very difficult time, who are continuing to do the best they can, and i wish them well. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com good morning, everyone. >> a warm welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. this is enextended edition of cnn newsroom. >> pings heard in the indian ocean are from the missing malaysian plane's black boxes, it's thought. pro-russia protesters stand firm in government buildings in eastern ukraine. >> and puts him on top of the leader board at the masters.

okay. we are now beginning the sixth week of the search for mh-370. so much has happened in the past five weeks. here's where things stand on the search. tony abbott says there's a high degree of confidence that signals picked up so far are, in fact, from the plane's flight recorders. >> searchers detected pings all over last week, but the part to stress is no new signal detected since tuesday. also considerable challenges remain. >> no one should underestimate the difficulties of the tasks still ahead of us. yes, we have narrowed down -- very considerably narrowed down the search area, but trying to locate anything 4 1/2 kilometers beneath the surface of the

ocean, about a thousand kilometers from land is a massive, massive task. it's likely to continue for a long time to come. >> all right. let's bring in our will ripley. he's in perth. that's where this massive search operation is based. we heard the prime minister there saying the search area is being narrowed down. there seems to be a building of confidence. just bring us up to speed on where everything stands right now. >> yeah, it really has been narrowed down, errol. if you think about the fact it was nearly bigger than the size of australia when this started. now just over 40,000 square kilometers. still a sizable area, but the hope is here now that we didn't necessarily have at the beginning. that we're getting close, that we're in the area where flight 370 went down. but there's still so much work ahead. as we're more than a month into this search, we still don't have a physical piece of the plane to show the families to say, look,

this is where it is. so there's understandably a lot of skepticism and doubt among many of those family members. they say until there's something tangible, they're going do hold out hope that perhaps this didn't happen. perhaps the plane didn't go down. but the most promising piece of evidence we have, those four pings. two on saturday. two on tuesday. they were fading with though. the ones on tuesday weaker than saturday. data analysis are on the last two pings to try to verify if they're believed to come from the recorder. the search continues wrapping up within the next hours, at least the visual search will be wrap k up here. planes coming back to perth. but the listening underwater will be continuing 24/7 until they're certain there's nothing else to hear. >> we have to keep in mind this

is all happening around the clock. as far as we know there's been no debris or suspected debris picked up and analyzed recently. but talk to us about when we may see this next phase, when they be deploy that underwater vehicle to possibly go towards where these pings are coming from. we know the batteries last for 30 days. in some cases the batteries have lastest longer, could we see this phase begin in the next few days? >> reporter: it's possible, yeah. tomorrow will mark one full week since we've gone past the time that the batteries were rated for 30 days. it will be day 37 tomorrow. and so, you know, within the coming days there will be a lot of discussions happening behind the scenes about what's going to happen next. when do we stop using the pinger locater and deploy the submersible to get down to the

bottom? the reason they're holding off and continuing to listen as much as possible is because you can cover more ground when using this locater. if they do detect one or two more, it will help them zero in that much more the possible location of where they believe the wreckage is. because once you get the submersible down there, it's a very slow process. 20 hours just to do one pass. it's six times slower than the pinger locater. so it's something they want to make sure they could not hear another ping before the deploy the next phase of the search. >> well, will ripley in perth for us. thank you very much. your mind is boggled in how many participate in the vessels. but there are many specialists trying to help. the full pings detected under water this past week, they were picked up by a team of sonar teches. >> yes, this is a considerable undertaking. they have been working long hours aboard the australian ship "oceanshield."

>> reporter: we're hanging on what they're hearing. the hopes of finding the black boxes from flight 370 rests on a few technicians hunkered down inside a control bunker on the "oceanshield." >> they're on all the time. what they do is so important to us. >> reporter: we went behind the scenes at phoenix international, the company that made the pinger locater that's scouring the area. phoenix has nine people on the "oceanshield." tasked looking at monitors listening, listening some more. >> you'll sit for days listening to nothing. then you might hear a chirp. but you don't hear another one. so until you can duplicate it and run it back at different angles, only until then are you positive you have it. >> reporter: and even then, experts say, sound in the ocean can play so many tricks on your ears. >> several people can look at a signal and see different things.

all they're recording is sound energy. >> reporter: false positives from fishing equipment left in the area, from debris and thermal conditions, from the vessel itself can also play tricks. phoenix operators are good at weeding out false positives. they monitor the specific frequencies and repetition rate. and they're highly trained to be disciplined and discriminate to block out any other potential sounds. paul nelson who worked the search for air france flight 447 describes the sonar teches' work as meticulous, tedious, time devouring. >> there are two shifts that work 12-hour shifts. first wuorks midnight to noon, the next noon to midnight. you're monitoring the weather, you're watching what's coming as far as weather, you're monitoring the seas, and you're sitting in front of the screen hoping and praying that you're going to hear something. >> reporter: does it drive them a little stir crazy?

>> everyone looks forward to the mealtime. that breaks up the monotony. >> reporter: some of these teches have been doing this for more than 30 years. decades of thankless dedication just to find the breakthrough pattern of blips. >> everyone's so focused on this task at hand that once you know you have it, it's a tremendous feeling. >> reporter: once signals are detected and confirmed, it's reported up the chain of command. top officials make the announcements and the teches go back to work with us still not knowing their names. cnn, largo, maryland. >> so complicated. so many different elements you're dealing with. you're monitoring the weather and water. all these things combine to make this so difficult. how conditions in the water can play tricks on your ears. >> as we listen to these analysts and experts in underwater searches, tom foreman takes a closer look at a fascinating quirk of nature that koultd play a role in this search. watch this.

>> reporter: we've been talking a lot about the high-tech devices that have been turned loose to listen for pings off the ocean floor. like the toad pinger locater and there's been word of the buoys being dropped out there. but any device listening in the deep ocean faces unique challenges because sound does very strange things traveling through all of that deep water. here's just one of the challenges out there. there's a layer about a half mile down in the water here that is a naturally occurring thing. and this layer of water actually allows sound to travel through it slower than it does above or below. a sound coming off something like this pinger here could hit that layer and because sound travels less quickly through here for a lot of different reasons, it can bend and go off at a very different angle than

it started and emerge in a different place. in some cases this layer can trap is signal so it comes up and bounces back and forth. and it can go this way for miles. when it finally comes out, it may be far off from the original source. this is just one of the challenges of very deep water. the kind of challenges they want to overcome if they want to know where the sounds are coming from. >> our tom foreman there with one of the many challenges to be overcome. jeffrey thomas is the editor in chief at airline ratings.com. i'm pleased to say he joins us now from perth, australia, by skype. good to have you with us. i know in the early stages of this search, you were critical of the way the malaysian authorities had handled things. i'm going to ask you about what seems to be mixed messaging. the prime minister describing high optimism. but the search head saying

there'd been no significant breakthroughs. what do you make of it all? >> well, there's probably a lesson in all this that politicians should stay out of aircraft investigations, i guess. yes, look. you're absolutely right. we have been critical of the malaysians. the military, the transport minister and regulators giving out mixed messages. prime minister abbott was very upbeat about the fact that we picked up these four pings and they really believe they're very close to locating the block boxes. however, angus houston, a somewhat more conservative gentleman, he's also upbeat. make no mistake about it. however, he's also very conscious as is prime minister abbott of the relatives' raising

hopes. i think it's probably more reflection of the perth team. i believe that both are very confident as are people on the ground who will talk to us off the record. there's a very high degree of confidence that they are right over the final resting place of mh-370. >> i'm struck by what you said that people have been willing to speak to you off record. that leads me to my next question that some are wondering how much information is being withheld from the public that is truly the basis of the optimism of abbott and hout. is that the case? >> look, yes. when they talk to us off record they say we're on to it. they don't give us any specifics. this is just a few conversations. for instance, the british nuclear submarine is out there

as well. we hear nothing about that and when i ask the question on or off the record, i'm told i cannot talk about that in any way, shape, or form. so one guess or feeling there is a degree of information, a degree of assuredness that we're not being told about. for operational reasons, for national security reasons. i mean, the united states has shared sensitive data with australia as has united kingdom. when australia became a felly fledged part of this investigation. and you wouldn't expect them to share national security information about what they may or may not know. so that sort of thing is best left. >> the batteries in the black boxes, let's talk about that. they will die any day now,

geoffry. will that lead this investigation? >> there's two elements to this. which probably haven't -- the two elements to this now. if we get no more pings, then we have to go to the bluefin-21 which has been talked about. however, there's one other asset that is working in this area which is the "hms echo." that's in the pinger search zone with our australian "ocean shield" which is towing the pinger locater. the "hms echo" is using echoes off the bottom. the bottom at this area is silt. they're hoping a large metal object like a big large airplane will give them a different sort of return, a more positive return. and that may shorten dramatically the search. because the "hms echo" unlike

the "bluefin" able to monitor in realtime. so that work is ongoing. and maybe we might get a breakthrough. maybe we might get lucky. >> that's the hope of us all. especially the family members. geoffrey, thank you. >> also 20 hours we'll have to wait in between each time it goes down and comes up. so a lot of time -- this will take a lot of time. >> it will take a lot of time. but also that point he made that the conversations he's having off record and he's taking from it there's a certain amount of information that hasn't been made public. and they may be the source of the confidence. >> boosting it. >> fascinating insight. our thanks to him again. just ahead, ukraine's

interior minister says gunmen have stormed the police station. >> this as pro-reduction protesters refuse to leave. we'll bring you a live report next. plus the oscar pistorius murder trial. a complete report on the proceedings to date and what will come next. stay with us.

hello, everyone. ukraine's interior minister says gunmen stormed a police station in the eastern part of the country. on his facebook page, arson said the response will be very tough. still holed up in government buildings across the east. they've ignored a government deadline to surrender. >> let's bring in our senior international correspondent now. he is in donetsk. what can you tell us about the

latest reports coming out of armed men seizing a police department there? >> reporter: well, little is known about that now. it's in his early stages. they do cover as many as 30. we have had slightly exaggerated statements in the past 72 hours. so we're still trying to work out exactly what has happened there. but were that the case, it would be another troubling development. they say police chiefs have been dispatched to the scene. in the past sometimes these instances have ended with negotiation. the interior ministry talking about another government building being taken over by masked men who subsequently left after a couple of hours of talks. but still the feeling of the administrative building here is they're really digging in now for the longer term.

now having to work out long-term what comes next. the protests that is not these newlyweds getting their pictures taken at a local attraction which is tradition, along with champagne. it's donetsk, it's beautiful, he says. but talk here is of divorce sfr the rest of ukraine. the interior minister's deadline threatening force to end the standoff has just passed without incident, cut off from the city. they're settling into a stalemate. what is remarkable is the flashing blue lights. the self-declared people's republic, not particularly heavily populated. but living quite happily in its parallel universe. inside, many don't want their faces filmed.

their karma more organized during the day saying they're not invited. their leader insisting their one demand still a little vague is a vote letting the next people choose what country they're a part of. regardless of risks. we could be stormed at any moment, he says. the decision to do that, of course we don't want blood shed, but it doesn't spend on us. i've not seen armed people here with my own eyes. the armed people trying to come inside were taken away and given to police. their power may be limited to this building for now, but all the same, it means the real donetsk governor can't work in his office and must meet here instead with others. for me donetsk is ukraine.

i want to say that donetsk, ukraine, will always be in my heart. prime minister yatsenyuk may get more power in constitutional reform, but has to move fast. we almost don't have time to amend the constitution before the presidential elections, he said. adding they need to hurry so any new president doesn't dictate terms. this rare and high-profile visit ended with the protesters still dug in and the wind around them more bitter by the hour. now, i should point out what we're seeing here are these small pockets of resistance. in two instances now, these are armed men it seems seizing buildings. the protesters at that one administration build very small in number comparatively.

nothing like in kiev months ago to oust the government there. in terms of is this an uprising, not at this point. it's a small number of individuals seizing important buildings with the overhanging threat of the russian troops on the border. but moscow's rhetoric has veered a little away from what we heard in the past few weeks. less and less do we hear they have to intervene. it's shifting now to a more diplomatic arena. but still a concern something should get out of hand here. >> nick paton live with us. thanks, nick. when we return, a full report on the trial of oscar pistorius. when we return we'll have more of the questioning he faced and what's expected on monday. that story when we come back. 3w4r57

the murder trial of oscar

pistorius ended for the week midday on friday. that was probably a bit of welcomed news for the olympian. he did spend the entire week giving emotional testimony. you could hear his voice quivering and even the judge had to tell the prosecutor to call off a bit when he was calling him a liar. >> on monday he will face renewed questioning as he defends himself against a very aggressive prosecutor who believes pistorius deliberately killed his girlfriend in a fit of rage. robin curnow has our story. >> reporter: oscar pistorius clenching his jaw, visibly tense as he tried to defend himself, explain his actions in those moments when he shot reeva steenkamp. >> you're getting emotional. >> yes, i'm emotional. >> why? >> because it's a difficult time for me to remember. >> reporter: a grueling week on the stand for oscar pistorius. >> it's important that you

should be all here. you underthat? >> i do, my lady. >> reporter: the athlete made mistakes in talking about whether his alarm system was on or off. >> he opened the door if the judge to infer an inconsistency in his version of events. >> reporter: the prosecution asking a crucial question. if he thought a burglar was climbing through the window, why didn't he discuss it with reeva steenkamp. >> why didn't you stay reeva, did you hear that? >> i didn't need confirmation. >> she was standing right in front of the door talking to you when you shot. that's the only reasonable explanation for her standing upright. that's the only reasonable explanation why you shot her

where you did. >> it's not true, my lady. >> reporter: on thursday the prosecution laid out its case. that pistorius killed steen camp. >> when you got up, you had an argument and she ran away screaming. >> reporter: a theory, they had a heated argument and she fled to the bathroom trying to escape an angry pistorius. but he says he feared there was a burglar in his home. >> i didn't intend to shoot. the firearm was pointed at the door because that's where i believed that somebody was. when i heard a noise, i didn't have enough time to think and i fired my weapon. it was an accident. >> reporter: the prosecutor didn't believe the shooting was anything other than murder. >> your version is so improbable that nobody would ever think it's reasonably true. >> reporter: the court adjourned friday at lunchtime. perhaps welcomed relief for pistorius and his defense team after a difficult five days on

the stand. the olympian will continue to be grilled by the state prosecutor on monday. robyn curnow, cnn. >> cnn will have continued coverage of that trial in pretoria, south africa. coming up, the latest on the search for the missing malaysian airli airliner. >> including a live report from kuala lumpur on what they're learning of the flight crew. all that next.

a warm welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching an extended edition of "newsroom." >> here are your global headlines this hour. >> australian prime minister tony abbott says officials have a high degree of confidence that recent signals picked up are from mh-370's flight recorder. there are ten aircraft, four teen ships searching an area of 41,000 square kilometers today. ukraine's interior minister says gunmen have stormed the police building in the eastern of the country. and pro-russia activists there are rejecting the offer of amnesty. officials said they wouldn't be prosecuted if they disarm and leave government buildings. iran calls a decision to deny its choice for u.n. ambassador regrettable. the u.s. refused to greet a visa

to this man because of his ties to the 1979 takeover of the embassy in tehran. he says he was a translator back then. he denies taking part in the original occupation. bubba watson starts the day as the leader at augusta national. with five straight birdie on the back nine. he leads australian john sendon by three strokes. phil mickelson failed to make the cut. let's get back to the top story. tony abbott is cautiously optimistic about search efforts for mh-370. >> he made those comments in china. both countries are involved in this search operation and both have citizens that were aboard the missing plane. >> reporter: australia's prime minister tony abbott wrapped up his tour of beijing with remarks

of 370. he says he's confident that searchers will find the black box based on the audio signals detected so far. >> i've also kept china's leadership regularly updated because they had the majority of the people on the plane. i think there's been a very considerable appreciation of the efforts that australia has made at every level. not just the professionalism and the commitment that were brought to the task, but the transparency and the candor. >> on friday evening, prime minister abbott met with xi jingping. both countries have a very personal issue in involving this mystery. australia is also leading the

international search. prime minister abbott also told journalists that even though the search zone has narrowed down, locating the block box will be, quote, a massive, massive task. beijing, cnn. >> as the search continues in the indian ocean, so does the investigation on what happened on 370. what are we hearing from malaysian authorities as the australian prime minister expresses this high degree of confidence in efforts to locate the black boxes? >> reporter: isha, the malaysian authorities also continue to be cautiously optimistic. some who say the acting transport minister here said that the fact the australians have detected the signals, that is a promising lead. especially because they seem to be similar to that of a black box. but he said all of this still needs to be verified. he also said that if, indeed,

these sounds are coming from the so-called black boxes, then the next phase of the search will begin. and that is to actually go underwater. now, many people are wondering what will happen with the black boxes once they are found. according to international protocol, it is the country to which the airline belongs to in this case malaysia that will take charge, that will lead the investigation. but the malaysian police chief has already come out and said they actually don't have the expertise to open that black box to read that information. so they will be looking elsewhere for that expertise. we know the americans, the british, and the australians do have those capabilities. but it is still unclear where the australians -- sorry. where the malaysians will be looking to for that expertise. >> so any new details emerging in the investigation into what actually happened on board that flight? >> reporter: the investigation is still ongoing.

it is still very difficult to get a sense of what exactly is going on with the investigation, but again the acting transport minister has said that nobody on that plane has been cleared from the investigation. they're still looking into that. the malaysian police chief has also said they've actually questioned them, taken statements from about 205 people so far. mostly related to those on board. and of course the crew members as well. they're looking into four areas, they're looking into sabotage, hijacking and psychological problems. they won't jump to any conclusion until the key black boxes are found. >> appreciate it. thanks so much. well, the unprecedented search for flight 370 as we know has been a global cooperative effort. >> you've got china, malaysia, australia involved.

and there's a key request here. which county takes the lead in the investigation? joe jones reports. >> reporter: over two dozen countries have been involved in the search for the missing plane. any hope of unraveling the mystery and the fate of its 239 passengers and crew rests in two boxes. the flight and data recorders. >> we have very much narrowed down the search area, and we are very confident that the signals that we are detecting are from the black box on mh-370. >> reporter: if they find them, the question remains who gets the black boxes and who will lead the investigation to uncover what really happened to flight 370? typically following a crash, the country of origin for the airliner, in this case malaysia, is tasked with taking the investigation. but they have asked for help.

>> we don't have the expert to open up the black box and analyze what the content of the voice data and flight data. we have to get experts to do it for us. >> reporter: the u.s. national transportation safety board and the british air accident investigation branch as well as australian authorities each have capabilities with sophisticated labs and technicians. but an international working group of experts has also been suggested. if they are found, decoding the black boxes could be complicated. they are built to withstand difficult conditions. but depending on the crash, memory chips extracted could still be damaged and might require cleaning until the raw data begins to paint a picture of what happened. >> we still don't know what condition they're in. and they've been sitting on the bottom of the ocean under extreme pressure for, you know, weeks, perhaps months by the time we get them up.

the water could have caused some deterioration of the circuitry. you just need to be careful when you first download it. because if you screw it up, you may lose vital data. >> reporter: and time is now a vicious enemy. >> the batteries are starting to fade, and as a consequence, the signal is becoming weaker. >> reporter: even if authorities retrieve the black boxes, there's another worry. cockpit voice recorders run on a loop and a lot of critical information can be lost before investigators get to hear it. joe johns, malaysia. >> so much to deal with. it has been three weeks since a ebola outbreak has spread. >> we'll look at this and measures to contain it. stay with us.

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welcome back, everyone. the world health organization calls the ebola outbreak in west africa among the most challenging ever. >> the disease has claimed over a hundred lives in the last three weeks. dr. sanjay gupta explains how it started and spread over the border. >> reporter: the first reports of a possible ebola outbreak came from these districts in the southern part of the country. march 23rd, the government and the world health organization announced 49 cases. 29 people are dead. doctors without borders and the w.h.o. sent teams in to help control the outbreak. just three days later the number of cases jumps to 86. and by now 62 deaths. isolation units are set up to help try and control the spread. >> dealing with the infection in a way that the virus is not transmitted to health workers and families, this involves

putting up isolation wards and facilities. >> reporter: scared of what's lurking in their hometowns, many are making the trip to the capital on the coast of conakry. they may not even be sick yet, but some may be getting the virus. we learned that ebola has reached conakry. the first of the cases in this densely populated city. since it takes weeks for symptoms to appear, no one knows how many are already affected. there's news ebola has crossed the border. dr. sanjay gupta, cnn. >> these outbreaks have happened many times before. in fact, there have been more than 20 outbreaks of ebola in the past four decades alone. the virus first appeared back in

more than 400 people died. the single worst ebola outbreak on record happened in 1995. 254 people died. again n the drc. and in the most recent outbreak in 2012, the virus killed at least 14 people in uganda. to a bizarre story now out of pakistan. the story of a baby accused of attempted murder that sparked outrage this month. a judge reportedly has dismissed the charges against the 9-month-old. the baby made an appearance in court today held by his grandfather. that's him on your convenience. his family was charged after a clash with police. the baby's adult relatives still face criminal charges. all right. time for a check of the global weather forecast now. we're going to bring in meteorologist samantha moore at the world weather center. i know you have the latest on the conditions in the search zone for mh-370.

they've gone from difficult to serene. how do things look now? >> pretty good right now. we've been very fortunate the last few days. it's that time of year in early fall where we can easily see tropical cyclones in the area. we did have two within the past two weeks that came into the search area. at least one very close. it did whip up the waves a bit where there could have been possible debris. for now, saturday and sunday, mostly sunny, a few isolated showers. looks like things overall fairly calm and those waves around three to five meters in height. could be a whole lot worse this time of year. it was a whole lot worse as a big cyclone headed into queensland friday evening and came ashore near cape flattery with max sustained winds at 230 and gusts up to 280 kilometers per hour. boy, brought in a lot of heavy rain with it as well. it is weakening right now.

so as it hits that land, the land creates friction and ends up tearing the storm apart a bit. but they get fewer than five cyclones a year in this region. and they've only had 207 since 1858. you can see the track taking it on out over open water. the coral sea. as we head into the next couple days. but it is expected to be significantly weaker as it hits the open water there. and it already is weakening significantly. gail force winds still possible all the way down the coast. of course, this is a popular tourist destination with the great barrier reef. it's just beautiful. this may have put a bit of a damper on tourism this weekend anyway. as it continues to scoot down the coast, we'll still see heavy rain, could see localized flooding. a combination of the heavy downpours as well as the storm surge here as the winds cycle

around that low. we have winds cycling around a low in the united states. we have all the ingredients we need to see potential severe weather. even the threat of tornadoes as cold air dives in, hits up against moist, warm air, and we have a dry line moving in across the lone star state of texas. all of these things combined will make for the threat of severe storms today across the plain states. some isolated tornadoes. that tornado risk will be going up as we head into our sunday afternoon and evening. some of these tornadoes could be quite strong across much of the gulf coast and in towards the tennessee valley. so we'll certainly let you know how things develop. that's going to be sunday afternoon through sunday night. >> all right. sunday afternoon into sunday night. we'll keep an eye on that one. samantha moore, appreciate it. thank you. well, the quest is on for the coveted green jacket. i know how excite kd you ad you. >> i can barely contain myself. stay with us. coming up next, who's leading

the masters field heading into weekend?

welcome back. let's talk golf now, shall we? the third round of the masters is due to tee off in about four hours from now. >> there's a familiar name atop the leader board. bubba watson is three shots off the field. check out his tee shot on the 16th hole here. nicely done. he manages to get a friendly roll off the bank there, and the ball ends up just feet away from the hole. watson would make birdie on the hole. his fifth in a row at this point. took him clear of the rest of the field. his closest challenger, take a look there. australian john senden. the key question here, can bubba hang on to take his second green jacket?

>> i do not know the answer. but we'll discuss the chances. >> we all know bubba watson has the ability to play augusta national and play it very well. he is, of course, the winner of the 2012 masters. beyond that, he just has a remarkable shot-shaping ability and a brilliant pension for recovery from basically anywhere. it's why we're pretty much all surprised when last year bubba watson finished tied for 50th. but bubba explained. >> i know. i'm still celebrating my green jacket. how many green jackets you got? i mean, if you had one, you'd celebrate it for a year or two, maybe three. so there's a lot of things going on, media attention, when you're a defending champ. for me, i didn't know how to handle it the best way. so i didn't play my best golf last year. you know, this year i come in here with no media attention. just out there practicing, playing. i changed my routine a little bit, played nine holes a day starting on monday. just try to save energy as much

as i can. so so, yeah, it was very different. >> shane, bubba watson seems to have taken a much more conservative approach this year. why is that? >> i think he feels like he's in a better place and is a more mature golfer. he knows this augusta's set up very well for him. he's prepared very well. we're only halfway through, but he's really not put any foot wrong at the moment. what's really good about him is his creative juices are really flowing. the wind was particularly strong today, especially when he was out there, but it did affect his performance at all. i just think he's in a good place. 36 holes to go. >> now, one person you won't see at the masters this weekend is phil mickelson. the three-time masters champ missed the cut after a terrible second round. >> of course, no tiger either. >> yeah, really quite shocking. we'll see what happens today. well, the duke and duchess

of cambridge are continuing their southern pacific tour. >> their name sake community is known for dairy farming and thoroughbred horses. this is the first overseas trip so far taken by the new parents. they did bring along their 8-month-old son george. the couple has been greeted with large crowds, as you see there, wherever they've stopped along the way. our max foster, our royal correspondent, is in auckland, new zealand, and joins us live. so what have they been up to today? >> reporter: well, it was quite extraordinary, i have to say. this is a small town of just 18,400 people. and they were so excited. i cannot tell you about this visit. you had this competition, this window dressing competition. this small, very picturesque town. on every other shop, you had these extraordinary sort of scenes of paraphernalia. anything british, anything royal was there. you had a sort of old tattered

guide book to windsor castle, tea sets. but they really got in the spirit of things. they were camping out last night. this morning, literally the town doubled in size. something like 30,000, 40,000 people there in the end. when the couple arrived, it literally sort of erupted. it was a classic example of how these royals come into an area and really sort of blow it away. a couple of serious moments in the day where you had them going, paying their respects at the war memorial. actually, this was a big walkabout. huge excitement. people come from all over new zealand just to see them. certainly doing no help to it the republican cause, but it's difficult to see whether or not it's going to have a huge impact there or whether or not people are just fascinated to see these celebrities come into town or whether or not they actually are sort of believing in the monarchy a bit more here. >> well, max, they are kind of doing this as celebrities, aren't they? these are easy photo ops, things that aren't very controversial.

but what does this trip really mean at a time when you do have republican movements away from the monarchy there in new zealand and australiaaustralia? >> reporter: you really have to separate it, don't you? i remember when i was in quebec. fiercely anti-monarchy, but they're big fans of kate and william. it's difficult to tell wether or not it's working. i don't know if it's an effort even to try to convince people the monarchy is good here. certainly i think the royal family, the palace, would like to have positive vibes here. but it is -- i mean, they are extremely big stars here. it's playing really big. it's all over the media. it's all very positive. if there is a republican movement here, well, there is quite a strong one, i don't think it's going to be put off. it's certainly going to be set back a bit by these extraordinary scenes today. people going absolutely crazy. i decided it's sort of inverse bieber fever. what you have is mothers coming along with daughters, but it's not the daughters screaming, it's the mothers screaming. completely madly as well.

so it's a bit of a strange atmosphere. mothers bringing along these daughters who don't particularly want to be there. but there was a brilliant moment when you had a monarchist mother, a republican daughter. i saw them before and after. the daughter actually became a monarchist simply because she shook hands with prince william. it was an extraordinary moment. >> max foster there in auckland, new zealand, with the description of the reverse bieber fever. >> that's all for cnn this hour. "new day" next. >> if you're watching outside the u.s., i'll have your headlines after the break. [ male announcer ] this is jim. a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke. for years, jim's medicine tied him to a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but now, with once-a-day xarelto jim's on the move.

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well, aren't you up early? we're glad because now we're not here by ourselves. i'm christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. this is "new day" saturday. we have a lot going on this morning. you know, this is being called one story we're following, the worst security hole the internet has ever seen. now your most vulnerable information may be at risk. we'll talk about that. >> and have you heard about the president's tax returns? well, they're in. he took a hit in income last year. we're going to talk about that too. >> yeah, making less money. but we're going to start with the search for malaysia airlines flight