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Oscar Pistorius Steps Down After Five Grueling Days Of Cross- Examination; Liverpool Football Club Commemorates 25th Anniversary Of Hillsborough Disaster; Amateur Astronomers Out To See Lunar Eclipse; Leading Women: Kathy Bloomgarden; Ukrainian National Guard Move Into Eastern Ukraine

Aired April 15, 2014 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONITA RAJPAL, HOST: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Oscar Pistorius ends five days of tough cross-examination.

Russia says Ukraine stands on the brink of civil war.

And 25 years ago, 96 fans went to a football match and never came home. We look back at the Hillsborough disaster.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel has wrapped up his grueling cross-examination of Oscar Pistorius. Nel had been questioning the Olympic sprinter about the night he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Today, he continued to push Pistorius on details from that night attempting to show that he shot her deliberately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRIE NEL, PROSECUTOR: Mr. Pistorius, listen to me. I'm saying -- you heard the magazine rack and you changed your aim.

OSCAR PISTORIUS, ACCUSED OF MURDERING REEVA STEENKAMP: That's incorrect, My Lady.

NEL: Because I was waiting for you to say you heard the magazine rack. And you did. It's when she fell on the magazine rack and you changed your aim.

PISTORIUS: My Lady, I wouldn't have possibly heard her fall on the magazine rack, because according to the state's evidence the fourth shot missed, or one of the shots missed. I wouldn't have heard anyone fall inside of a toilet whilst I was shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJPAL: Well, now that Gerrie Nel has finished his cross-examination, let's take a look at some of his main points.

While Pistorius maintains he shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp accidentally, the prosecution argues Pistorius killed Steenkamp intentionally after a heated argument. Pistorius is hinging his case on mistaken identity, claiming he thought Steenkamp was an intruder.

But Nel says Pistorius knew exactly who was behind that door. And he has relentlessly tried to prove his point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEL: She locked herself into the toilet. You armed yourself for the sole purpose of shooting and killing her.

PISTORIUS: That's not true, My Lady.

NEL: And that's what you did.

Afterwards, indeed, you were overcome by what you've done. That is true.

PISTORIUS: That is true, My Lady.

NEL: Only because it was your intention to kill her, you realized that.

PISTORIUS: Oh, no, I (inaudible), My Lady.

NEL: Thank you, My Lady. I have nothing further for this witness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJPAL: Well, Prosecutor Nel portrays Pistorius as a trigger happy hothead who was reckless with guns, drawing on accounts of his use of firearms in the past.

Nel also accuses the Olympic sprinter of giving a false account of the night and of altering the version of events he previously gave on his bail application.

To this end, the prosecution has focused on minute details attempting to point out inconsistencies.

Well, Robyn Curnow is following the trial in South Africa. She joins us now from outside the court in Pretoria.

Robyn, so where do things stand now?

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we saw after cross-examination was reexamination. And it was remarkably short. I think all of us sitting in court thought that Barry Roux, Oscar Pistorius's counsel, would perhaps go word for word and try and rebut some of the concessions or the confusions, perhaps, that Oscar Pistorius might have made during the last five days under cross-examination.

Instead, he did the exact opposite of what Gerrie Nel, the state prosecutor, had been doing which was drawing things out, going around in circles, trying to go to those minute events, as you described. He just touched on a few key central points in the defense's case seemingly try to bring it all back to what they believe are the important crucial issues at stake. And then, he just said, OK, that's all I have.

So, Oscar Pistorius getting off the docket, getting off the stand. No obvious sense of relief. You know, I was sort of looking at him thinking perhaps he would smile or he would sigh with relief. Absolutely nothing. He looks exhausted. His eyes are hollow. There are black rings in them. And you really get a sense that this is a man who, of course, has been through a lot in the last seven days and he's got a lot more to go through, because as he said it, he's also fighting for his life.

RAJPAL: We understand that there are some -- more than a dozen more witnesses yet to be called on the stand. When exactly is that expected to start happening?

CURNOW: Well, it's happened already, because after that very short reexamination, witness number two was called by the defense, a forensic geologist, a trace expert essentially who then took the court back to a lot of this hard evidence. And again we saw it quite clinical and quite a lot of discussion over that. We're going to see it now back after the lunch break.

And this witness was going on about, you know, at fivers -- white fivers that he found in the door, which would back Oscar Pistorius's statement that he kicked the door, because these according to this expert, looked like they are from his sock on his prosthetic leg.

We also heard him talk very interestingly about how he had reconstructed the darkness, the quality of light in Oscar Pistorius's bedroom. He went back on a moonless night like it was that Valentine's morning and he drew the curtains and he tried to simulate the same sort of environment and he said based on that experience that Oscar Pistorius's bedroom was very dark, pitch dark, that he wouldn't -- could see his hand in front of his face. And of course, that'll play into the defense's case about Oscar Pistorius not only being fearful and -- of an intruder, of the darkness, his paranoia at nighttime, but also plays into his -- you know, the really big question the prosecution put to him was how could you not have possibly known that Reeva Steenkamp was or wasn't in bed next to you.

So, all of this now playing out not on an emotional kind of level, but very factual. And I think that is very much the focus of the case of the defense's case as they bring their next 12 or so witnesses.

RAJPAL: All right, Robyn, thank you. Robyn Curnow live for us from Pretoria.

A short time ago, the Russian prime minister declared Ukraine to be on the brink of civil war. This comes after Ukraine's acting president said the country was acting on its ultimatum that pro-Russian demonstrators lay down weapons or face consequences. A national guard battalion made up of 350 troops has been sent to eastern Ukraine from Kiev, part of what Ukraine says is an anti-terrorist operation.

Since that announcement Ukrainian police appear to have taken back control of their headquarters from pro-Russia separatists in the eastern city of Kharmatosk (ph). But there are still at least ten towns and cities in the Donetsk region where demonstrators are refusing to back down. Those activists are calling for a break with Ukraine and there is no sign of de- escalation.

CNN's Phil Black has more now from Kharkiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Even with the threat of a military crackdown, violent protests continue to sweep eastern Ukraine, tensions with Russia extending far beyond Ukraine's borders. Ukraine's acting president now calling on the United Nations to send peacekeepers to help subdue the violence. With 40,000 Russian troops just across the border, Russian officials reject accusations that the demonstrations are a deliberate attempt to destabilize Ukraine.

This was the scene in Horlivka (ph), more than 100 pro-Russian separatists swarming a police station, the police chief forced out and beaten, a demonstrator injured, another key building in yet another eastern Ukrainian city overtaken.

Warnings of an anti-terror operation if protesters didn't surrender, barricaded government buildings by Monday were ignored, the latest such ultimatum to go unheeded. Instead, pro-Russian protesters seemed to be gaining momentum.

And tensions between the U.S. and Russia are growing after a Russian fighter jet made 12 close range passes near an American warship in the Black Sea on Saturday. The Pentagon calling the 19 minute close encounter provocative and unprofessional.

ELI LAKE, THE DAILY BEAST: This, I think, is the most sort of direct challenge to a U.S. destroyer that was in international waters. And it seems like you're basically seeing a kind of flexing of muscles right now as the crisis builds.

BLACK: Phil Black, CNN, Kharkiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: And in a human rights report, the United Nations draws parallels between Crimea and what's now unfolding in Ukraine's east. But in Monday's phone call between the Russian and U.S. presidents Moscow and said Ukraine was to blame for the unrest for not taking into account the interests of the Russian population.

Well, let's get a little bit more on that. CNN's Diana Magnay joins us now live from the Russian capital in Moscow -- Diana.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Monita.

Well, there is an endless shifting of blame between the two sides. And Moscow is very good at saying one thing and doing another, as we've seen in Crimea. It's policy in relation to eastern Ukraine is that this has nothing to do with us. President Putin told President Obama that suggestions that there were Russian agents and provocateurs on the ground instrumentalizing this unrest was based on inaccurate information.

They've given no indication, though, as to who they think is behind these very well coordinated orchestrated events other than them being just grass roots expression of people's wish not to be dictated to by Kiev. And Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, issuing an interesting statement on his Facebook account today deploring the sequence of events over the last few months, but talking about there being a silver lining to the unrest going on right now, because it gives the people of Ukraine a chance to determine their own future and the formation of a new Ukrainian state. And he says without impostors, nationalists or gangsters, without tanks or APCs, which is ironic when you consider Crimea, and without secret CIA director visits. Now clearly a dig at the U.S. who was forced to admit -- the White House admitting yesterday that their CIA director had indeed paid a visit to Kiev last Saturday as had been widely reported in the Russian media, Monita.

RAJPAL: Yeah, there's a lot of talk of provocation there on both sides, yet there's also this story of Russian fighter jet flying over an American interest. What more do we know about that?

MAGNAY: Monita?

RAJPAL: Yeah, Diana, can you hear me?

All right, we seem to have lost contact or communication there with Diana. Diana Magnay was reporting there live for us from Moscow.

You are watching News Stream. When we return, an unmanned submarine could soon resume the underwater search for flight 370. We'll tell you why its first mission was cut short.

And the deadliest violence that Nigeria's capital has ever witnessed. We'll have the latest on the bombing that killed 71 people in Abuja.

Also, it's been 25 years since Britain's worst sporting disaster. We look back at the tragedy at Hillsborough.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Welcome back.

The unmanned submarine known as the Bluefin-21, could be back under water later today scouring the sea bed for any trace of Malaysia Airlines flight 370.

The search vehicle failed to find any objects of interest on its first mission on Monday, a trip that was cut short because the water was deeper than expected and the device had not been programmed to descend that far.

And we've learned some new information about what happened the day the plane vanished. A U.S. official tells CNN the co-pilot of flight 370 had a cell phone on around the time the plane went off radar. Aviation experts say that raises even more questions about what was going on in the cockpit in that day. CNN's Pamela Brown reports now from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sources tell CNN First Officer Fariq Hamid's cell phone was on and searching for service roughly half an hour after all of Flight 370's communications mysteriously shut off, information CNN has learned that Malaysian authorities first gave to the U.S. a while ago. DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It would be very rare, in my opinion, to have someone with a cell phone on in the cockpit. It's never supposed to be on at all as part of every checklist of every airline I'm familiar with.

BROWN: Sources say Malaysian authorities have told the U.S. that a cell near Paning (ph), Malaysia, roughly 250 miles from where the plane turned around, picked up a roaming signal from Hamid's cell phone, suggesting his was the only phone turned on after the flight's transponder turned off.

One U.S. official told CNN quote "He could have tried to do something with the phone. We don't know."

SOUCIE: You know the interesting thing about that is that no other phone connected to it. It was just specifically his cell phone.

BROWN: While U.S. and Malaysian officials caution there is no evidence the first officer tried to make a call with the phone, on Sunday, Malaysia's transport minister did not deny the possibility.

HISHAMMUDDIN HUSSEIN, MALAYSIAN ACTING TRANSPORTATION MINISTER: As far as I know, no. But like I said that would be in the realm of the police. And the other international agencies and when the time comes, they will be revealed. But I do not want to speculate on that at the moment.

BROWN: When the plane first went missing, authorities said millions of cell phone records were searched looking for evidence calls had been made from the plane but turned up nothing. Still, if Hamid's cell phone connected with the tower, it only adds to the evidence that the plane turned westward from its planned path and that the plane was likely flying low enough for a cell tower to pick up the phone's signal.

SOUCIE: So, it does make me think that perhaps it was a little lower than the 35,000 feet that we speculated because of the fact it did make the connection. Typically, there's not even time to do that but they were still high enough in which it just made -- just made the connection and there was no speaking or no long period of time.

BROWN (on camera): And what this information doesn't tell us, according to U.S. officials, is a motive and who was alive and who was not at the time the cell tower detected the co-pilot's phone.

Also worth pointing out, the aircraft never had a cell phone system installed and again, I want to reiterate, this information was shared by the Malaysians with U.S. investigators and the Malaysians could be privy to other information that we don't know about.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Well, meanwhile, samples from an oil slick found over the weekend are being transported to shore now. Tests will determine whether there is a link to the missing plane. For more on this and other developments in the search for flight 370, Erin McLaughlin joins us now from search headquarters in Perth, Australia -- Erin.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Monita.

Well, as far as we know, the Bluefin-21, the underwater autonomous vehicle provided and operated by the U.S. navy still aboard the Ocean Shield. Bad weather preventing it from being put back down into the water. And we're also learning some new details about its very first mission. We're hearing that it was only underneath the water for about seven-and-a- half hours. It only covered around 29 percent of the 40 square kilometers it was supposed to have mapped out.

Now what happened was it encountered some deeper waters that it was unexpected at the limits of its depth capacity and therefore it resurfaced to reprogrammed before being sent back down.

Now as for that 40 square kilometer area that was supposed to have been covered, it's important because officials have identified that area as the most probable place that the black box will be found based on those pings, all those detections of -- four detections in total -- that it had received earlier in the week, and in the past week as well.

But authorities analyzed the limited data the that Bluefin-21 was able to acquire on the sea floor and so far no objects of interest have been found. And officials all along really have warned that this could be a very slow, very meticulous process operating at these depths is very slow and can be very painful, certainly not easy -- Monita.

RAJPAL: Yeah, very different scenario, though, on the other search that is also continuing. You raised an interesting point when we spoke earlier, Erin, about that. There are two searches that are taking place right now, one that is obviously for this -- this data recorder, this voice data recorder, the other one for the debris. What about the search for that?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well, Angus Houston, the man responsible for coordinating this multinational search effort in his press conference yesterday saying that that search effort is expected to wrap up in the next couple of days. He said that they had been searching for hours and hours and found no physical signs of the actual plane. He said that the next couple of days the eight countries participating in that effort will reassess, but it's looking more and more likely that they will in fact decide to finish with that particular search operation -- Monita.

RAJPAL: All right, Erin, thank you. Erin McLaughlin there live for us from Perth.

Still to come here on News Stream, the aftermath of the deadliest attack this city has ever seen. Nigeria's capital under very tight security today. Who the president says is behind Monday's bus station bombing next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Security has been tightened in the Nigerian capital Abuja after a bomb blast at a bus station on Monday killed at least 71 people.

Well, no group has claimed responsibility. Suspicion immediately fell on Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Vladimir Duthiers reports on the deadliest attack the capital has ever seen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VLADIMIR DUTHIERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Bodies scattered everywhere," that's how one first responder describes the scene of Monday's explosion that killed 71 people and injured more than 130 at a bus station on the outskirts on Nigeria's capital Abuja.

CHARLES OTEGBADE, DIRECTOR, SEARCH AND RESCUE NEMA: The explosion came from inside a vehicle and it affected quite a number of -- quite a number of people.

DUTHIERS: It happened during morning rush hour as commuters were about to board buses and taxis to go to work.

ANTHONY ADIKWU, WITNESS: Those workers on the streets, those going to work along the roadside. Let me say, I can't even (inaudible) to my own (inaudible).

DUTHIERS: President Goodluck Jonathan visited the scene late Monday and security forces have been placed on red alert as the police carry out their investigation. GOODLUCK JONATHAN, PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA (through translator): We condole with our country men and women. We will continue to work very hard the issue of Boko Haram attack is (inaudible) within this period of our own development, the government will do everything to make sure that we move our country forward.

DUTHIERS: No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, but the jihadist terror group Boko Haram has carried out attacks in the capital before.

Amnesty International says in the first three months of this year, more than 1,500 people in northeast Nigeria have been killed in attacks by Boko Haram and by Nigeria's security force's heavy-handed response, which the rights groups says may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Young girls abducted, entire villages razed to the ground, residents killed in fire bomb attacks, shot or hacked to death, a cycle of violence UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has called increasingly monstrous. And while police officials have urged people to go about their business without fear, some are left wondering if this attack in the capital means the violence, which has killed so many, may be growing beyond the northeast and into the heart of Nigeria itself.

Vladimir Duthiers, CNN, Lagos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Just ahead, 25 years after a tragedy at a British football stadium, people come together to remember those who were lost in the HIllsborough disaster.

And another tragic anniversary, we take a look at how Boston is coping one year after the marathon bombings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Hello, I'm Monita Rajpal in Hong Kong. You are watching News Stream and these are the headlines.

After five days of tough cross-examination, Oscar Pistorius is off the stand. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel questioned the Olympic sprinter on details from the night he killed his girlfriend attempting to show that he shot her deliberately. Pistorius maintains it was a terrible accident.

Russia has just declared Ukraine to be on the brink of civil war. This, as Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov says an anti- terrorist operation is underway in the eastern Donetsk region. Officials say a national guard battalion of 350 troops has been sent to the region from Kiev.

The search continues for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370. the unmanned submarine known as Bluefin-21 is due to head back underwater later today. The search vehicles fail to find any objects of interest on its first mission on Monday.

25 years ago today 96 Liverpool fans went to a football match. They never came back. They were crushed to death at an FA Cup semifinal match at Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium. It is Britain's worst stadium disaster.

In about an hour from now Liverpool Football Club will host a memorial for the victims, but the scars of that day still linger in the city. We're joined now by World Sport's Don Riddell who recent spoke to families of the victims -- Don.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Monita.

You know, football in England back in the 1980s was a far cry from what we have now. Now we have gleaming all seater stadiums that fans get to enjoy football in -- especially during Premier League games. But it was so different 25 years ago. Many supporters back then used to stand on terracing, specifically behind the goals.

This is a great example of what it used to look like. There were no assigned spaces. Crowds were expected to find their own level. And I used to watch football like this. At times it was a lot of fun.

You can see there a fence. The hooligan problem in the 70s and 80s prompted some football grounds to put in these caged fences essentially to keep the supporters apart. But that was one of the things that led to the disaster 25 years ago. And in English football everything changed after Hillsborough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIDDELL: It began with such hope and excitement, a warm spring day in April when Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were going to play in the FA Cup semifinal, but it ended in disaster.

WENDY DERBYSHIRE, HILLSBOROUGH SURVIVOR: It was like a war scene I felt like imagined how it would be where people are dying, people are dead, other people don't know what to do.

RIDDELL: 96 Liverpool supporters were crushed to death on the terracing behind the goal at the Hillsborough Stadium at Sheffield, England, hundreds more were injured and traumatized.

DERBYSHIRE: The closest thing I can liken it to is a horror film where it's really scary and the hairs on the back of your neck start to stand up. Of course if it's a horror film you can turn it off, you can walk out, you don't have to sit there and watch it, but this was real.

RIDDELL: Of the 54,000 supporters attending the game, nearly half had been asked to enter through a small number of turnstiles at one end of the ground on Leppings Lane. But the narrow turnstiles couldn't handle the sheer number of fans. A crush was starting to develop outside.

David Varley was a 23-year-old newspaper photographer assigned to cover the match.

DAVID VARLEY, PHOTOGRAPHER: It took me probably 20 minutes to push through the crowd. And I actually remember getting into the stadium through the photographer's entrance and being out of breath and thinking this is unusual. You know, I was crushed trying to get through there.

RIDDELL: The dangerous buildup of people outside prompted the police to open one of the large exit gates. As a result, more than 2,000 additional supporters streamed through, down a dark tunnel and towards two central pens behind the goal. Those pens, fenced in at the front and the sides to guard against football hooligans, were already overcrowded.

Wendy Derbyshire was sitting in the front row of the upper tier, directly above the crowded pens.

DERBYSHIRE: It looked very, very tight as if you wouldn't be able to lift your arms even to scratch your nose or whatever. And normally a crowd would like move, would sway, but they were packed so tight you can see they couldn't actually do that. They couldn't sway about. And I thought, oh, I'm glad I'm not in that, that looks really nasty.

RIDDELL: With many of those Liverpool supporters crying for help, the game kicked off at 3:00 pm. Some of them were able to escape the crush and make their way onto the pitch gasping for breath. The game was stopped after six minutes when it became clear that a tragedy was unfolding.

DERBYSHIRE: You've got people lying everywhere, their faces exposed. I mean, eventually they were covered up, but not to start with.

VARLEY: I had an older photographer next to me who worked for Press Association. And I turned to John and said, you know, he looks in a bad way and he said he's dead, David. And then it hit me.

RIDDELL: 96 Liverpool supporters were killed at Hillsborough Stadium. Two years later, a coroner's inquest ruled that their deaths were accidental. But the survivors and the victim's families have never been satisfied that all the evidence was considered and have campaigned for a new hearing.

And now, on the 25th anniversary of the disaster, they're attending a new inquest hoping to learn what really happened at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIDDELL: Monita, it is 24 years since Liverpool last won the league title in England. They used to be the preeminent force in the 70s and 80s in English league football, but they are now just four wins away from winning the Premiere League title for the first time. And they're being inspired by their captain Steven Gerrard whose cousin was the youngest victim on Hillsborough. His cousin was just 10-years-old when he died in Sheffield that day.

Of course, a buoyant mood in Liverpool when you are talking about the football team, but a very, very somber mood expected around this time and with the memorial service coming up within the next hour.

Of course for the Liverpool supporters, delivering the league title this year would be a fitting tribute for the 96 for the families, of course, that really would be a distant third behind learning the truth and getting a new verdict. That inquest is expected to last a year. Back to you.

RAJPAL: Yeah. It's a city of mixed emotions at this time. It certainly would be a bitter sweet victory indeed.

Don, thank you so much. Don Riddell live for us there from CNN Center.

Well, exactly one year ago today the city of Boston, Massachusetts saw unspeakable tragedy of its own. Two explosions near the finishline of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured at least 264. A year on, many residents are still coming to terms with what happened. And victims are struggling to piece their lives back together. But the city's spirit is not broken. A memorial will be held later today. And on Monday, the marathon returns with an even bigger field of runners. Of course security will be extremely tight.

Alexandra Field spoke to one runner for whom the race is much more than just a competition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A freshly painted finish line and with it a new beginning for 36,000 runners ready to cross it.

SALLY DUVAL, RUNNER: April 15th last year was the hardest day I`ve had since, you know, the fall of 2001, the emotions and feelings came crashing back.

FIELD: When the bombs went off at last year`s marathon, Sally Duval`s husband, a runner, had just reached mile 25. He was unharmed but she quickly became determined.

DUVAL: I knew pretty much right away after last year`s bombings that I was going to run no matter what and there was nothing that could stop me from being a part of it. It was such an emotional, crazy time.

FIELD: For Duval, it was all too similar to that September day almost 12 years before. Her brother, Teddy Maloney, who worked at the World Trade Center, never came home.

DUVAL: I think that I feel very strongly that they can`t keep us down, and these kind of events, these terrorist acts that keep happening, you know, we need to rise above them.

FIELD: This year, running the Boston marathon will still be a feat for the elite, but also a job for runners with unfinished business and an opportunity for anyone who saw the devastation and wants to help heal the heartbreak.

JOANNE POMODORO, CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER: This being my first marathon, I`m really thinking I`m overwhelmed at times, but then I say I have to practice what I preach so I`m healing myself.

FIELD: Joanne Pomodoro is a clinical social worker at Massachusetts General Hospital and a first time marathoner. She`s busy training, but also coaching other athletes for the mental hurdles they could face this year at every mile.

POMODORO: PTSD doesn`t come up until probably three months to six months after an event and many times if people don`t work on what the issue is, then they may re-experience it, so not being at the course, not training again on the course, and then all of that might become a flooding experience, with too many emotions.

FIELD: Putting one foot in front of the other, Duval has spent years learning how to move forward in the face of devastating loss. This year, she may help show others the way.

DUVAL: I think that you just have to stick with your routine and breathe in and breathe out every day, and the anniversary will come and be very, very emotional, but you move through it and you feel a sense of relief as you get past that day.

FIELD: Alexandra Field, CNN, Greenwich, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Coming up, we have an amazing sight for you. On Monday night, sky gazers caught a glimpse of a copper red colored moon. We take a look at this rare beauty of a total lunar eclipse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJPAL: Welcome back.

It's never easy to step out of your parent's shadow. And that was especially true for leading public relations executive Kathy Bloomgarden, the CEO of Ruder Finn had very big shoes to fill when she took over the company her father founded. On this week's Leading Women Nina Dos Santos talks with Bloomgarden about the company and her father's influence on her career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: From New York, the media capital of the world, Kathy Bloomgarden runs one of the largest private PR firms: Ruder Finn.

The agency says it's worked with more than 250 clients globally, including the likes of Novartis, Samsung and Pepsico.

Your father founded the family company in 1948. It helped sort of shape the PR world back then, which is in its absolute infancy.

A bit of a renaissance man, if you like. Were you aware of his reputation when you grew up?

KATHY BLOOMGARDEN, CEO, RUDER FINN: Absolutely. I was fortunate enough to be able to go around with him. And he worked for wonderful institutions. He worked for the UN for many years. So I met many of the secretary generals as a child. He worked for the Vatican. So I had a chance to meet the pope and to attend mass, you know, Christmas Eve and he worked for many administrations, so I had a chance to, you know, really meet and see world leaders.

So it was a very exciting, really you know inspiring time.

DOS SANTOS: That exposure ultimately led Bloomgarden to follow in her father's footsteps. She joined the firm in the 1980s and became its chief executive in 2001.

From crisis communications to mergers and acquisitions, Ruder Finn has handled it all in its 60-plus year history.

Bloomgarden points to working on the 1996 merger that formed the health care company Novartis as one of her key accomplishments when she advised on communications and integration plans.

BLOOMGARDEN: The complexity of putting together two organizations, the emotions of people learning to engage people, learning to get people, you know, to be part of, you know, a solution or part of building something that was so important. It wasn't just, you know, how was this going to look, what's the structure, what's the infrastructure, it was the whole process of really inspiring people to be part of a new company. And that really informed me. And today we do a huge amount of internal communications activities for very, very large global companies.

DOS SANTOS: The world of public relations is actually pretty female heavy already isn't it?

BLOOMGARDEN: It is.

I think that can be a reverse bias, actually that sets in. I try to encourage men and women to come into communications. And women tend to be a little bit more communication oriented, I suppose. Maybe that's naturally a factor which causes a lot of women to join PR firms.

Diversity both ways is a good thing.

DOS SANTOS: And Bloomgarden says that she's also worked to establish her own legacy outside that of her father's.

How hard is it to break out from the mold of being perhaps viewed as the bosses daughter? How did you manage to make your mark on the firm?

BLOOMGARDEN: Well, it really -- actually it's only by success. So you can't talk your way out of that one, you have to really deliver results. And that put me in a good framework actually for my entire career, because you come in and people tend to shunt you aside. And the more you can develop an exciting business, really do things that become hallmarks at a firm, that's when you gain your recognition.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: And if you head to the website you can read more about Bloomgarden and other inspiring women like Sex in the City star Sarah Jessica Parker. Log on to CNN.com/leadingwomen.

Coming up next, a rare treat for sky gazers. The moon put on a spectacular show Monday night when it crossed the earth's shadow. We take a look at this total lunar eclipse.

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RAJPAL: Welcome back.

A little earlier we told you how the unmanned submarine known as the Bluefin-21 could be back underwater later today scouring the seabed for any trace of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Now the first mission was cut short because the water was deeper than expected and the device had not been programmed to descend that far.

Brian Todd takes a look at Bluefin's technology.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Its manufacturer calls it Bluefin-21. It's technically known as an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV. But for the people who run it, it's...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically a smart torpedo.

TODD: And right now it may be the best remaining hope for finding wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. We were given exclusive access behind the scenes at Phoenix International, the company which runs the Bluefin, to see just how it works.

While it may launch from the side of the a search ship, the Bluefin is actually operated by remote control with help from a satellite. Its job, not to listen for pings, but to map the ocean floor and look for debris. To do that, it can use two different payloads, which have to be swapped out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This particular payload section is the acoustic section.

TODD: First, the Bluefin uses side scan sonar and an multi-beam echo sounder, detectors that bounce sound waves off objects on the ocean floor that aren't natural. If those are picked up, the Bluefin can then be brought to the surface. The sonar technology gets taken out, and high-tech cameras are put in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a high-definition black-and-white camera capable of three frames per second.

TODD: Together they can create a detailed mosaic of the ocean floor. The operators are confident, if wreckage from Flight 370 is down there, the Bluefin will find it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The technology on the AUV is good enough that we can resolve something that is -- as small as a microwave, perhaps even smaller.

TODD: But it's not an easy or fast process. It takes the vehicle two hours to dive to the bottom, 16 hours to search a 15-square-mile section of the floor and two more hours to return to the surface. Then it takes another four hours to download and analyze the data collected. That means just one mission of the Bluefin-21 takes at least 24 hours to complete, meaning the search could drag on.

DAVID KELLY, PRESIDENT/CEO, BLUEFIN ROBOTICS: Given the size of the search area, that could take six, eight weeks. It's a weeks and months' type of problem to cover that amount of area.

TODD: If the Bluefin does find debris from the plane, this is the machine that can recover it. This remotely operated vehicle that can go very deep in the ocean with manipulator arms, can pick up all sorts of debris and a black box. This one, the Remora-3 recovered the black box and all of the undersea wreckage for Air France flight 447.

But in that mission, search teams had already found some debris and knew where to start looking. The search area in the Indian Ocean is much wider and more uncertain.

Brian Todd, CNN, Largo, Maryland.

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RAJPAL: And now switching gears with an amazing sight for people living in North and South America. They got a glimpse of this rare total lunar eclipse when the moon is completely covered by the earth shadow. It creates a reddish-orange color. NASA calls it a blood moon. Thousands of people turned out at Griffith observatory in Los Angeles for a special viewing party of the lunar eclipse. Let's get more now from CNN's Paul Vercammen.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at the Griffith Observatory they had their own sort of lunacy in a good way. 2,500 to 3,000 people gathered here to catch the lunar eclipse. You could see in the crowd plenty of school children who were of course on break and were not expected to show up at school tomorrow. And then amateur astronomers, Gene among them. And Gene, you had a lot of people come through and glimpse through this scope and you, of course, also teach astronomy in middle school. What was it like for you tonight?

GENE, ASTRONOMY TEACHER: Oh, it was absolutely fantastic. Couldn't have asked for more people, couldn't have asked for the reactions any better than what they were, and everyone enjoyed it. And I think I had more here than we had up on the roof.

VERCAMMEN: And what did it look like to you?

GENE: It was spectacular. To watch it go through every phase, to see it go from total moon with all the whiteness to it going into the actual total eclipse was outstanding.

VERCAMMEN: Now, there were some people who were referring to the fact that this was the first in four total lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015, if you wanted to discuss omens or that sort of thing here, it was not the place to do it, they were just absolutely riveted on the astronomy and the pure science of it and reveling in this total lunar eclipse.

Reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJPAL: Thank you for that.

Well, we didn't get to see it here in Asia. So those of you in North and South America were the lucky ones including our Mari Ramos at the world weather center. But Mari, you didn't get to see it because of the weather.

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: I know. I'm like stomping my foot. You can't see it, but I am. I was pretty grumpy this morning because I couldn't see the lunar eclipse. And of course I would have been all over that and taking pictures.

I want to show you some pictures, though, from different parts of the world where they were lucky enough to be able to see it kind of L.A. In California, they had perfect viewing conditions. It was nice. It was dry. And visibility was excellent.

This is a picture of the moon over Miami. Yeah, they got to see it in Miami. And it looks absolutely beautiful. And I love that explanation, you know, that astronomer, Middle School teacher that Paul interviewed, how he said he loved seeing it from when it goes from full white through the solar through the full lunar eclipse and then begins to turn that hazy red, that is pretty amazing.

This is a picture from Melbourne, Australia. They got to see a partial eclipse there, enjoyed it too. They actually had pretty good weather, viewing weather.

And this is one of my favorite pictures. It almost looks a bit surreal. This is from Mexico City. And you're looking at the Independence Monument there. Pretty artsy image here that I'm sharing with you. I really like this one as well.

So different parts of the world got to experience it a different way.

This is the area where it was visible. And of course some places had great conditions. Some of us had very poor conditions.

So I want to see your pictures. Send them to us here at iReport. CNN, iReport.com and we will share them. And you'll be seeing them throughout the rest of the day today.

What happens during a lunar eclipse? Well, let's just recap very quickly.

Well, of course we here the moon goes through the shadow of the Earth so it doesn't have its own light. It is not reflecting the light off the sun as it normally does and it turns dark. So you saw that in those images where it goes through the full eclipse.

But, because the light is bent by the Earth's atmosphere in a hazy glow, almost like what you would see during a sunrise or a sunset, that light is reflected back out into space. And because the moon doesn't have any sunlight in it, it reflects that light right back to us. And that is what we were seeing with this so-called blood moon, or red moon, whatever you want to call it.

If you missed it, don't worry, there are going to be other days. And I am already marking my calendar of course for October 8. That's going to be the next one. It will be visible here in the Americas, in the eastern Pacific.

So some of you will still have a chance to see that. And also Europe and Africa will be included this time around back on April 4 in 2015 and then April 28th (sic) we'll see some of these areas hopefully changing a little bit so those of you that didn't get to see it this time will have a little bit better chance next time around. So mark your calendars for the Tetrad, that's what the official name is.

And I was telling you how we didn't get to see it here in the Atlanta area, in the southeast. This is why. We have pretty vigorous cold front coming through here with a lot of rain that's moving through here, Monita. And even snow, you can see the snow moving now across the Great Lakes and into the eastern Great Lakes, even places like New York City could see a flurry or two not out of the question later.

And look at these temperatures below freezing as we head through the day tomorrow.

It's the middle of April. Very unusual, all of that new vegetation that's really going to start suffering unfortunately. That high pressure will settle in nice and dry, but definitely a lot colder.

I want to switch gears very quickly with my last 30 seconds, Monita. This is a story that's starting to pick up a little bit of steam. This is earthquakes happening in Central America. This is right -- this is in Nicaragua. This is Lake Mangua. They had some pretty strong earthquakes over the weekend, 6.1 and 6.7. Well, since then, since the weekend, they've had hundreds of aftershocks. It's called an earthquake swarm. And they're monitoring this very, very carefully and asking people to stay indoors -- if outdoors, I should say, if they can, because -- and that's what they're doing -- fearing more earthquakes. It is a very tectonically active part of the world. So definitely something we will be monitoring.

You see a mom and a baby right here that they're taking -- they're taking sleeping outside on a truck bed.

And this is another picture of a family sleeping in their backyard, because they're scared to go inside fearing more quakes. And so this is a story we'll continue to monitor, of course, in the next few days. I will have more on this during the iDesk in an hour or so. Back to you.

RAJPAL: All right, Mari, thank you very much for that.

We have some news coming in to CNN this hour. We've been -- we understand that a column of Ukrainian troops has been seen going into eastern Ukraine. As we reported to you earlier, a National Guard battalion made up some 350 troops has been sent to eastern Ukraine from Kiev. That's part of what Ukraine says is an anti-terrorist operation. Nick Paton Walsh joins us now. He is in Eastern Ukraine.

Nick, what more are you seeing?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Monita, I can tell you we're currently on a road behind a very large column of Ukrainian military soldiers here. Seemingly, some elite troops here from paratroop airborne division. We counted over 20 armored personnel carriers and more support vehicles behind them. And just joining us now on this road a helicopter as well in the sky.

It is not clear where they're headed, but they are headed east inside the Donetsk region at this point. And after driving around many of the villages around here, it's clear that have been lots of military activity since the early hours of the morning.

We find out our positioning to move somewhere else, but (inaudible) easternwards direction and we're heading to one of the main roads that heads up from Donetsk towards the areas of Slovyansk and Klimatorsk (ph) where a lot of the main activity has been over the past few days.

The troops themselves friendly, waving as they went past us and carrying the Ukrainian flag.

I should say, too, as we began -- we've been moving around the Donetsk region looking for the confirmed various social media reports of Ukrainian armor and Ukrainian military columns moving into positions around Donetsk. And on the way out of Donetsk region heading into the Kharkiv area, which is just neighboring, we came across one checkpoint where we met some people from a self-defense unit and police officers behind a sand bag checkpoints, but the Ukrainian flag flying (inaudible) nothing spread into the Kharkiv region from the Donetsk region.

So that's where we are now. We're on a road behind (inaudible) Ukrainian armored personnel carries, just (inaudible) vehicles as well (inaudible) artillery. Substantially a large force and they're heading in at least the (inaudible) region.

RAJPAL: All right. Nick, thank you for that. Nick Paton Walsh there on the phone for us. He is reporting that he is behind a large convoy of some 20 armored personnel carries. And there has -- he's also seen a helicopter flying above them as they are heading into eastern Ukraine.

Again, as we've been reporting, this is part of what the Ukrainians are calling their anti-terrorist operation to stop what has -- what we've been seeing is a slew of pro-Russian activists taking control of Ukrainian government offices.

Though we're seeing some troops there making their way into eastern Ukraine.

That is News Stream for this Tuesday. I'm Monita Rajpal. The news continues here at CNN. World Business Today is next.

END