Situation. Putin is a tough guy with a thin skin. The trial of our colleagues three journalists have been adjourned again. The prosecution case holds little water. Theres nothing of substance. Al jazeera rejects the charges and continues to demand their immediate release. Researchers at louisville say four paralyzed patients have regained control over certain muscles in their legs. You forget how tall you are. Doctors said theyd never be able to walk again. We begin with the resignation of health and human secretary services Kathleen Sebelius. Shes leaving after five years on the job, but will be remembered for the disastrous roll out of the obamacare website that has brought considerable political damage to the white house. The only thing i can conclude is that its impossible to do assist in this administration that gets you fired. The timing of her departure as enrolment in the hare exchange surpasses 7. 5 million, indicates a push by the administration to get beyond the troubles. Kathleen sebelius made the decision to resign, and was not forced out. We are joined by al jazeeras White House Correspondent mike viqueira. There were a lot of calls for her head to role when the website crashed and burnt. Why is this happening now . Interestingly, i think the reason it didnt happen before is because there was so many calls, and if the resignation or the firing, as the case may be during that time, would have made the administration look equal and exacerbated the significant political and public problems that they have. Now theres a woint of opportunity, coming off the good news. The president in the rose garden, after the enrolment period ended, dollar 7. 1 million to sign up. Many have not paid their premiums. It was good news. They hit the target of 7 million, so Kathleen Sebelius had the window where she could leave. After five years, she had a long and distinguished career as the governor of kansas. Five years as the hhs secretary. It was the last six or seven months that will define the term. She, herself, in testimony before congress at the height of the heathcare. Gov roll out. She called it a debacle. Shell appear with the president here in the rose garden at the white house with her successor Sylvia Mathews burwell, who heads the office of management and budget. I want to get to Sylvia Mathews burwell in a minute. She said in an interview on thursday, that she knew she wouldnt be there to turn out the light in 2017. Is this a move to get away from anyone associated with obamacares problems. The president didnt have her at the roz garden ceremony. Ended. Thats the point. She was conspicuous in her absence. She was not standing next to the president , and conspicuous in that the president had shoutouts to everyone that contributed to the unexpected success. Except Kathleen Sebelius. I think there was some frustration, theres no question about it, not only among staff at the white house, but members of congress on capitol hill. And that is very significant. As you know, this is an Election Year for every member of the house of representatives, more than a third of the senate, the democrats stand to lose control, if things condition as they have been. They obviously have taken a political hit. There was desire on the part of leading senator to see a change, something they could point to on top of the good news that they had, and helpfully turn the corner on obamacare, and healthcare. Gov. Luther burrell sylvia replacement. With the politics, will confirmation be different . Well, we have seen tweets from leading republicans, john mccain, saying it was a good choice, and tweets that have not been received from the white house. One from the senator in the house saying should we celebrate with a red cello cup or glassware, the departure of Kathleen Sebelius. As far as the senate is concerned, it will be a welcome move. You are correct in that republicans never miss an opportunity to bash obamacare, the Affordable Care act, this is something they continue to believe is a political winner for them. As we mentioned its a Political Year and an Election Year in congress. The smart money would have her confirm nonetheless. House. Now to a miserable day on wall street. The techheavy naz deck plunged 230 points. The dow jones plummeted 277 points. Thats 1. 62 , and the s p 500 lost 39 points. More than 2 . To make sense of this and what it means to you here is ali velshi. Good to have you with us. The worst day sips late 2011 by the naz tack. Way. We had a better year for stocks in 2013. A lot of the tech names were tripledigit gainers. What happened is you have momentum in the stocks. They are not matched by the earnings. They are players like facebook, amazon, netflix and others that have been running strong, and now you have people worried that the economy seems to berecovering. The fed says Interest Rates might go up. Theres less room to play in the hightech speculative stocks. People move into things that are secure. People say you know what, maybe its time to get out while we wait to see what happens. How much should we worry. If you are not heavily invested in speculative stocks. Dont worry. The nasdaq is down 2. 8. The s and p is off 0. 8 of a percement. If you are diversified. Play. If you want to be reminded about what this means, go back to the 2000s. That makes me scared. You should be scared of things you dont understand. Stocks which do not have earnings reflecting their prices. Theres a price to earnings ratio. Most of the companies that took a drubbing do not have earnings to support prices. People are moving out of these things into quality stocks. Thats what you do. Do we have to worry about world issues. Well talk about ukraine and ape. This is the first time in five years that geopolitics is affecting staff. Ukraine and russia russia might be in a session this year. Thatll affect europe. Europe has slow growth. China will grow 7. 5 . We have numbers from march showing that things may be slower than we expect. 7. 5 is double the rate of growth in the united states. China has issues it needs to deal with. It needs a fastgrowing economy. Same in india, they are in elections, but dropped growth and are in the 5s now. The developing world and emerging markets are most of the worlds growth. As they slow down, by design it will slow things down. We have to Pay Attention to the rest of the world. If im a glass half full, the dow is off a couple of percentage points. I have the glass half empty. We have not seen a correction in a few years, and the market dropping by 10 . This would be a good time to study the markets, if you have a 401 k. Just know what you might do. There might be opportunities to buy and sell high fliers. Good advice. Thanks. Now to the crisis in ukraine. German german chancellor Angela Merkel called on Vladimir Putin to call back the tanks, jet fighters and troops sitting on the border of ukraine, or russia will face another round of tougher sanction, the warping after Vladimir Putin fired off a letter to 18 world leaders, threatening to turn off russian gas to ukraine unless the country pays what it owes them. Gas dollars can be gepp dived. Putin says the European Union helped to create the crisis in ukraine. The squeeze play comes as prorussian separatists refuse to surrender control of offices in Eastern Ukraine despite a deadline to do so. For more we are joined from the washington d. C. Studio, formerly chief Economic Advisor to russian president , and served as Vladimir Putins representative to the g8. Andre illarionov, good to have you with us. Angela merkel, and the president spoke on the phone on thursday and threatened tougher sanctions if russia doesnt pull back their troops. How much does it affect putin . I dont think it affects putin in a serious way. It does not look like in putin is going to use troops in the future. These letters that have been mentioned, its a good indication of positive signs over the last few days. These letter shows three positive signs. First, that probably therell be no direct military intervention, at least in the future. Its hard to have negotiations about gas prices if, at the same time you are invading a country. Second, its a sign of looks like abandoning the separatists in south and east part of ukraine. And, third, it is de facto recognition of authorities in kiev. Vladimir putin directly calls for negotiations with those authorities. The fact that he refused to accept for number of weeks. This is a positive sign, but the results are negative. That is something he refused to recognise. So at least we have progress there. Prorussian protesters are not giving you have Eastern Ukraine, despite the friday deadline. And analysts say that Vladimir Putin does want chaos and destabilize i suggest in Eastern Ukraine, and not an invasion, despite the drops capable of invasion and at high readiness. You think this is a big sign. In the past you said western leaders have forgotten that other leaders do want to conquer other countries. To conquer the country th tart is the same. To conquer the country its possible to do it with intimidation, bribing, threats to attack and we attempt to put a leader at the head of ukraine. This is what mr Vladimir Putin is doing now. It was quite clear that for him, conquering with military, ukraine would be difficult, almost impossible. It would be much easier less costly and in his style as an officer of special services. Hes doing pretty now. You are talking about him being kgb and a high officer in the kgb. Trying to do it in a sneaky way. His style is a different style of officer from special special services. Its not a style of army officer. On attack is full military mite. Its not a style that he applies in eastern and south ukraine, or that he applies to put his person, Vladimir Putins person as a president or Prime Minister or both in ukraine. This is creating a situation economically. We mentioned that the russian economy could be close to recession, the drank is saying 64 billion in assets fled the country in the first three months of the year and more of that is coming. Wont this all hurt him . At some point wont his popularity, which soared as a result of what he did in crimea, wont it drop if the economy gets worst. First of all, i need to say technically russian industry is already in recession. From july last year, its a negativary growth rate. So technically its not six months to claim that theres already a recession. This is the one part. The second part, whether these recession industrial and probably g. D. P. Resession, within a few months, would lead mr Vladimir Putin to change his mind. I can tell you straight away, no. This is incomparable things. Getting crimea to annex crimea, and to some to enjoy rise of popularity, on this side is to get control over ukraine. Regardless of what economic problems he would have at home. And you need to remember the soviet union was an isolated country, with a lot of economic hardships, with a low Living Standards of people, sometimes falling down for a long time. It did not change the soviet regime. Thats why we say for a long time, countries like russia, diversified could apply serious sanctions. We should remember that iraq, iran and north korea was able to with stand sanctions for a long time. Russia is richer and much more countries. Andre illarionov, thank you for your insights. Interesting. Appreciate your time. Coming up, women in afghanistan struggled for basic human right for decades. Political changes are raising concerns. A leading female voice from the Afghan Government will join us. Al jazeera journalists in prison in egypt faced a day in court, leading to another day in court. Well explain. What do you think. Join the conversation Aljazeera America presents a break through Television Event borderland. Six strangers. Lets just send them back to mexico experience illegal immigration up close and personal. Its overwhelming to see this many people that have perished. Lost lives are relived. All of these people shouldnt be dead. Will there differences bring them together, or tear them apart. The only way to find out is to see it yourselves. Which side of the fence are you on . Borderland only on Al Jazeera America women have made Great Strides in afghanistan gan society. Many feel it could slip away because afghanistan is at a crossroads. As the votes are counted, the future of the country is uncertain. A Bilateral Agreement is yet to be signed by the government. Security concerns are mounting sips the possible taliban resurgence and women fear losing rights and freedoms they fought so hard to gain. I had a chance to speak to fawzia koofi, an extraordinary leader in a country where years ago women were shunned from public life and girls barred from school. She is a member of the parliament, and the first elected to be the Deputy Speaker of the assembly. She is making life better for her own two daughters, and girls and boys. Shes the author of the book the favoured daughter. Afghanistan has almost a contradictory record on womens rights. You are a member of the parliament. 25 of the seats are reserved for women. Giving them better representation than in the u. K. And the united states. Girls are still harassed and abused by the taliban from going to school. How repressive does Afghan Society remain towards women . Thank you. If you compare nowadays situation with the taliban regime or ruling time, i can say its almost an opportunity, golden opportunity for women of afghanistan. We have had progress in many arena. We have almost 27 Women Participation in the parliament. But in the meantime. Huge majority of women in afghanistan are separating from different kind of violence, including Domestic Violence and security. Threats by taliban. We had an address. Its a lack of proper or strong rule of law to put on trial the traitors. Above all i think the main worry now is for 2014. Luckily we have had wonderful elizabeths and just last week and woman participation in that election was extraordinarily, but i think the main concern now is the 2014 withdrawal of International Community because its more difficult for a woman activist to work. There are certain extremist elements that would like to adopt a new situation. Perhaps a return of taliban back to power, so the extremism within parliament and outside parliament have become more cautious, to prepare themselves for the new situation. Therefore it has become more difficult for a woman, and thats the main concern we have, if International Community leaves, i think women rights would be one of the first to sacrifice. Do you think that could happen, that things will change for the worse, because the Afghan Government has not signed a Bilateral Agreement. The expectation is that that was an issue for hamid karzai, and who have was finally elected in this process will be more open to signing the agreement and keeping american and n. A. T. O. Forces there. We are hoping, and as the president ial candidates clearly announced during the campaigns, that one of the first things they will do, at least for the frontrunners to sign the bilateral security agreement. We hope they keep their promise. Signing of the bsa does not only help in terms of planning for security, but also the bigger message it gives to the neighbouring countries, to those who would like to influence the situation, particularly to the women of afghanistan, the bigger message it gives is that afghanistan will not be abandoned by the international security. It will help the situation of every citizen in afghanistan, and the wolan that connected with International Community presence. And do you think the election will end up helping or hurting women, because as we have seen over the past 10 years, hamid karzai is married to someone that used to be a practicing gynecologist, and slee hasnt been seen in an event in 10 years. Now there were a number of candidates and one of them ever had his wife out in public. Thats true. Absolutely. I usually used to say our leaders want democracy for their neighbours, not themselves. Its easy to talk about womens rights, but without bringing their own wives as role models, the question remains how committed these leaders are in terms of womens rights. Overall, i think, women turn out in the elections was a clear sign that women in afghanistan were a reliable political partner, not just something that takes care, but someone that relies, because even in the remote areas, women call out to vote. They have increased. They cannot be ignored by a government or group. Im hopeful the election it might result in a bitter election, elections are a no to extremism, and a sign of democracy. People of afghanistan there must be ug support, but now, of course, we have to wait. A lot is still to come in terms of the results whether the results will be acceptable by the loser cant dads, in fact, so, therefore, i think the solution would be for the leading candidate to sit and make a coalition named government because thats how they can prevent further conflict and the very fragile stability in afghanistan because at the end of the day the people in afghanistan, and the women in afghanistan will be affected by instability. Its not just women participating by voting, but also as candidate. You wanted to run for president , but you were months short of the minimum age. A number of others were on the