators of killers of their own people. These countries want dictatorship to continue in egypt and they have plans to impose their outlook and their policies and th. This comes just days after three gulf countries, saudi arabia, uae and bahrain recalled 578 bass doors. Whats going on . Simple things like getting out and playing ball, something probably many of us take for granted here in the United States. But for some kids in other parts of the world, something so simple isnt that easy. A lot of times, the equipment wont hold up in the harsh environment that the kids are forced to play in. Al jazeeras John Henry Smith has the story of one man who is trying to change all of that. I was watching a news story, heart breaking news story about the plight of children in war zones and refugee camps. It was explaining the simplest therapy to bring them back to humanity was just to play. Simple, unstructured play. That was all of the inspiration tim yanagan needed. He knew there were programs sending soccer balls to developing and thirdworld communities, but he also knew that those soccer balls didnt last very long in the harsh playing fields often found in those communities. Thats when he imagined a solution. To make a ball for these children that would never go flat so that they could just play and get that therapy. He is a lyricist by trade worked with a number of famous musicians including sting. When he mentioned the one World Football idea to sting, the newsition not only liked the idea. He offered to fund the research and design phase of developing the ball. Please let this be so successful that i can do for someone else what he just did for me some day, you know. It was, you know, i still get emotional when i think about it. Eleven months and two tries later, the one World Football project created a nearly indesstructible ball made from unique crosslinked cell foam that doesnt need to be inflated. When did you know you had something that could work . The very first thing that they said was a total failure, when i took it out of the box, i threw it on the ground and it bounced. I said, you know what . That bounces better than a rock, which is what literally hundreds of millions of children every single day have nothing more than a rock to play with. We have bamboo and we make it like a ball so we can play with it. Its really hard to play with it. It hurts your feet since we have no shoes. Its so simple. Its just a ball so kids can play but its an incredibly powerful tool that magnifies so many times over. Since we are a nonprofit organization, we have a short amount of balls. Most usually pop or we usually lose them and the majority of the time when it does pop, we dont have enough balls to really just, you know, run normal practice with. The reason this ball is very useful to us is its indesstructible. You cant break it. You can use it forever. There is no such things thing as a truly indesstructible anything. If you as it to be kicked and played with by children and, you know, people in harsh circumstances, it will never wear out in our lifetime. The oneWorld Football project reached the goal of creating a ball as strong as a child childs spirit. This is what we call a social nutrition. It is a fundamental nutrient in the quality of life. This is important as food, medicine and shelter. The one World Football project has distributed 766,000 one world balls to 165 Countries Worldwide helping to build communities and offering children the chance to play. John henry smith, al jazeera, oakland, california. As you can see action very duer a. Durable. For each one woorld ball purchased from the website they will donate another one to a community of your choice in the region of need and the organizations is continuing their outreach. They have another one opening in europe next month. You can see it can withstand a lot of stuff. Thats a clever idea and it feels like a regular soccer ball . Buy one and they donate 1 for free. We have to toss it over to weather. Rebecca with more on the forecast. I am not going to actually throw it to you . You are not . Come on. Transfer the energy. Well, lets talk about energy in the way of heat energy. Temperatures today quite warm in several spots. We had 53 for memphis a comfortable 57 for houston where we have thunderstorms that may pop up. Isolated but several rain showers come from a disturbance in the gulf of mexico. High temperatures monday even warmer for parts south and the southeast going to be craveringing up the heat here. A little warmer for new york but we will be cloudier. Light snow across new york and connecticut early in the morning. Otherwise, the wet weather we have here for the Pacific Northwest focused tonight in the north camera and into organizeon. Now, this will gradually through the day monday track out. You will dry out. You will have an end to that atmospheric river. All of the rain will wrap up. On the satellite, notice there is a large storm heading for alaska. Will pack a punch of snow and wind. Something tells me its going to come our way eventually and probably bring no snow later this week. No. There wont be a storm. Its coming from the south on wednesday, thursday. Thanks, reb hecca. Thats our show. We will have the latest on the malaysian airliner. After a short break. Common ground with his local host . Must really take it out of mr. Loteef. Toughest place to be a ferryman on al Jazeera America twenty five years ago, pan am flight 103 exploded in the skys above lockerbie. Only one man was convicted of the attack the major difficulty for the prosecution, that there was no evidence. Now a three year al jazeera investigation, reveals a very different story about who was responsible they refuse to look into this. So many people at such a high level had a stake in al megrahis guilt. Lockerbie what really happened . On al Jazeera America you are watching al Jazeera America. I am Jonathan Betz with tonights top stories, ukraines Prime Minister will travel to washington to meet with president obama on wednesday. The white house says the visit will highlight the strong u. S. Support for the people of strain. Divisions over the fate of crimea led to street violence today. Next week, that region is set to hold a referendum. The vietnamese area may have seen the area of the plane. We are awaiting a News Conference to start any moment. We will bring it to you live once it does begin. Syrian Opposition Forces have released add group of Greek Orthodox nuns captured during the civil war. Rebels took over their monastery in december. They claimed they were Holding Women for their own protection. The government released 150 female prisoners for the 13 nuns. A new report from human Rights Groups claims venzuela is using brutal force against protesters. 20 people have died in the clashes in the past few weeks. North koreans went to the poles. There is one candidate for each district for the regime, voting is used as a census. Those who dont vote are investigated. Those are the headlines on this sunday night. We will stand by for the News Conference on the missing airliner. The toughest place to be a ferryman starts right now. Colin window is swapping a thousand ton car ferry in london for a wooden sampan in dhaka, bangladesh. This is gonna be a lot more involved than what i imagined, i tell ya. Hell be working in one of the busiest and most dangerous waterways on earth, where ferrymen take their lives in their hands every day