Newsroom. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good morning. Im carol costello. Thanks for joining me. Russia and ukraine trade accusations. Lawmakers in kiev trade punches. [ speaking in Foreign Language ] this brawl in ukraines parliament underscores the reality of a nation torn by rival loyalties and incensed by cold war hatred. Fists began flying when one prorussian lawmaker took to the podium and nationalistic radicals took offense. Saying the country was pushed to this point when the president was toppled, backed by moscow. More on the unfolding crisis in ukraine in just a few moments. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. But we begin with breaking news. It could be the most important day of testimony in the murder trial of olympic runner Oscar Pistorius. Moments ago in his own words the disgraced track star described the final moments before he shot and killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Then i heard a noise from inside the toilet, but i perceived it to be somebody coming out of the poilt. Before i knew it, id fired four shots at the door. My ears were ringing. I couldnt hear anything. So i shot i kept on shouting for receive sa eva to phone the. I still was trying to retreat because i wasnt sure if there was somebody on the ladder, if there was somebody in the toilet. Lets bring in cnn robyn kurnow from Pretoria South Africa and kelly phelps, a cnn legal analyst. Robyn, you were inside the courtroom for that dramatic moment. Take us through how Oscar Pistorius described that night, when he killed Reeva Steenkamp. Reporter well, you heard it. You know, and you dont even need the pictures. You dont even need the image of him to get a sense of what was said and how he came across. Just that faltering voice. Initially, he had been quite composed throughout the day, but the closer and closer he got to that crucial moment where he shot her, his voice became more and more wobbly and, of course, he seemed to i noticed throughout the day he seemed to hunch over and over and observer as the day got on, but crucially, i think also, he looked directly at the judge through all of this testimony. He was talking to her. She was often piercingly looking back at him. But, however, at that last moment when those details just became too much, you heard it. You didnt need to see it. It was uncontrollable, devastating sobbing. Just to shed a little light for our viewers about what he says happened that night, he says he was in bed. He heard a noise. He thought Reeva Steenkamp was also in bed. He whispered to her to, what . Get down . And thats when he got up without his prosthetic legs on, grabbed ahold of the gun and went to investigate it. Went to investigate. Can you take it from there, kelly . Reporter well, its a little bit different to that version of events, actually. He got out of bed because he couldnt sleep. He spoke to Reeva Steenkamp as he got out of bed and it was only once he had gone out to the balcony, come back in, that he then heard a noise in the bathroom. Its at that point hi whispered into the room to reeva, there was an intruder, and they were in danger, he got his gun and went on the corridor down to the bathroom and essentially was checking out all directions an intruder could be coming from. Having heard the bathroom door had been opened. While in that corridor, he screamed out further to Reeva Steenkamp, because she hadnt answered, to phone the police and get down and take cover, and then once he got into the bathroom itself, he stopped speaking, because, according to his version of events, he was worried that if he shouted out from inside the bathroom, whoever was inside the bathroom would know where to shoot at him from. He then heard a noise in the toilet enclosure and shot in a frenzied panic through the toilet door. He still wasnt convinced whether he had got the socalled intruders that he believed were behind that door, and was still very fearful that they might be on a ladder outside the open bathroom door, and that he and reeva were still in danger, and it was only sometime after that, hed gone back into the bedroom, had gone to look for her. Sat on the bed. Realized she wasnt there. Says he still thought maybe she was hiding under the bed or behind the curtains in the bedroom before the sick realization dawned on him there was a chance it was her in the toilet enclosure, and then he put his prosthetic legs on, ran back into the bathroom, tried to kick the door, and when that was unsuccessful, retrieved the cricket bat and bashed in the door. Im going to interrupt you there and let Oscar Pistorius take it from there. Letss listen. The first time i hit it, i remember hitting, i hit the frame of the door, and the shock in my hands. It got a small piece open, and at that point all i wanted to do was just look inside to see if it was reeva. I then hit the door i think i hit the door three times, and there was a big plank, i grabbed it with my hands and i threw it out into the bathroom. I leaned over there, the middle partition. I tried to open the door from the inside, but there was no key in the door and i leaned over the middle partition of the door, and i saw the key was on the floor at that point. All i wanted to do was climb into the toilet over the middle part of the door. I once i leaned over the partition to get in the door i saw the key. I opened the door. I threw it open and i sat over reeva and i cried. And i dont know i dont know how long. I dont know how long i was there for. She wasnt breathing. Well take an adjournment. Court will adjourn. [ sobbing ] all right. At that point, the judge called for an adjournment. She ended the Court Session for today. Oscar pistorius will continue his testimony tomorrow. Robyn, i wanted to ask you, steenkamps family was in the courtroom. Then were listening to this testimony. What was their reaction . Reporter you know, as you can hear, its gut wrenching for anyone to listen to it, whether you have a stake in it, whether you believe he did it or didnt do it, its a very, very powerful piece of testimony. But Reeva Steenkamps mother largely, i must say, pretty stony faced throughout it. Through much of this entire court case. There was a moment or two where she bowed her head down, holding her head in her hands. She was supported by her lawyer. Reevas cousin and a few of her friends also in court sitting around Reeva Steenkamps mother. They also largely unemotional. Nobody really breaking down in tears, in reaction to any of the details. The one person who was consistently crying or at least sobbing was Oscar Pistorius sister. She spent much of the day sort of dabbing her eyes. Her lips sometimes wobbling. It looked like she was always just on the verge of bursting into tears. What you saw was a very emotional day for both sides, and i think just being in court also, it was quite difficult, and ive said it before. In this trial. Yesterday when he turned around and apologized to mrs. Steenkamp, it felt so personal, so intimate. It felt like all of us in the gallery were intruding. There were times, particularly in some of these crime scene photos, when theyre flashed up, that really this should be a personal thing. Either between Oscar Pistorius and the family of the woman he killed, or between the police and the legal experts. You know, i think at times it does, you know it does feel quite disconcerting having to be there. Kelly, the judge will decide the verdict in this case. There is no jury. So shes going to listen to the rest of Oscar Pistorius testimony tomorrow. His emotions seem real to me. I mean, if theyre not real, hes the best actor ever. Reporter absolutely. I think anyone whos been in the court, whatever side of the argument you stand on is that at this stage not in doubt of the sincerity of his emotional response. I expect the judge is equally not in doubt. Of that you could see today by the request of postponement, she essentially unilaterally called, but that wont weigh in her decisionmaking process. It might lend credibility to his testimony, but that will not be the thing that will decide her outcome, her verdict, on this case. She is very experienced at separating her emotions from her reason. Robyn kurnow, kelly phelps, thanks so much. Still to come in the newsroom, rising tensions and flying fists in ukraine, and it um cans with warnings over well, a civil war. Well be right back. Im mary and i have copd. Im jeff and i have copd. 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Prorussian and proukrainian lawmakers fighting inside the Ukrainian Parliament. This absolute brawl comes as ukrainian lawmakers pass a bill toughening penalties for anyone calling for separatism. Diana magna joins us from moscow with more. Good morning. Reporter hi, carol. Thats right. Well, now anyone charged with separatism, or being involved in activities that redraw national borders, for example, will get much tougher penalties than before. So any kind of violence by people described as separatists will now have a penalty of between, up to five years for first offense. Up to ten years for a second offense and then a more strict penalties across the board. So that is the legislation that was pushed through the parliament today. It still has to be signed into law by the acting president but effectively means, as you said, those protesters who have taken official buildings in various southeastern cities in ukraine are categorized as terrorists and will have severe penalties as a result. So these prorussian protesters that are operating in the Eastern Ukraine, who are they . Reporter well, its different in crimea, where you had a majority russian ethenic population. In large parts of south and Eastern Ukraine you have many people for whom russian is their first language who dont feel as though the authorities in kiev respect or in any way reflect their legitimate interests, but its very hard to say exactly whos behind all of this. The west, the United States, kiev, has intimated that it is russia who is orchestrating this kinds of uprisings that were seeing. The u. S. Secretary of state and the Russian Foreign minister had a telephone conversation yesterday where john kerry said, you know, there have been arrests recently of russian intelligence operatives operating in that part of the country, and reminded Sergey Lavrov that kiev believes they are behind all of this. This is something that lavrov himself has completely denied and just says that this is the u. S. Ascribing to them what, in fact, the u. S. Is doing itself. And interestingly, the Foreign Ministry here in russia today, carol, said that there were kiev forces forces from kiev alongside various people from the right sector, with american mercenaries, they said, belonging to the Contracting Firm graystone, who were operating and trying to stop protesters from having their voices heard. Of course, this is an allegation that weve heard in russian propaganda in the last couple of weeks, really. Its difficult to confirm ourselves, but that is certainly the claim russia is making. Carol . Reporting live from moscow this morning. Thanks so much. Still to come in the newsroom, the best efforts of man and machine as search cres s raise the most promising lead yet in the recovery of mh 370. Will is covering the search this morning. Will . Reporter right now the search for signals from the missing plane. We are live in Western Australia monitoring this massive operation underway as we speak. Make every day, her day with a full menu of appetizers and entrees crafted with care and designed to delight. Fancy feast. Love served daily. Now the latest on the mystery of Malaysian Air flight 370. This morning the search narrows but more precious time is slipping away. Crews scrambling with new urgency but found no trace of the faint underwater signals heard over the weekend. Today the search area for Malaysian Airlines flight 370 has been drastically scaled back. That red box you see is todays focus, dwarfed by the sprawling gray areas earlier searched by sea and air. One expert says the search area has shrunk to the size of texas to merely the size of the city of houston. Still a big area, though, right . With the batteries on the flight recorders either dead or dying, search efforts are Holding Nothing back. Cnns will ripley isality the hub of tthe is at the hub of the search in perth, australia. Good morning. Reporter youre talking quite a large area. 30,000 square miles. If you think about one ship towing a very long line and basically doing kind of a ladder person. Kind of like you do when mowing your lawn. Back and forth. Each segment of that ladder takes about eight hours. That includes three hours for the ship and the tow line behind it to make a turn, and weve now gone more than two days before hearing a signal underwater. As you know, the ocean shield towing behind the u. S. Navys pinger locator listened to a signal more than two hours over the weekend and tried again. Heard it about 15 minutes, but its been silent ever since. And so the big push right now is to try to relocate that signal, because what needs to happen is, this pinger locator needs to hear the signal multiple times to be able to get a pretty approximate idea of where debris, where wreckage might be, and right now we just dont have the answers. The area still too big for the other equipment thats in the area to work effectively. All right. Will ripley, reporting live from perth, australia. Lets talk more about this. Is all hope lost with now mary schiavo, cnn aviation analyst and cnn Inspector General for the department of transportation and peter golts, a cnn analyst and former ntsb managing director. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Good to see you. Nice to see you both. Peter, the batteries are likely dying or dead in those black boxes. How long will they continue pinging . Well, theres no question that this is a setback for the search. The boxes are designed to have the batteries work 30 days. If they were wellmaintained, it might last 35 days, but that the ocean shield has not reacquired the ping is a genuine setback, and were talking now an investigation that could go on months, if not years. Oh. So mary, searchers have refined the search area. I would assume that still means theyre fairly sure the plane went down in that area . Right. By refining it down to the search area, i think the pings that they did hear were tremendously helpful, because you remember they had that big, long arc they had gotten from the inmarsat data. The pings helped localize it. The pings can extend a wide area. A radius of maybe five miles. So diameter would be ten miles. They still have a really big area based on the pings they did hear. If they were able to pick up more pings they would have reduced the syce and given submersibles just a small area to search. All hope is not lost by any strerch of the imagination but it means the submersibles will have a really long, as they say, mowing the oceans path and block by block cover the city of houston. So, peter, does that mean theyll send the submarines down sooner than later . Well, i think theyre going to keep towing for the sounds. Probably for another week or ten days. And then theyre going to have to reassess and decide how theyre going to examine this area much closer, and theyll have to use side scanning sonar, and as mary knows, as she just said, boy, thats going to be a block by block search. So i think were in a very critical stage of the search, and some Big Decisions are going to have to be made in the next week or so. Thanks to you both, mary schiavo, peter golts. Still to come in the newsroom, equal pay for women and men Takes Center Stage at the white house as president obama prepares to take action on the issue. Jim acosta, live in washington. Good morning, jim. Reporter right. Later this morning president obama will focus on equal pay for women. What about the pay for women located at the office at 1600 pennsylvania avenue . Well talk about that in just a few moments. [ laughter ] smoke . Nah, im good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win w