more on the race straight ahead live. newt gingrich is starting his day in iowa meeting with moms at a coffee shop. newt gingrich has seen his support among likely caucus goers plunge. part of the reason is negative ads targeting him. analysis finds almost half of all the political ads in iowa have been attack ads against gingrich. crowds defy danger and took to the streets in syria today. opposition groups call the rallies the crawl to freedom square. they urge demonstrators to defy sniper attacks to make their way to public gathering places. the opposition says 32 people were killed by security forces today. the uprising has prompted some soldiers to defect. translator: we got the orders in the army that went against my oath as a soldier. i had sworn to protect civilians, but when i saw what the government forces were doing to the people, i defected. they say there will be no change in policy despite the death of kim jong il now replaced by his son. the state-run ne
answered, send an e-mail to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com. hello, everyone. let s start this hour with our reporter roulette. trying to stop gunfire on new year s eve. also we ll get a look at your weather for tomorrow night. and some good economic news. let s start with iran. flexing its military muscle. it s conducting naval exercises in the persian gulf. apparently to show the west what it s capable of if the west imposes new sanctions on iran s oil exports. let s bring in barbara starr, pentagon correspondent. she joins us now. barbara, you ve been following developments. what can you tell us about these exercises? isha, let s start with a photo, a picture that the iranians say they took of a u.s. aircraft carriers in north arabian sea. the only u.s. aircraft carrier out there is the uss john stennis. this film apparently taken from iranian aircraft. part of those naval exercises going on right now in the north arabian sea. it could be a tense weekend out in that region off i