southern and eastern ukraine, and we've seen some of the activity that's been taking place there. >> president obama also said that russia may face new sanctions. that does it for this edition of "360." thanks for watching. our coverage continues next with cnn international. the desperate search for survivors. nearly 300 people, many of them high school students, still unaccounted for. more than 24 hours after their ship went down. and we are live in geneva where top diplomats are hours away from a key meeting about the crisis in ukraine. you're all bloody liars and you're lying to us again now. >> six weeks of worry and anger boil over. families of those on board flight 370 lash out once again at airline officials. and the oscar pistorius trial. court is back in session this hour with the defense presenting

its last day of witnesses before easter break. the latest from pretoria. hello, everyone. good to have you with us on this thursday. you're watching "cnn newsroom." i'm john vause. >> and i'm rosemary church. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and all around the world. south korea's rescue operations are about to get slammed by heavy weather. >> for now the search does go on. divers looking for nearly 300 people still missing since the ferry capsized. >> the death toll stands at nine but could rise sharply. already grief-stricken relatives are bracing for the worst. >> and just a short time ago the ship's captain apologized. that comes after a similar message from the ship's operator. >> among the passengers were more than 300 high school students on a field trip to the resort island of jeju. many of those rescued are giving

disturbing accounts of what happened as the ship quickly sank. >> translator: there was an announcement telling us to sit still on the ferry. but the ferry was already sinking. some of the students were not able to escape. the ferry started to list. so we asked if we should escape now. but the announcement kept telling us to stay still. >> there will also be questions about why officials reportedly instructed people not to get on lifeboats. a local station just showed this video of undeployed lifeboats still on the ship. cnn affiliate ytn is reporting that only one of the 46 lifeboats was deployed. >> parents are desperate for more information, and many are outraged at the pace of the search and how it's being conducted. >> translator: the civilian team went out there, but the tides made it too dangerous, so they came back. then the government rescuer says it's too dangerous for them too.

shouldn't i be angry at that? if the government cares for our people, please rescue our families and our children. >> so let's get the very latest now on the search. pauline chu is on the phone from jindo. so pauline, of course as we've been talking about this bad weather moving through, which of course is making it even more problematic for rescuers trying to get to possible survivors in that sunken ferry, so talk to us about what sort of progress is likely to be made with those challenges. >> reporter: well, rosemary, it's very slow and difficult. and the weather has been getting worse. it started raining even more since the last time we spoke. so this has made the search operation incredibly difficult. and the families are incredibly frustrated. just to give you an idea of the challenges that the search and rescue teams have, three divers according to our affiliate ytn

were trying to get into the boat but they were actually swept away by high tides. this happened just a couple of hours ago. and then fishing vessels in the area were able to rescue those civilian divers. also, a search team has tried to inject air into the boat in order to try to give the boat a little bit of a lift, to try to stabilize it a little bit, and also the air would also help survivors if there are survivors trapped in any air pockets within the boat. now, there is that question that has been in the local media about whether the captain of this ferry had actually deviated from its regular course. and cnn has spoken with the government agency that gives preapproval to vessels before they take to the water and go on their route. and this government agency has said no, this ferry did not stray from any sort of route that it had been approved on. they say they even went back and

checked the sailing tracking chart for this ferry and it was pretty much along the lines of what the ferry had applied for. so they say those reports by local media about the captain deviating and making a sharp turn are incorrect. rosemary and john, we did speak with a couple family members. there's a lot of frustration. we spoke with this one mother who had a very poignant story. she and her daughter had been to jeju island two months ago and they had a great time, and jeju island is where the ferry was headed to. it's a resort island. and then when this school field trip came up this mother hen couraged her daughter to go on the school field trip. the daughter had said no, she wasn't interested because she had just been. and the mother persuaded her to go, saying she would have a lot of fun with her friends. and today when we spoke with her she broke down saying she absolutely regrets that decision. >> oh, just heartbreaking stories. there's nothing to say really. pauline chiou reporting there from jindo.

many thanks. john. louis ceto is the chairman of marine and naval architecture at the hong kong institute of engineers. he joins us now live from hong kong. sir, thank you for being with us. a lot of passengers were told to stay in their cabins, stay where they were. why would that order be given? >> initially, in case of abandoning ship or any dangerous which happen on the ship the captain may first announce that there might be abandon or evacuation, so they just inform all the passengers attention so that they can wear -- have sufficient time to wear the life jacket and prepare everything. and waiting the second call so that they can go to the call point for gathering before evacuation. >> but that second call for evacuation according to some people on board never came. >> yes. and then some of the crew they have their own duty. they should escort the team

because they have their own duty in terms of emergency. so they need to escort the team of passenger to a safe position or to the gathering point where it is easier to -- to landing on the lifeboat or in-flightable raft. >> louis szeto, the chairman of the marine and naval architecture of the hong kong engineers joining us trying to explain how exactly the process would have worked on board this boat. thank you, sir. ukraine's interior minister says about 300 people attacked a military unit in the southeastern part of the country today. >> yeah, the minister says on facebook that three of the attackers were killed, 13 wounded, and 63 others detained. the clashes are reportedly ongoing. >> this comes as the unrest has

spread to other parts of the country. ukraine's military says heavily armed militants seized six ukrainian armored vehicles in the crown of kramotorsk 200 kilometers west of the russian border. that happened wednesday. they then paraded the vehicles with russian flags through slovyan slovyansk. that's a nearby town which they appear to control. later a mob of civilians stopped more ukrainian military vehicles and forced them, the soldiers there, to disarm. and in the steve donetsk pro-russian militants have seized the city council building. russian president vladimir putin says ukraine appears to be on the brink of civil war, and nato's secretary-general says the alliance is beefing up its defenses. well, foreign ministers from russia, ukraine, the e.u., and u.s. are meeting in geneva over the coming hours for high-level talks about the ukraine crisis. reza sayah is there and skroinz joins us now live. reza, given what's happening,

what's the likelihood that any progress within made in these talks? >> reporter: rosemary, this crisis has become so entangled and so complicated that expectations for this seminar are low. i don't think anyone expects these top diplomats to come here and resolve this messy crisis in a matter of a few hours. but they're going to give it a shot. all eyes on geneva today, scene of this four-party mini seminar. top diplomats arriving last night. catherine ashton, the eu foreign policy chief. u.s. secretary of state john kerry. the ukrainian acting foreign minister andre vistitsiya also in geneva this morning. sergei lavrov, the russian foreign minister. there's so much at stake here, the territorial integrity of ukraine, eu-russia relations, russia-u.s. relations. again, i don't think anyone expects these parties to sit down and solve things. but if they come here and at

least tone down the rhetoric, dial down the heat, reduce some of the accusations and the finger pointings that have been taking place and increasing over the past several days and several weeks, i think many are going to see that as a success. but things are so entangled that many don't even expect that to happen. even before this meeting ukrainian leaders signaled they're going to come to this meeting and put down on the table proof that russia is responsible for sending agents, security forces dressed in uniforms without insignia to incite some of the protests we've seen in eastern ukraine. those are troubling signs that these sides are far apart. but this is such a significant crisis, many calling it the most significant crisis after the cold war era that these diplomats are here in geneva trying to fix things. >> yeah, indeed. and reza, of course the west is threatening a tightening of sanctions if russia doesn't

deescalate the situation in eastern ukraine. but russia doesn't appear particularly concerned about those threats, does it? so what other options are there? >> well, options at this point seem few. as you mentioned, the u.s. is mentioning sanctions. so is the european union. but if you talk to observers, they'll tell you that russia is not a country that can be easily isolated with economic sanctions. because they have a hand to play as well. russia is a significant supplier of energy to europe. about 25% of gas supplies in europe are supplied by russia. they go through ukraine. so certainly they have a hand to play. they can hit back. and many say imposing sanctions can escalate matters. a lot of people eager to see if they can come up with some solutions today. they're engaged in bilateral meetings at this hour and a couple of hours all sides will sit down in one room to talk together, which is going to be

fascinating. and at 3:00 p.m. they're going to have a news conference where they'll tell us if they were able to achieve anything, rosemary. >> our reza sayah reporting live from geneva. many thanks to you. time for a short break here. but when we come back, still no big breakthrough but there is new anger over the disappearance of malaysia airlines flight 370. >> yeah, next find out why families of the passengers stormed out of a meeting room in beijing. also the oscar pistorius murder trial is set to resume in just minutes. the prosecution is going after one of the defense's key experts. those details still to come. he thought it was the endn for his dof the conversation.d... she didn't tell him that her college expenses were going up.

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welcome back. we're still waiting for results of data gathered in the search for malaysia airlines flight 370. >> it's coming from two different places -- deep under the ocean and the ocean surface.

the blewfin-21 submersible drone collected the underwater data. it completed its first full mission wednesday after two previous efforts were cut short by glitches. the bluefin has now mapped about 90 square kilometers, or about 35,000 square miles on the ocean floor. >> also they analyzed an oil sample that was spotted on the ocean surface inside that search zone. officials hope to learn if it is aviation fluid or it might be something else. families of passengers want answers. they thought they'd be getting some from malaysian authorities on wednesday, but that never happened. senior international correspondent ivan watson joins us now live from beijing with more on this. the families have a lot of questions here. and the malaysians either can't answer those questions or they won't answer them. >> you're right. the families of the 153 chinese nationals who were on board, they do have a lot of questions. and those questions have become highly technical as throughout

this more than 40-day vigil the families themselves have really started researching the plane, what could have happened. they've published a highly technical list of questions, john, that they say they submitted to the malaysian authorities last monday. they're questions such as please tell us the manufacturer of flight 370's black box. what is the exact serial number of that black box. how many emergency locator transmitters were on board the plane? where were they located? and what was their maintenance record? these are the kinds of details that these people desperate to know about the whereabouts of their loved ones, these are the kind of details that they want from the malaysian authorities. they say they are not getting these answers. and anger is boiling over here. anger and rage from families of passengers of the missing malaysian air flight 370. [ yelling ]

officials in malaysia were supposed to hold a video conference with relatives of some of the 153 missing chinese nationals. but technical glitches blocked the link between kuala lumpur and beijing. >> you're all bloody liars and you're lying to us again now. >> reporter: an interpreter translated as angry family members stormed en masse out of the room. some hurling abuse at mute malaysian officials. >> you have absolutely no shame. >> reporter: lack of information about the plane has bred suspicion here. >> people were yelling "liars" at the malaysian authorities. >> yes. of course. they are liars. >> reporter: steven wang's mother was a passenger aboard the missing flight. he's one of hundreds camped out at this beijing hotel, waiting desperately for news about

missing loved ones. >> it's just like a big cage that it is full of the bad emotion. when we get into the room, we feel that -- you know, sad and angry and exhausting. >> reporter: for more than a month malaysian air has been accommodating the families of more than 100 passengers at several hotels in beijing. it has been an agonizing vigil. malaysian authorities left a diplomat and representative from the airline to brief relatives on a near daily basis. those sessions feel like a cross-examination. relatives ask oftentimes technical questions. questions that these men simple wri y cannot answer. it is an unhappy, desperate, increasingly angry situation.

now, john, the malaysian authorities, of course, they say they're trying the best that they can. but that's clearly not satisfying people here. especially i witnessed how the representatives of chinese families were asking the malaysian representatives how come you can't get us all downtown in a group of hotels very close to each other instead of having us have to travel more than an hour sometimes to go to these daily briefings? the malaysian authorities were kind of hard pressed even to answer those logistical questions. and it really seems to, 40 days into this vigil, with simple problems coming up like an inability to set up a video teleconference, that is breeding real suspicion and distrust among these anguished families. to the credit of the malaysian authorities, they have sent a highly placed technical committee to meet with them last

month here, and they have sent special envoys as well. but of course these desperate people just want more information. and that's probably not going to go away until this missing plane is finally found. john. >> and that could be quite a while. and you really cannot blame them for this level of anger and outrage that they have. ivan watson live for us in beijing. thanks, ivan. rosemary? john, today we'll see one more day of testimony in the oscar pistorius murder trial before it recesses until may 5th. court is scheduled to resume in about 10 minutes. defense forensic expert roger dixon is expected to return to the stand. he's been testifying about the differences in sound between a gun being fired and a cricket bat hitting a door. during cross-examination yesterday the prosecution sought to cast doubt on dixon's level of expertise. >> are you a sound expert? just answer that question. >> i would hope that my -- my

evidence that i present is sound, yes. >> are you a sound expert, sir? >> no. >> have you received training in decibels and sound? >> my lady, the tests that i undertook where i wielded the cricket bat was purely to determine whether the sound made by the bat striking the door could in any way be confused with the sound made by a gun being fired. >> do you need to be an expert to do that? what expert skills did you use? >> i made a sound. >> did the prosecution manage to undermine the defense expert's testimony with that very dogged line of questioning? >> yeah. we will talk about that with cnn legal analyst kelly phelps live in pretoria just ahead.

>> plus we'll see how the swaerth affecting search teams looking for survivors in the south korea ferry disaster. we're back in two minutes. for all kinds of reasons.peoplt i go to angie's list to gauge whether or not the projects will be done in a timely fashion and within budget. angie's list members can tell you which provider is the best in town. you'll find reviews on everything from home repair to healthcare. now that we're expecting, i like the fact i can go onto angie's list and look for pediatricians. the service providers that i've found on angie's list actually have blown me away. find out why more than two million members count on angie's list. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.d everybody knows that. well, did you know pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker? i look around this room and i see nothing but untapped potential. you have potential. you have...oh boy.

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at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer5. president park has toured the area. reports there were 46 lifeboats on board but one was used. this has not been independently confirmed by cnn. >> the death toll stands at nine right now but could rise sharply. already grief-stricken relatives are bracing for the worst. >> and just a short time ago there was a tearful apology from the ship's captain that came just after a similar message from the ship's operator. >> now, social media is playing a major role in getting information to and from family members. and here's one example. police sent this out on twitter. i want to read it to you.

"please retweet. 6-year-old kwon jiyoung was rescued but a guardian has not been found." that included contact information for a local hospital. soon thafr that the 6-year-old's relative surfaces tweeting this, "i am the cousin of the kwon jiyoung who was rescued from the ship." she went on to say some of the little girl's relatives would be arriving at the hospital shortly. two hours later the police tweeted this -- "6-year-old kwon, who was rescued from the sinking ship last night, was handed over to relatives last night by police." the little girl is now recovering, but her parents and brother, who were on the ship with her, are still missing. and she's said to have no external injuries. >> wow. okay. >> large waves, strong currents, and powerful winds are just some of the challenges ahead in the region there. >> following the situation out

there as far as the weather is concerned. it seems to be getting worse by the hour. how is it right now? >> it's not just a one-off event, too. you take a look. the storm system that we've touched on in the last few hours moving through at this hour is kind of the peak of the storm as we're seeing it this hour but there's a second storm moving through beijing, a third storm beginning to form over portions of the tibetan plateau. so we think over the next couple of days we get storms that cruise in one after another with brief breaks in between them and again right now kind of in the peak of the storm we've seen move in through this region. there's the search zone labeled for you. there is the storm system pushing through at this hour. winds already beginning to pick up in significance. and the main concern with that is the wave heights. initially the wave heights were about a couple feet. two to three feet when this incident occurred. but you see what is left of the vessel. a broad view of things. the wave height expected to increase significantly as the wind speeds follow suit with the storm system pushing in as this hour. we expect the waves upwards of six to 13 feet as the storm

system moves through this region. showers right now being reported in the area as well. so when you consider what's happening, the depth across this portion of the yellow sea somewhere around 37 meters, or 121 feet deep. that's the depth where the vessel is lodged in between. we know very shallow reefs set up in places as well. folks wondering what are the water temperatures in the zone because as the search and rescue efforts take place to the west of it there's a very cold current. water temperatures about 10 celsius or 50 fahrenheit, closer to 60 fahrenheit once you work your way toward the south but this also makes it very challenging, these underwater currents make it more difficult for the search and rescue efforts to take place. but once the waves increase here, we know that's really going to move the ship around quite a bit across the open water. but one thing worth mentioning, john and rosemary-s i'm going to show you a depiction of the mean sea level across this region. the accident occurred shortly before 9:00 a.m. local time on wednesday. the lowest tide, one of the lowest tides of april occurred

about 17 minutes later. this is something, again, very important as we know with the total lunar eclipse that we had playing a role here on the tides. so something officials are going to look at carefully. >> thanks, pedro, appreciate it. >> okay, p.j. let's go to koauala lumpuoalual because there's a news conference with the latest on flight 370. let's listen in. >> advise them on the latest developments and also latest preparations as we move forward. finally, he indicated to us that it is important that over the weekend the intensive search in the area most likely to be to where we can find possible traces of the airplane or the black box if at all will be over the next few days. so all efforts and focus is being focused in that direction.

and that's why today's p.c. would rather concentrate on that. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> this is exactly what he said. quote, "if we don't find the wreckage we will regroup and reconsider." that has been our case from the start. in our journey from the south china sea to the straits of malacca to the sea of andaman down to northern -- up to the northern corridor down to the southern corridor. it's always been a question of narrowing the search. and as more information comes in and details -- and feedback that comes back that needs to be

analyzed, verified, and corroborated, i fully agree with prime minister albert when he says that there will come a time that we need to regroup and reconsider, but in any event the search will always continue. it's just a matter of approach. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> all right. we're listening there to malaysia's transport minister, hishamuddin hussein. not a lot coming out of that really, but just getting in front of the media to talk to

them. >> it sounds like he's responding to an interview which the australian prime minister tony abbott gave to the "wall street journal" essentially saying that if no debris is found then they will have to regroup and refocus this search in the next week or so, maybe the next couple of weeks. and the transport ministers saying he agrees with that. i think what they're talking about there is if they don't find any debris with the bluefin 21 they'll have to decide what their options are and how they best move forward. he did make the point, though, that the search will continue regardless in some form. but maybe not the current form that we've been seeing. and obviously, what we've also been told the last couple of days is that the air and sea search above the ocean will come to an end probably the next couple of days. >> his words were "the search will always continue," which is interesting. it's a little different from what tony abbott, australia's prime minister, was saying. >> yeah. i think what tony abbott is saying is there will come a point and we are now getting to that point where i guess you get to the point of diminishing

returns for what they're trying to do. the transport minister there saying that in essence he agrees with the prime minister, the australian prime minister, but they're determined to push on. >> we're going to take a very short break, but we'll have more for you after this. do stay with us. q.

we'd like to welcome our viewers in the u.s. as well as everyone else around the world. the headlines this hour. heavy weather is about to complicate the search for nearly 300 people missing in south korea's ferry disaster. the death toll stands at nine ro right now but that is expected to rise. and our affiliate ytn reports there were 46 lifeboats on board but only one was actually used. that is yet to be confirmed by cnn. diplomats from russia,

ukraine, the u.s., and the european union are gathering in geneva, switzerland today to talk about the crisis in ukraine. u.s. secretary of state john kerry and e.u. foreign policy chief catherine ashton are the first to meet. okay. now let's go back to kuala lumpur for more on that news conference which is being held by the transport minister for malaysia. it has been going for a few moments now. let's listen in. >> chinese authorities. we have put in a ministerial committee, not just m.a.s., to deal with the families. we're working very closely with g.a.c.c. and the possibility of bringing the families over to perth if they wish to go there at a time to be specified. this next trip is to brief them on the next phase of our search. and this is just to keep them informed so there won't be any

speculation. i believe that what has been established just in the last two weeks with the assistance of the chinese government and authorities and the appointment of hamza zainuddin, the deputy minister of foreign fairs, and also chu mei fun as our cabinet envoy to deal with this has helped tremendously. but of course it's not going to be easy and the french team that dealt with the french airline has told me that the most difficult part of any investigation of this nature is having to deal with the families. in our case we're dealing with 14 different nationals. just focusing on the chinese families i think is not fair to the other nationals who do not have the same problems and have not been highlighted in the manner in which has been highlighted for the chinese families in beijing.

yes. >> you have been constantly report the progress of the searching. but why the investigation on the passenger less and cargo list took so long and we didn't see any progress -- >> because it's still pending investigation. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> okay. we have been listening to that news briefing by malaysia's transport minister there in kuala lumpur. and we've been dipping in and out of this. over the next few days the underwater search will be intensified. going on to say if no debris is found he does agree with some statements that have been made by the australian prime minister tony abbott that they will have to regroup and refocus this search, insisting, though, that the search will go on. he also addressed the concerns that the families in beijing have expressed. and we've seen that here on cnn. very unhappy with a lack of

information coming. it was interesting, though. he did point out there are 14 nationalities on board that plane and saying the chinese seem to be getting a lot of the attention. >> yeah. and talking there about trying to -- because it was recognized with the air france disaster that families, they were the most difficult issue to deal with. they have had very clear problems with that, and now they're establishing a panel, a committee so that they can actually help those family members. >> let's listen in once again. >> yeah. >> -- in which china itself has got 21 satellites. sophisticated assets like the poseidon and the orion and the illusion from china. and the fact that cooperation between the countries is not done in the manner in which we have done, it is impossible if we cannot manage in finding a civil commercial aircraft when

it comes to a more serious situation of a military threat. so basically, what mh 370 has actually given us some hope that we can cooperate, while at the same time we need to cooperate in a landscape that is much more complex when we see the issues relating to the mh370. and i think that is one paradigm shift that i noticed on the s.a. [ speaking foreign language ] >> okay. the last comment there i guess is a reference to the coordination that all of these countries, australia, new zealand, the united states, japan, singapore, obviously china has been deeply involved in the search. some criticism, though, about getting all these countries to cooperate together. some have held back information. some haven't been completely open and honest i guess, which has held up the search.

a lot of criticism over what china has done. maybe they slowed down the search because the information which they gave out wasn't exactly the best. to say the least. >> it's been a long too many, hasn't it? over 40 days. and thaib they're still trying to pull information together. >> if you look at all the countries taking part in this search. thailand, malaysia, philippines have been out there. china as well. and japan too. these are countries which a couple of weeks ago were pretty much at each other's throats over territorial disputes in the south china sea. those disputes have not gone away. they've just sort of been pushed to one side while they look for this plane. once the story goes away, once they found debris or whatever they do with these, those rivalries and tensions will come back to the surface. >> and they're still really there in this situation because they're trying to work together. >> that's the backdrop. >> that's the problem. we'll take a very short break. we'll have more for you when we

come back. do stay with us.

president park has received a briefing from rescue officials. >> the death toll stands at nine but that could sharply rise. anguished relatives are bracing for the worst. and cnn affiliate ytn reports 46 lifeboats were on that ship but only one was deployed. now, this has not been independently confirmed by cnn. but we're seeing these shots that are being sent in. and technology is bringing an especially heartbreaking element to this tragedy. some survivors are turning to social media to express the terror they felt as the ship went down. >> but before that many on board texted loved ones, not knowing

those words may have been their last. amara walker reports. >> reporter: well, some parents and relatives say one of the ways they found out was through text messages from their loved ones. and some of the last communication is just starting to emerge. and as you'd emerge, it's just so heartbreaking to read these text messages. in one text a student on the ship wrote his older brother, "i'm on my way to jeju island but the ship hit something and is not moving." the older brother asked is it bad? to which the younger brother replied, "i'm inside. so i don't know." the older brother responded, "don't panic." and that was the last message from the older brother that has not been opened. now, cnn has also obtained a picture of a purported text message from a student who is -- or was trapped. and the text message was received by the student's mother. here's how that reads. "no phone connection. so there is no internet connection. so just sending text message. there are few people on the ship. can't see a thing.

it's totally dark. so there are few men and women. women are screaming. there are a few people on the ship, and we are not dead yet. so please send along this message." meanwhile, this video shows the mother of a missing passenger holding her phone that shows a text message she received from her son. and of course we're seeing a lot of reaction on social media, on facebook and twitter on what could be the largest maritime disaster in south korea in 20 years. on social media. a lot of people saying they're praying and hoping for a miracle. a lot of others expressing their disbelief this could happen. we should also mention that there's also growing anger and frustration over how the authorities have been handling the situation. amara walker, cnn, atlanta. today's the last day of testimony in the oscar pistorius murder trial before a nearly

three-weeklong recess. >> after today's session court will be adjourned until may the 5th. prosecutor jerrie nel has been cross-examining defense forensic expert roger dixon. he's been trying to cast doubt on dixon's expertise on ballistics and blood splatter, which have been key issues in this trial. >> and we will talk with our legal expert, our analyst there, kelly phelps, about just how much damage was done to dixon's credibility when it emerged that he's not actually an expert witness, that he's a geologist, what that actually means for this trial and what we can expect later for today. and also, the other question, too, this is now turning into a marathon trial. and when can we actually expect a verdict? some people believe it may actually not come until july. a long way to go yet. >> and the fact they're adjourning for such a period, too. there were conflicting problems with other cases that they had. >> yeah. >> and this has gone on for longer than they thought. >> absolutely. and if you'd like to keep tabs

on today's sessions please log on to cnn.com, follow the links to find the cnn live blog. we have a team in pretoria updating that constantly with the very latest from the court. all right. well, just ahead, the u.s. president and vice president have shared a lot over the past five-plus years. >> and now there's something new that they're doing together. that's coming up next. and a legendary car has a birthday. a big day celebrated on a high new york landmark. stay with us.

kelly phelps standing by in pretoria for what we can expect later today as the oscar pistorius trial gets under way. kelly, as we look at this last day, what do you think will happen before they go on that almost three-week-long adjournment? >> reporter: well, we expect them to conclude with mr. dixon's testimony. and it's probably unlikely that

they'll bring a new witness onto the stand because they won't want that witness to be impeached from having contact with the legal team until the postponement ends. and so it will be more today of what we saw yesterday, focusing away from the emotion of the trial back to the pivotal facts of the case. and trying to allow her wounds and the other physical evidence in the trial to tell the story that they can tell and see if that story supports the defense version of events or the state's version of events. so much more detailed, searing cross-examination. and very factually oriented. >> okay, kelly, we appreciate that. thank you for being with us. obviously, yet another big day to come before they take that long break. and if you'd like to keep tabs on everything that's happening inside that courtroom, we do in fact have a live blog. our team there will be sending out all of the information. you can find that over at cnn.com. there it is right there. and of course this trial a

marathon trial could actually end up having a verdict sometime in july. all right. well, a decade-long study recently published by the national academy of sciences has found a direct link between pollution in china and the weather in north america. >> yeah. this is he interesting because up until now everyone thought that pollution in china and india, that's their problem. and w45 tha they said, the interesting thing about this study is they only at the weather in north mech. and they said you can theorize it's not just affecting america but the entire global so, it's a global problem. >> yeah. it's common knowledge weather around the world is linked and we've seen studies in the past that suggest, that john and rosemary. we think back to the 1980s, we know droughts in west africa were taking place and a lot of that was attributed to coal-burning factories not only in north america but also portions of europe as well that shifted the monsoons farther south, leaving portions of west africa on the very dry side over the 1980s.

but just a few weeks ago over beijing a pattern that we see very routinely with the world health organization saying the air quality here 10 to 15 times above what would be considered healthy in any other major city around the world. and of course the industry and population playing into why this is all occurring but it comes down to basic meteorology what the & what the studies found of what's happening in this region. clouds have a very tough time something to merge over the top. we're talking about dust grains, sand, any sort of plultollution what we call nukelee yi. the more you have the more clouds you have in the region. plenty of aerosols, in this instance smog ace ols over portions of east asia and china in particular. the highest density of it anywhere found on earth. you put that in place you have more cloud cover and you look at what's happening just above

portions of eastern asia and china. the upper-level wipds in the atmosphere or the stret jet stream carried west to the east. and they carry a tremendous amount of smog aerosols over portions of the pacific ocean and we've seen studies suggest that all of this has ended up at least in small matters across portions of the western united states. and the study suggesting now these raindrops that are coming down over portions of the u.s., the convective variety of thunderstorms, and we've seen so many thunderstorms in recent years with the highest number of tornadoes as well in recent decades occurring over portions of north america. so a lot of scientists saying hey, this could partly be attributed to what's happening on the other side of the planet just because more aerosols are getting up into the atmosphere and clouds are able to form by clinging onto these. >> i knew it. always believed it. thanks, p.j. >> thanks. it's fair to say that the selfie is part of everyday life. >> there's a reason it was

oxford dictionary's word of the year last year. seems as if everyone except me has taken one. >> now you can add the u.s. vice president to that list. joe biden took a selfie in the back seat of a limo with none other than president obama. there it is. >> the photo made it to the white house twitter page with the caption "pals." so selfie is now officially uncool. >> yeah. that's right. we'll have to move on to other things. >> let's stop doing them. >> all right. question for you. >> here we go. >> how do you get a brand new ford mustang to the top of the empire state building without cranes or helicopters? >> i don't know. how do you get a ford mustang -- actually, we don't know. it was a stunt. meant to wish the legendary sports car a happy 50th birthday. jeanne moos figured out how the mustang scaled the famous heights. >> reporter: down there on the street is where cars are supposed to be, not up here. 86 floors above new york city atop the empire state building. the out of place 2015 ford

mustang had tourists wondering. >> the first thing was how in the name of god did they get it up here? >> maybe helicopter. >> helicopter or something. >> i thought they'd bring up a helicopter. >> it basically rode the elevator just like you or i did. >> reporter: not just like you or i. we wouldn't have to get chopped up into pieces. the mustang was cut up into five pieces small enough to fit in the smallest empire state building elevator. >> we only have an elevator that's 36 inches wide. >> they actually built a mock elevator back at the ford shop to make sure everything would fit. this wasn't the first time a ford mustang rode these elevators. back in 1965 the then newly introduced mustang made the same trip and was photographed on the observatory. this latest elevation of the mustang was meant to celebrate its 50th anniversary. the weather, though, didn't cooperate. snowflakes were flying as they assembled the mustang high above manhattan. it had to be done overnight when

the observation deck was closed and the car had to be put together in a six-hour window. here's the process sped up. despite the weather, they met their deadline. >> 1965. >> reporter: ford wasn't actually first to raise a car to new heights. maybe they got the idea from chevy. >> chevrolet for 1964. >> reporter: they did use a helicopter to lift car and model atop this sandstone tower in utah. >> chevrolet stands alone. >> reporter: no windy conditions prevented the chopper from retreefrg them on time, and the model had 20 huddle in the chevy for a few extra hours. ford's executive chairman wasn't exactly huddling at the wheel atop the empire state. but don't expect him to drive off. >> can he drive it around? >> if we put an engine, you could drive it around here. >> reporter: the chevy didn't have an engine either. it would take a herd of wild mustangs to pull this car.

the motor that mattered here was the one running the elevators. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> sheer genius. >> mustang, 50 years old. great car. except the mustangs made in the '80s and the '90s were awful. absolutely terrible. so it's nice they're back on track because the newer ones are actually pretty good. and the older ones are classic. great. very bad time in the '80s and '90s. >> i didn't know you were a car expert. >> oh, i am. i'm an expert on many, many, many things. haven't you learned that by now? >> i haven't yet. thanks for watching "cnn newsroom." i'm rosemary church sxwlp and i'm john vause. stay tuned for world business today.

breaking news this morning. searching for survivors after a ferry capsizes off the coast of south korea. right now, nine people dead, hundreds, hundreds still missing. we are live with the latest. breaking news this morning. minutes ago, malaysian officials giving new information on the search for missing flight 370, this as the bluefin sub back from completing its first full mission. so, what did it find? we're live. crisis in ukraine. bloody fights in the streets as troops try to take down pro-russian protesters. world leaders blame russia for the chaos, and this