A critical point. And signing off. The latest running late night host says hes retiring. Youre watching cnn newsroom. We want to welcome our viewers in the u. S. And around the world. Our top story, an underwater search for signs of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 is under way now in the indian ocean. All together 14 aircraft and nine ships will coma area of more than 240 kilometers. But right now they are towing pinger detectors. Right now from perth, australia, matthew joins us. We know the batteries powering the signal theyre listening for will soon go dead. Reporter yes. Thats right. And thats why this new phasein the search operation has really got under way now. The sub Surface Operation with the deployment of the submarine, with the australian vessel that has that sophisticated Search Technology attached to it as well and a british ship with similar capabilities, all working in conjunction with each other in a race against time, essentially, to try and find the pinger which is on the black box flight recorder of that lost airliner. And of course the Battery Power on that pinger is expected to run out, could run out within the next couple of days, and so theres a sort of time sensitivity to it also. They also just got all these assets in the area. So thats why this phase, this sub surface phase of the search operation has only now just got underway, but according to Angus Houston who is the retired air chief marshal whos now heading up the australian led search effort here out of perth, theres still very much a focus, very much a hope that theyll be able to spot some debris from the missing plane on the surface of the ocean. Take a listen. I think theres still great possibility of finding something on the surface. Theres lots of things in aircraft that float. I mean, in previous, previous circuits, life jacketes have appeared, which can be connected to the aircraft that was lost. In fact, one of the most famous investigations of all time, when the british comet jet disappeared over the mediterranean, the key piece of evidence there was a life jacket. Reporter theyre optimistic that if the aircraft is out there it will be found. But he also underlined that the search area being looked in now is extremely big and extremely remote. And so far, remember, after 28 days of looking for any sign of this aircraft, theyve still found no trace of it, natalie. Its really uprenreal that t havent, but as you say, its a huge, huge search area. As far as this underwater search for the data recorders, you say maybe just two more days for the batteries to run. How long will they continue to try to pick up a signal . Reporter well, two more days officially. What specialists in this field say is that the pingers are certified to last 30 days. So thats in two more days, but in practice, depending on the battery strength inside the pingers, they could last for considerably longer than that. So in two days theyre not going to give it up. And the bigger problem is the fact that usually this kind of underwater Search Technology is only used when theres a very good idea of where the actual debris, where the actual carcass of the lost object, in this case, an aircraft, has been positively identified. At the moment theyre just kind of looking for a needle in a haystack as it were because the search area is so big. They dont know exactly where it is. Thats why every day almost were seeing this search area being refined as they move on to areas that they havent looked in yet after they discount areas that theyve searched as thoroughly as they can. So a huge challenge facing these search teams. Certainly is. But there is still hope. Live in perth, thank you. Well, a round of Severe Weather barrelling through the Central United states brought hail, and even twisters touched down in texas. Hail as big as golf balls, you can see right there, was reported in denton, texas. Heavy rains caused flash flooding in kansas and missouri. And a number of people had to be vevacuated from their mobile homes due to the rising water there. The ft. Hood commander says the shooting spree was likely caused by a psychological condition. The u. S. Army specialist killed three people and wounded 16 before killing himself. Investigators are still trying to determine the exact motive, but theyre already forming a theory about what set off lopez wednesday afternoon. There may have been a verbal altercation with another soldier or soldiers, and theres a strong possibility that that in fact immediately preceded the shooting. But we do not have that definitively at this point, but we do have strong indications of that. Lopez shot his victims with a. 45 caliber hand gun that he bought privately after passing a background check. Theres no indication he intended to use the weapon before the day of the shootings. At the moment they are downplaying any connection to terrorism. The background checks weve done thus far show no involvement with extremist organizations of any kind. But as general milli said to me last evening, and i know the chief and i fully support, were not making any assumptions by that. Were going to keep an open mind and an open investigation, and we will go where the facts lead us. Lopez killed himself after being confronted by a military Police Officer. She is being hailed as a hero who saved lives. Brian todd has more about that. Reporter yvonne lopez first opened fire in the medical brigade building. He then walked into the transportation building and fired again, then moved into a parking lot, his destruction while terrifying could have been so much worse had it not been for one female mp. She clearly performed her duty exceptionally will. Reporter officials wont release the mps name saying shes germain to the investigation. But shes likely with the 720th mp battalion. They say she arrived in the parking lot four minutes after the first 911 call. He says lopez approached her and put his hands up then reached under his jacket and pulled out his gun. She determined that as a threat and engaged him with small arms fire, at which time the shooter did a selfinflicted gunshot wound. Most officers would have stepped back and waited for backup, but she stepped forward. Reporter Phillip Carter was responsible for base. She had gone through 18 weeks of training, carter says including on a range involving a scenario called shoot no shoot. Theyre designed to create that split second impulse. Reporter in 2009 it was two civilian officers that stopped nidal hasan. Its an honor that i cant even explain. Reporter Philip Carter says that the mp thatst stopped lope is problemly inexperienced. Imagine that youre making the right call in a matter of seconds. Its incredible she did what she did. Reporter she will likely be slated for promotion. Kimberly munly ended up losing her job as a Police Officer at ft. Hood. She was a siecivilian officer a her contract was not renewed. Americas top diplomat is urging israelis and palestinians to avert a break down in their latest negotiations. Well tell you whats posing the latest threat to the peace talks. Also the ukrainian president and sniper attacks in kiev. Welcome back to cnn newsroom. There is new concern about the state of the u. S. Brokered peace efforts. A seemingly frustrated john kerry is calling on mideast leaders to lead. He says israel and the palestinians must make some fundamental decisions. I think it is a critical moment, obviously. The dialog remains open. There was progress made in narrowing some of the questions that have arisen as a result of the events of the last few days, but theres still a gap, and that gap mwill have to be close and closed fairly soon. As cnns reporter report now, the prospects seem far from promising. Reporter its been going from bad to worse all week. And now whats left of the brokered middle east peace efforts is in tatters. They said israel would not go ahead with the plan to release palestinian prisoners and will reassess its involvement in the process. This followed a stormy meeting between palestinians and american negotiators and described as very, very ugly. Mahmoud john kerry appears to be wearing thin. Today he said facilitate, push, you can nudge, but the parties themselves have to make fundamental decisions and compromises and kerry has facilitated, pushed and nudged tirelessly since starting the effort last summer. All, it may turn out, for nothing. Ben wedeman, cnn, jerusalem. Russian Security Forces have detained 25 ukrainians on suspicion of planning a terror attack. They say the suspects allegedly planned to attack at several locations in russia and some were given their orders from the ukrainian service. Russian Intelligence Officers were involved in planning forces against the protesters. They accuse Viktor Yanukovych of ordering snipers to fire on the protesters. Moscow has long denied involvement. Cnn has more on the report. Reporter they presented very little evidence publicly. They did show diagrams and booklets made up and showing trajectories of bullet shots and firing lines, that kind of thing, but didnt really give any of that key evidence to show why they thought russias Security Service was so closely involved in this, because not only is the Ukrainian Government including accusing 12 members of the riot police of taking part in killing protesters, acting as snipers perched on rooftops, but they say that 32 members came into the country prior, and those are the ones said to have fired on the orders of president vect Viktor Yanukovych. They say they were flown to crimea so they could avoid detection. 12 members of the ukrainian Security Forces have been detained as part of the investigation. In saudi arabia, a last minute payment of socalled blood money will save a woman from execution. She has been on death row for several years after reportedly admitting to killing her employer and stealing some 10,000. She said it was in selfdefense. She was facing execution unless the dead womans family was financially compensated per local custom. Now it has been announced the sum will be paid. The u. S. Government launched ha social media site in cuba. What officials are saying about the program coming up here. Also baby makes three. They soon head off on their tour. Welcome back to cnn newsroom. The u. S. Is denying it tried to overthrow the cuban government by using a twitterlike service. Washington acknowledged the existence of the program but said the purpose of the project was to create a platform to help cubans communicate with one another. It came to light after an Associated Press report. U. S. Officials say its not the case. Congress funds democracy programming to empower cubans to strengthen civil society. These appropriations are public, unlike covert action. In implementing programs in nonpermissive environments, of course the government has taken steps to be discreet. This is not unique to cuba. There was nothing classified or covert about this program, discreet does not equal covert. Having worked with the cia and now here, i know the difference. Covert or not, american attempts to undermine the cuban government goes back decades. There was of course the bay of pigs fiasco when a ragtag group of exiles were funded to help overthrow the government. There were many plots on castros life, many with plots that sound like they are from a james bond movie. Were talking a poisoncoated scuba diving suit. The u. S. Spent 24 million on a program that flies a plane over the island to broadcast americansponsored programs. But the cuban government jams the signal, so it is doubtful that any of it reaches its intended audience. We want to get more now on the severe storms across the u. S. Golf ball sized hail and tornados ripped through parts of the central u. S. On thursday, and the storms could still threaten millions of people come friday afternoon. Weve, actually sometimes we say golf ball sized hail, but weve actually seen it. It was golf ball sized hail. Yes, it was. And its a big swath of states. In the last 60 minutes, weve seen some 1400 lightning strikes. You take a look at the areas that were talking about being impacted. Of course one of those regions around st. Louis, this is bush stadium, playing the Cincinnati Reds on thursday. But lightning strikes left and right. Tornado reported on the outskirts of st. Louis as well into the evening hours there. But overall, 198 reports of stormrelated damage. About 150 of them are related to hail and here is the perspective as far as what we have in store across this region. How oddly enough, the hail report comes out of denton, texas. Plenty of dents to go around. Were talking about this size hailstones and one of our reporters sharing these photos saying hey, the hailstones, you see it on the corner of your screen, most of them are pretty small. Then you get some this large. This is just north of dallas showing us some ominous clouds coming in across this region. This was actually a Minor League Baseball game. Had to be postponed after the third inning as spectators and players were take ofn off the fd because active weather was moving in. Memphis, tennessee about to get in on the action. As very, very active thunderstorms coming in. So far in 2014, weve only seen 70 reports of tornados. We should have roughly 145 when you tabulate those numbers. Look what happens statistically in the month of april. Peak season comes in may and then eventually in june. And you see conditions taper off into the winter months. This is what we have in store for us. The numbers typically prove to be true. At this point, High Pressure remains offshore. And we do have an erica where we have some 33 Million People under a slight risk for Severe Weather on friday afternoon into saturday morning. The main threat going to be large hail. Were not talking about golf ball size for the vast majority, but still, the possibility of damaging hail and an isolated shot of tornados stretching from birmingham into atlanta eventually on in to cincinnati. Quick aly want to show you what happening across the indian ocean. Some low clouds. Hard to pick out on this satellite depiction, but low clouds as low as 1,000 feet. Many of these aircraft can fly as low as 300 feet. But there is a Tropical Cyclone trying to form west of this region. Look what happens as we get into sunday and monday, and the winds with the storm system also going to be encroaching on the search zone next week. So the weather looks okay the next couple days. Could be threatened by sunday and monday. The next two days are critical, too, because theyre really searching for those underground pingers. Thank you. We want to tell you about a special meeting between two of the worlds most notable public figures. Hmm, who might that be . Pope francis were talking about and Britains Queen elizabeth. They metz and exchanged gifts. The pope gave the queen a blue or orb. And the queen gave the pope some kpis key. The duke and duchess go on a trip with Prince George. He almost upstaged his parents in the familys official portrait recently. We have more for you. Reporter it was designed to whet the appetite, a portrait of a family, preparing for its first trip together overseas. Theres no doubt hell be the star of the showdown under. Its long trip for an 8 month old george, but the little pribss father william went on a strikingly similar tour at the same age. The family will certainly be fitting a lot in. The first glimpse of him will be on monday when they arrive in wellington new zealand. They have a mission to meet as many people as possible, including relatives of the 185 people who died in the Christ Church earthquake in tlifl. Expect to see the duke and duchess of cambridge getting involved in outdoor pursuits. And experiencing traditional married culture. Kate hasnt been to either country before. So theyll be taking in all the sights. In australia, that will include sidney opera house and an exercise on the beach. And perhaps an appearance for Prince George at the zoo in sidney the where an enclosure has been dedicated to him. The added star power of two future kings is expected to test the strong republic. With huge crowds expected at every public appearance. Cnn, london. The Scientists Say they believe they have found an ocean in outer space. It is on saturns moon enceladus. They say its made up of saltwater and as deep as 10 kilometers. They say it is the most likely place besides our solar system that could support life. Something to ponder. Just ahead, more on the search for the missing malaysian airliner. And why todays weather is raising hopes for some kind of breakthrough. Also, reliving a nightmare at ft. Hood military base in texas. Imagine if everything you learned led to the one job you always wanted. At university of phoenix, we believe every education not just ours should be built around the career that you want. Imagine that. Youre watching cnn newsroom. Hello, im natalie allen. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Heres a check of our headlines. Two ships are scanning for pings from malaysian flight 370. The hope is to peck up a signal before the batteries go dead. Todays operation has 14 aircraft and nine ships searching. So far, no debris. Severe weather moving across the central u. S. Has spawned a number of tornados. This one touched down just outside of dallas, texas. The town of denton, texas was hit with hail the size of golf balls. Five more soldiers wounded by Army Specialist ivan lopez have been released from the hospital. Others had their conditions upgrad upgraded. Lopez killed four people, he wounded 16 before killing himself. Some of the equipment being used to listen for the socalled black boxes on flight 370 comes from the u. S. Navy. The man in charge of that spoke with our paula newton about its operation and chances for success. This terrain is not as mountainous as some terrain. So you can adjust the dipt as you need to for gradual change. So i have confidence in our