Search for flight 370. This morning, australias Prime Minister says hes confident that the signals crews are hearing under water are from the planes black boxes, and he says they could be within just a few miles of finding them. Also this morning, the search zone has narrowed once again, just 18,000 square miles. This is so much smaller than the area they were looking in before, this as they race against time to find the flight recorders before their batteries run out, if, in fact, they havent run out already. Our Senior International correspondent, Matthew Chance, live in perth with the latest this morning. Whats going on there, matthew . Reporter well, theres been a lot of activity, of course, in the search zone, which as you mentioned has narrowed significantly over the past several days to an area which is much more manageable, i suppose, for the dozen or so aircraft and dozen or so ships that are currently scouring, including the australian vessel, the ocean shield, thats been using technology to scan for underwater pings on loan from the u. S. Navy, also the british sh ship, hms echo is in that search area now as well, using its technology to try and map the ocean floor and also try and detect any further signals from the beacons from that missing malaysian airliner. Hopes were elevated, as you mentioned, earlier today by the australian Prime Minister, tony abbott. Hes on official visit to china. Take a listen to what he said earlier today. 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 hm370. Reporter well, tony abbott also saying that he was very confident that the signals coming from under water that had been detected over four occasions now by the australian vessel, the ocean shield, are, indeed, from the black boxes of the missing malaysian airliner. What the head of the search operation, though, here, Angus Houston, is saying that so far, throughout the course of this day, theres been no real significant breakthrough in the search. Theyre still continuing to scour the indian ocean by air, and of course, in that very much more limited search area about 1,000 miles or so off the coast of western australia, john. So, Angus Houston leading the search, sort of tempering the enthusiasm right now at the same time that the Prime Minister of australia really seems to be raising hopes that they are getting very, very close. Matthew chance for us in perth this morning. Thank you so much. So, as for the investigation into why flight 370 flew off course, this morning malaysian officials are poring over data after revealing to cnn that the jet dropped altitude and disappeared from radar after crossing over malaysia. Senior International CorrespondentNic Robertson broke this part of the story. Hes been working it ever since. Hes in kuala lumpur for us this morning. Looks like his shot is a little dodgy. Are we going to get nic . Sounds like no. Okay. Were going to take a closer look at all this new information when we come back. Nic has some incredible reporting over the past couple of days about just what this flight was doing, what might have happened inside the flight 370 cockpit. You know, this morning we mentioned how the Prime Minister of australia says that hes getting much closer, he thinks, to finding these black boxes. This has an enormous impact on all the families of those some 239 people on board the flight looking for any answers, waiting for all this time now for any answers. That Prime Minister was in china meeting with the chinese leader. A lot of information coming out. Lets go to Pauline Chiou. Shes been in beijing talking to the families. Of course, they want answers. Pauline . Reporter well, john, the families here are aware of the comments from Prime Minister tony abbott, but theyre also aware of the comments coming out of perth that say that there has been no major breakthrough, so its a bit of a mixed message, and thats exactly what the families have complained about coming from the malaysian government early on in the search. But theyre trying to tune out all the noise and concentrate on the information coming in. And right now they are meeting with malaysian officials, that Technical Team weve been talking about for weeks. They come here to beijing every couple of days, and the families are asking questions. Theyve been asking a lot of questions about the airplane, about those emergency beacons, speed, altitude, decompression. But as a whole, the relatives have been quite frustrated by the response. Take a listen. They cannot answer either, and weve asked them several times and we want to communicate with inmarsat and boeing directly, but im not sure whether they didnt send out such requests or boeing and inmarsat refused to give us that kind of help. Reporter so, youre hearing steve wang there saying he wants to invite representatives from some of the plane manufacturers, such as boeing, and also manufacturer of parts, such as rolls royce, which makes the engines. They are also asking for inmarsat representatives to come here to beijing because they have so many technical questions. John, as you know, theyve been doing their research for the past 35 days. They know what theyre talking about. Theyre digesting all of this. They do a lot of research on the internet. Theyre talking with each other. I mean, some of them act like lawyers when theyre asking questions. So, they say theyre hitting a brick wall with some of the malaysian officials in terms of responses. They want the representatives from these particular companies to come here and answer their questions. Pauline, as australian officials seem to indicate, they think they may be closing in on those black boxes. Any of the families discussing travel arrangements, maybe heading to perth to be closer where this investigation is going on . Reporter not at all. In fact, many of them are saying theyre not even thinking about it until they actually see some sort of debris or something, or the black box or images of the plane. In fact, if anything, theyre talking about maybe, possibly going back home to their home villages, because theyve been here for 35 days. And if they do go back home, they are trying to arrange for relatives to take their spot here at the hotel, because once they leave their room, theres no guarantee that Malaysia Airlines will cover the cost. But in terms of perth, theyre not quite there yet. They say they just want something definite, something more concrete before they even allow themselves to take that trip. John . Cautious approach. All right, Pauline Chiou for us in beijing this morning. Thanks so much. All right, we fixed our technical issues. We want to get back to Nic Robertson in kuala lumpur for the latest on the investigation. And nic, bring us up to speed with the new developments in terms of the altitude that you were reporting and what malaysian officials are saying about the investigation this morning. Reporter yeah, this is a new detail weve been getting, this change in altitude. Theres been no mention of any change in altitude in the route of flight 370. Now, according to officials here, they lost sight of the aircraft flying over the malacca straits. This is after it crossed back over the malaysian peninsula. Lost sight of it on military radar. Then, about 120 nautical miles further away, they picked it up again on that military radar. The assessment theyve made is what the aircraft did was dip down to about 4,000 to 5,000 feet above sea level, so its coming down from about 35,000 to 4,000 to 5,000 before climbing back up again. Thats a 30,000foot change. And the conclusion that theyre coming to, this was done on purpose, whoevers behind the controls knew what they were doing, had good control over the aircraft, an indication there that its not suffering a significant mechanical issue. And they believe that whoever was at the controls was trying to, if you will, duck the aircraft under what is a busy civilian passenger jetway. Because, of course, at that time, there was no information being transmitted from the aircraft that would have been picked up by other aircraft to give it an indication, which, again, for investigators would tell them perhaps that whoever was piloting the aircraft would have been aware that that transponder had failed. To transmit that information, the acars information, so therefore, it had to fly under the path of these other jets, which again links up a very important fact. Mechanical problem that turned the acars satellite locating system off or somebody doing it. Now it seems to give indication that perhaps, perhaps whoever was flying the aircraft knew that, knew they had to avoid these other aircraft. They wouldnt be able to see it on their own inflight radar systems. Fascinating developments. All right, Nic Robertson live for us in kuala lumpur this morning. Of course, well bring you the latest on the search for flight 370 all morning long. A lot else happening right now, including intense, dramatic testimony in south africa as Oscar Pistorius tries to explain why he shot and killed his girlfriend. A confrontational morning in court. Surprising comments from the judge. Well take you there live to tell you whats going on. Also this morning, devastation on a california highway. A tour bus full of High School Students crashes, bursts into flames. The very latest after the break. vo you are a business pro. Maestro of project management. Baron of the buildout. You need a permit. To be this awesome. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. And only national is ranked highest in car rental Customer Satisfaction by j. D. Power. aaron purrrfect. vo meeeow, business pro. Meeeow. Go national. Go like a pro. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. 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The olympic sprinter torn into by the prosecutor over what he did in the days and weeks before he shot and killed Reeva Steenkamp, including pistoriuss allegation that he had been targeted for violence by someone who shot at him when he was driving. When the prosecutor asked, why cant pistorius remember who he called after it happened, listen. I dont know who i phoned, my lady. My counsel did ask me and i told them i dont know. Because it never happened. You dont want anybody to check up. Thats the only reason why you would forget who picked you up that night that someone almost shot you. Thats not true, my lady. Its the one night that somebody almost shot you, am i right . Thats correct, my lady. And you can remember you remember exactly where you turned left, where you turned right and how you got there, exactly. Thats correct, my lady. But you do not remember who you phoned. That doesnt make sense. Thats correct, my lady. That doesnt make sense. You dont want anybody to be able to check up on this. Thats not true, my lady. Right now pistorius is answering questions about shooting steenkamp, including why he never waited for her response when he claims he thought he heard an intruder. Cnn legal analyst kelly phelps at the courthouse in pretorius for us right now. Kelly, walk us through what prosecutors are trying to prove here and what the prosecutors asking him specifically about shooting Reeva Steenkamp. Really compelling testimony happening at this moment. Reporter what the prosecutors trying to do is hes trying to now hone in to specific details about pistoriuss version of events, and one by one, try to illustrate that they are so improbable, there is such a lack of a reasonable explanation for why he would have behaved in that way, that the only reasonable inference or deduction that the judge can make from that is that he must, in fact, not be telling the truth, he must be lying. Fascinating. When you listen to this talk, all of this conversation about the security in his house, why he didnt call, or why he doesnt know who he called after he was shot at. Are they trying to prove that hes made this big story about being afraid, which is really the premise of shooting Reeva Steenkamp, is that he was very afraid that someone was trying to hurt him and get into his home . Reporter well, that claim of his, that he was so fearful of burglaries, of home intrusions, that thats what caused him to make the mistake, that is absolutely a central claim to his defense, so its not surprising that the prosecutors are really spending a lot of time trying to dig hole at the reasonableness, of the foundation of that allegation. So, what theyre suggesting is, is that if you go back through his history, he claims hes had all of these interactions with crime. But in fact, if you look at them one by one, none of them were really that severe, none of them would have caused him to be that fearful of crime, and then, therefore, again, by implication, he must be lying. Let me ask you about this judge, because weve heard just in the last 40 minutes or so, she was asking Oscar Pistorius if he was tired, if he was able to give the testimony, because its the best thing for him, the best thing for the case for him to be in good shape, best thing for the court. Also, just earlier this week, she adjourned when he was so overwrought that he was having trouble testifying on the stand. There are observers in this country, you know, with different legal systems, but observers in this country who are saying this judge is being very, very friendly to a man whos accused of brutally murdering a woman. Reporter in fairness, in terms of this legal system, she is treating Oscar Pistorius absolutely no differently to how she would treat and has treated any other witness in any other case in this country. We have an accuseatorial system. The judge needs to be an impartial empire, and a lot of the evidence is largely center aernd oral testimony. That is her primary way to apply her mind and issue a judgment that she believes is right and fair. If any witness is not composed, they are so rattled by emotion that she can no longer get a clear and coherent account of what they are saying, it essentially ties her hands behind her back in terms of what she has on the record to reach a fair and just decision. So, its not surprising. Its certainly not an indication of undue sympathy with this particular witness or accused person. This would happen with any witness in any case. Yeah, shes been very measured throughout the whole course of this as well. Thank you so much, kelly phelps. 18 minutes after the hour. A fiery bus crash has left at least nine people dead on a california interstate. Many of them are High School Students. This crash happened not far from chico. The bus colliding head on with a truck. Police say the truck had crossed the median from the other direction. Both the bus and the truck burst into flames. The bus was carrying Prospective College students from Southern California on their way to visit Humboldt State university up near oregon. Nearly three dozen other passengers were hurt. What a horrible accident. Terrible. All right, stocks around the world falling today. The nikkei in japan, lowest level of the year. Todays drop follows a major selloff on wall street yesterday. Let me show you. Tech stocks led the way. The nasdaq down 3. 1 , its biggest drop since 2011. Very big losses yesterday. One tech company to watch today, watch shares of amazon. Its shares got hit, of course, in yesterdays selloff, but what everyone is buzzing about this morning is Ceo Jeff Bezos letter to shareholders, announcing amazon would pay employees to quit. Once a year, the companys going to offer staff between 2,000 and 5,000 to quit. Policy was initially started by another online retailer, zappos. Remember, zappos was bought by amazon in 2009. The theory is, if youre not happy enough at amazon to pass up that money, youre not going to be a productive employee for the company. If youre not happy, they dont want you to stick around because you need your paycheck. They want to give you a Little Something so that you can move along. Its like the unhappiness bonus there. All right, 20 minutes after the hour. New information revealed on what may have happened inside the cockpit of flight 370 just before it vanished. Were going to break this all down for you after the break. In todays road warriors, a lot of places to pick an airline for your next flight, but how do you know its reputation with travelers . You could check the Better Business bureau, keeps records on all the major carriers. Delta, southwest and united all have aplus grades from the Better Business bureau. Jetblue has a bplus, so does spirit. Letter grades are based on factors such as how long the business has been operating, the number of complaints and the response to those complaints