inconveniences over the next 12 to potentially 24 hours. we've been talking about the sun here for a good couple of months because we're entering the cycle or part of an 11-year cycle where we're in the solar maximum. the next 18 to 24 months really we'll see a lot of this stuff. what do we mean by that? a lot of this stuff. black areas on the sun. sun spots. a lot of geomagnetic energy there. these are areas that throw out solar flares. we love looking at these puppies. this stuff coming to us. this is as measured in the x-ray part of the wave lengths. that just looks cool. this is the solar flare that happened a day and a half ago. you see it kind of bubbling up and then, boom. there it goes. all those x-rays and radio wave lengths immediately get to the earth. the radio blackout happened about 1.5 days ago. it also emits coronal mass of plasma that's highly charged stuff. that eventually gets to the earth as well. when it does so, boy, we start to see some things happen. typically just the northern lights. when it's this strong, this is an x class flare, so when it's this strong we have some other things that we need to worry about. let's go over them. first of all, the radio blackout. that already happened. ignore that. power grid issues. we could see that happen. this is the strongest one we've seen since 2006. we had some minor problems back then. gps and satellite interruptions. that could mean in your car, if you're looking at your smartphone. that could be interrupted as well. the positive is brilliant auroras. planes that travel high altitudes, they get a little bit of that x-ray as well. if you're at high latitudes, i should say, planes will fly a little bit different course so that people inside aren't getting all kind of zapped. same thing with astronauts. the positive here is -- >> let's talk positive. >> when we get these coronal mass ejections, solar wind, which by the way is not like what you feel on the earth, but it does affect satellites. some of the satellites, the junk that we have out there, we're lower in altitude and it will burn up in the atmosphere. we didn't see that happen much the last time. we have a lot of junk up there and we need to get rid of it. sometimes the solar flares help push that junk down to the atmosphere and let it burn up and go bye-bye. that's the positive spin i have. >> two quick questions. how long will it last? do we need to wear sunglasses? >> it's happening right now. don't need to wear sunglasses. we could have, i suppose, you know, some surges in the power grid. so just keep your candles handy and a map handy as well in case gps goes out. >> good old-fashioned map. rob, thank you. >> you bet. now we turn our attention to iran and growing concerns. new satellite images show iran may be carting away evidence from a suspected nuclear site. you're going to see it in a minute. this is the partian military base. today world leaders are calling for more talks. patience may be running out. israel is considering military action. benjamin netanyahu fears the u.s. ally is willing to strike. >> i believe that israel will attack. i believe that diplomacy must be given an opportunity. israel believes they are prepared to handle it. now what happens after an attack is another story. >> netanyahu told her israeli leaders have not made a final decision when cnn asked the prime minister in a decision had been made. he declined to answer that question. in the meantime, in syria more explosions rocking that country today. a high ranking government official defects and joins the revolution. in washington, one republican senator wants the u.s. air strikes to help topple the regime. >> we intervened in bosnia. we intervened in kosovo because people were being massacred. that was part of the president's stated national security policy. we need to act and we need to act with other nations who will join us in this cause. opposition activists say government forces killed at least ten people today. as always, we cannot verify that number because the government bans most foreign reporting. nic robertson is monitoring the situation from beirut, lebanon. nic, what can you tell us about this defection? >> reporter: well, it's a senior deif he cannion. it's no doubt going to embolden, if you will, the activists and give them a feeling that they are, perhaps, beginning to chip away at the sort of central state structure that's unlikely the deputy oil minister unlikely to be able -- unlikely himself to really sort of ring changes with the regime. but it is an indication that people are pulling away from this regime. government, senior government people. now he said that he's defected to join the revolution but he said at the same time he recognizes that this could cost him very highly. he said that his home will probably be burned. his family back in damascus will probably be harassed. he's decided it's an end for the regime and he started associating himself with the opposition. >> so we also know the head of the u.n.'s emergency relief services has met with top government officials. can you tell us anything about that meeting? >> reporter: the only thing that we know that was reported from that meeting between valerie amos, the u.n. humanitarian chief, and the foreign minister was that he had told us she could go wherever she wanted in the country. we've already found out now that she's been denied access to opposition areas in the city of homs. she hasn't had full access. the most telling thing is normally when you have two senior figures like that meeting, there's often a joint press conference afterwards where there are points that they've agreed upon would be announced publicly. there has been no press conference and i think that is the biggest insight we can get into what's being discussed, that there is, frankly, very little or no agreement at all between the two sides. but she is pressing for humanitarian access and to find out what's going on in the country. has she been able to meet anyone from the opposition? that really remains the biggest question. no details on that yet so far, carol. >> nic robertson reporting live from beirut, lebanon. cnn sunday night, the victims caught in the chaos are desperate to be heard and helped. learn what it's like to be trapped in terror for 72 hours under fire. that's cnn presents sunday night at 8:00 eastern. just 30 minutes ago we found out more people are filing for unemployment benefits. that's not so great news. the government just released the latest figures, and here are some specifics for you. the number of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits went up to 362,000 last week. that's an increase of 8,000. so what does it mean? let's go to christine romans. christine, lately the numbers haven't been so bad so what do these latest numbers tell us? >> they tell us that the people who lined up for the first time for jobless benefits last week was more than we've seen for about a month, but it's still near four-year lows so that's good. any time you have this number below 400,000 it shows a labor market that's healing. carol, it's numbers like these that are probably way more important to what's happening out in the political arena than any kind of polls we're taking right now. everyone wants to know when jobs are coming back. tomorrow we get the big february jobs report. it's a short month that's expected to show 210,000 jobs created in that little short month. and when you look at private sector jobs creation, a survey of economists by cnn money.com. the private sector continues to grow. we keep digging within these numbers. where are the jobs growing? in the service sec torks lower wage jobs in the big important manufacturing jobs we've been losing for 20 years now. we'll be digging in to see where that jobs growth is coming from. it looks like slow and steady jobs growth. you still have futures higher this morning. >> all right. christine romans, live from new york. thanks. >> you're welcome. newt gingrich is turning away from kansas focusing instead on a big battle in the south. our political editor paul steinhauser joins us live from washington. paul, explain. >> reporter: it's all about alabama and mississippi, carol. that's the headline here. newt gingrich originally was going to campaign in kansas. they have a caucus on saturday but he is going to concentrate all his efforts on alabama and mississippi. it seems the other candidates are as well. today you have gingrich, santorum, and romney in those two states because they have primaries on tuesday. that's where a lot of these candidates are now putting their emphasis. what about the delegate count? carol, this is a battle for delegates. here are the latest numbers. mitt romney is pretty far ahead, 429 delegates. way ahead of rick santorum, newt gingrich, or ron paul. 1144, that's the amount needed. so everybody is still a long way away. the romney campaign suggesting to the other guys, hey, you really don't have a mathematical chance of clinching the nomination. maybe you guys should drop out. the santorum campaign saying, thanks, but no thanks, romney campaign. i think we'll stay in. you know what's interesting as well though is an independent group that is backing santorum yesterday urged gingrich to drop out of the race. but rick santorum himself says, no, i'm not going to do that. take a listen. >> i don't want him to get out. if he wants to get out, i'm all for him getting out. i'm all for -- i'm for everybody getting out. i wish president obama would just hand me the thing, but that's not going to happen. so the idea is let folks decide, you know, what they think is best, what's best for getting a conservative, someone that's going to put this country on the right track, elected to president. that's my objective. that's why i'm running. that's why i'm still in this race. >> reporter: i love that. i'm not asking him to get out. heck, no. if they want to get out, sure, fine. carol, nobody is getting out. let's see what happens after tuesday. as of today, they're all in. >> paul steinhauser, live from washington. we'll have another political update for you in the next hour. a reminder, for all the latest political news go to our website, cnnpolitics.com. a powerful democratic senator wants rush limbaugh to suffer more consequences for calling a college student a slut. you've never heard of a child support case like this one. a man is being forced to pay for kids his ex-wife had without his permission. we'll explain next. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪ together, for your future. like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet. mmm. same great taste with an added "way to go, me" feeling. splenda® essentials™. get more out of what you put in. introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. brad needs car insurance, but, uh, brad doesn't want to spend too much. who's brad? 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is this an edict or a request? have a listen for yourself. >> i would not try to legt it. i would hope that the people who run it would see just how offensive this is and drop it on their own volition. >> all right. so that's pretty critical. this is a request. this is something that is obviously getting a lot of traction because, carol, there are between 10 and 20,000 women -- excuse me, 10 and 20% of the armed services are actually women and while some people are saying this is much ado about nothing. the armed services network broadcasts to a variety of different viewpoints including ed schultz who knows on msnbc he used the slut word as well. the armed forces network is saying there's a variety of view points. while some say this is much ado about nothing but others are saying women in the armed forces will have a different viewpoint particularly because there has been a real crisis with regard to sex crimes in the armed forces, too. so i think a lot of people are chewing over this a little differently than just who's saying what and who has a different viewpoint. i think there's a bigger issue afoot here as well. >> i heard what senator levin said he doesn't want to legislate the armed forces radio from eliminating the rush limbaugh show but he could affect the funding of the armed forces network, couldn't he? >> very good point. i think a lot of people forget that the armed forces network is 100% taxpayer funded and there's a lot of funding that goes to that network as well. this is a network that broadcasts overseas to the troops commercial free. we pay the bill for that. it's $27 million annually. i think to that end there's an organization vote vets.org which got together and decided to put together a petition asking for the show to be taken off the air. they had 12,000 signatures, i think, in three days of putting that online petition together. listen, don't forget the marketplace has also affected rush limbaugh as well. i think at the last count, i'll quote this from a liberal advocacy group, take what you will out of that, media matters said 45 different local and national advertisers have pulled off spots from rush limbaugh's show. so who knows if rush limbaugh will be on wafers imas style and this will not be an issue. whether legislators will have to deal with this a little bit more than just with what carl levin said. >> as they say, we'll see. ashleigh banfield. >> congratulations on the new show. >> thanks so much. same to you by the way. >> thank you. you gripe and the feds listen. the consumer product safety commission putting out the top ten consumer complaints. we will have them for you right after a break. plus queen elizabeth and her granddaughter in law get ready to hit the road. they're celebrating the diamond jubilee in the u.k. prince harry had to go to the caribbean. more on that next. the map shows you where we go... but not how we get there. because in this business... there are no straight lines. only the twists and turns of an unpredictable industry. the passengers change... the gates change. government regulations change... oil peaks and plummets. and let's not even get started on the weather. the fact is: no two flights are ever the same. no matter how many times we've accomplished them in the past. the eighty-thousand employees at delta... must predict the unpredictable. anticipate the unexpected. and never let the rules... overrule common sense. this is how we tame the unwieldiness of air travel. pull it taut... and wrap it around the globe... until it's not just lines you see... it's the world. is now within your grasp with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. refrigerator doors that fall off, dish washers that catch on fire. alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. what do we complain about the most though, alison? >> well, we seem to complain the most about things that are in the kitchen, carol. that's kind of understandable. there are a lot of gadgets in there. a lot of stuff can malfunction. you know what people complain about the most, appliances? stoves, dish washers, refrigerators, followed by baby equipment, toys, and then shoes. shoes, you ask? yes, i wondered about shoes as well. some are actually easy to fall in. in fact, kids' shoes sometimes have these decorations on them that can fall off and become a choking hazard. now these complaints are actually sent to the consumer product safety commission. there's a reason for this list of whines, because the cpsc looks for patterns and patterns in how many problems are being called in. some of these complaints actually lead to full-on recalls. did you know that the cpsc actually gets about 600 complaints a month. carol, people getting that annoyed where they call in or write in saying, i don't like this appliance, i don't like this pair of shoes. >> so then what does the cdc do? does it investigate? >> they investigate. they collect everything and they notice if there are patterns. if there seems to be a pattern that, let's say there's a safety hazard like i said about the decoration falling off the shoe, perhaps the shoes would be recalled. >> excellent. let's talk about the markets because they're not so great this morning. >> actually, no. they're actually doing pretty well. futures are pulling off their premarket highs. the dow is in the plus column. the focus today, carol, is going to be on greece more than the u.s. economy because there's an important deadline. investors who hold greek bonds have until today to agree to take a loss on them f. they agree, that would mean that greece will owe investors less money. and reports are that most bond holders at this point are on board. and because of that, it could clear