Westbound interstate 40 was temporarily shut down for two miles in a suburb of Oklahoma City this morning. They say freezing rain is probably to blame for a Chain Reaction crash involving 20 vehicles. You see it there. Including three big rigs. Alexandra steele is the storm. Take a look at this. Severe weather is just beginning to ramp up today. Were looking at a whole day with Severe Weather. Tornado watches you can see. Look at this. I10 right along the gulf coast, houston to new orleans. And this is just really the beginning of it. Were looking at incredibly Severe Weather. Tornado watches and tornado warnings. Tornado warnings meaning these storms have produced rotation and have been detected. You can see right there. So right now its eastern texas moving into louisiana. Kind of to give you a perspective, south of i20 here is tyler, texas. Heres shreveport, louisiana. All of these moving northeast and this is just the beginning of really what could be an inundation of Severe Weather today and really a rash of tornadoes which is really quite rare for Christmas Day. So here is a look from houston to new orleans the beginning of the day from now through kind of early afternoon and as we head toward afternoon and into evening, atlanta, birmingham, so dangerous tornadoes, winds 60 to 80 Miles Per Hour, Straight Line winds could be a factor as well. As well as damaging hail. So you kind of get the perspective and the gravity of this. That is the Severe Weather side. On the back side in Oklahoma City were talking snow. Although youve seen the pictures along i40 of the dangers on the road. Oklahoma city had the potential for 5 to 8 inches of snow but whats happened is were seeing a lot of ice develop so that is cutting down on the snowfall accumulations and totals for Oklahoma City. Maybe now 2 to 4 but look what happens. North of little rock, 2 to 6 potentially. And then around paducah through kentucky 6 to 12 potentially with blizzard warnings and then as we head from today into tonight the snow moves all the way in toward ohio and then the potential, suzanne, in western new york and upstate new york for 12 plus inches of snow. Right. So this is just the beginning of really a tough few days. This is the day to stay inside, wrap yourself in a blanket. Open your gifts and just hunker down. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well get back with you later in the hour as well. It wouldnt be christmas in britain without a broadcast greeting from the royal family. This years remarks from Queen Elizabeth aired just this last hour while the message itself does not change the technology does. Would you believe 3d . Yep. 80 years after the queens grandfather began the tradition with a crackly address over wireless elizabeth ii wished the brits a happy christmas in 3d. In his Christmas Day message to the city and the world Pope Benedict xvi appealed for piece in countries at war with themselves. He singled out mali, nigeria, and especially syria. Translator yes, may peace be brought for the people of syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenseless and reaps innocent victims. Once again, i appeal for an end to the bloodshed. Easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict. Last night as always the pope celebrated Christmas Eve mass in st. Peters basilica. He reminded christians everywhere to leave room for god in their busy lives. You cant get closer to christmas than church of the nativity in bethlehem. Vast crowds turned out for Midnight Mass near the spot considered jesus actual birth place. Tourism officials estimated 20 jump over the last year in foreign pilgrims in part because of the churchs recent designation as a u. N. World heritage site. The obama family celebrated the president s birth place in hawaii and, yes, christmas brings us one day closer to possibly the fiscal cliff, the huge tax increases, spending cuts that could take effect in one week or so. Brianna keeler is watching there in hawaii, joining us with the update. First of all, how is the president , how is the first Family Spending the holiday . Presumably right now they are sleeping in, suzanne, because it is still very early here as you know. What time is it . We are expecting of course theyll have a christmas. Lets see. 6 00 in the Morning Bright and early. Weve been at it for a few hours. We expect them to have a nice christmas meal at the house theyre renting. The white house chef is here. Maybe well get details on what they are going to eat. There is nothing on the president s public schedule. He is frequently gone and visiting with troops in the past so we wouldnt be surprised if he did that again today. I will tell you that bo the dog is actually along for the ride here in hawaii and the white house released a video where bo just really kind of steals the show. Lets look at a little of that. This is from the first lady going to the National ChildrensMedical Center and reading it was the night before christmas. She got a little help from the first dog. Good afternoon everyone. Im the president and ceo of childrens national. This is exactly what he does at home. He tries to beat malia and sasha to my lap. This is one of my favorite things to do during the holidays is coming to the Childrens Hospital to see all of you. And i want to thank wow. This is actually something, suzanne, that first ladies have done since the 1950s. Bess truman was the first to do it. Yeah. She said she enjoyed coming to the hospital. Its a long standing tradition. You know, its funny because the first time i saw bo at the white house he was really small. That dog is huge now. I cant believe he is that big. And is the president going to get any work done . Tell us a little bit about the fiscal cliff here. We know the senate is going to come back on thursday. Do we expect the presidt to come back to washington and deal with trying to avoid these tax increases and the spending cuts . It really does sound like hell be coming back, suzanne. It is not official. The white house hasnt put out a schedule update. It seems to be more a matter of when he is coming back rather than if. The senate will reconvene thursday. All eyes there as Senate Majority leader harry reid tries to cobble together something that can get some republican support. Well be waiting to see exactly when president obama is coming back but we understand that the senate even though it reconvenes on thursday may not, Senate Democrats may not roll out a bill until closer to the new year. Also get some republican support and put pressure on the house to take it up. Well be following that very closely. Have a wonderful christmas and of course well talk with you a little bit later. If there are any developments on the fiscal cliff. Stay with cnn for any movement on that standoff day or night. Were the woolstons in turkey. Im joel. Katy, sidney, brittany. Wed like to wish Merry Christmas to our family in idaho. Merry christmas Merry Christmas happy holidays t an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above, and still pay the midsize price. Now this. Will work. [ male announcer ] just like you, business pro. Just like you. Go national. Go like a pro. With odor free aspercreme. Powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. So all you notice is relief. Aspercreme. Christmas also accompanied by sadness and grief, in newtown, connecticut people are still mourning for the 20 children and six adults who were killed when a gunman burst into their school and opened fire. This roundtheclock vigil is under way in remembrance of the shooting victims. A candle was lit in honor of each of them. Volunteers are asked to take half hour shifts to keep the candles burning. The vigil started at midnight and will continue until 11 59 tonight. The tragedy in newtown was followed by an outpouring of support from around the world and from nearby communities. Today the entire Newtown Police department is actually getting Christmas Day off thanks to the generosity of their fellow officers. Police from neighboring towns volunteered to fill in so that newtown officers could spend christmas with their families. Joining us on the phone Newtown Police chief michael kehoe. He has been through quite a lot and your officers have been through quite a lot as well as the community. Give us a sense of what this means for them to simply be with their own loved ones, their own kids in this time of recovery and grief. You are absolutely correct. Christmas is a time of giving and at this time we were gifted with our Law Enforcement partners volunteering their time to have our officers spend time with their families. I know that on behalf of all of the men and women of the Newtown Police department we are eter l eternally grateful for their support and contributions today. You know, nobody could even imagine what the First Responders and the officers went through, what they saw inside of that school. How are they coping today . What are you doing to help them in the community . Besides giving them a day off, encouraging them to be with their families and go to religious services and to certainly reach out to their friends and neighbors so they feel a sense of love and hope. Is there a sense of how this community, how your community and your own family can recover if that is possible to how you move forward . Well, we certainly are going to move forward, suzanne. We have several memorials in our community. Many are luminaries. Our plan for the future is to gather all those gifts and those memorials and to eventually use them in some way to make this very large memorial in our community. Well have our community be a part of that so we do it correctly and appropriately. You mentioned on your web page, you wrote a message expressing sympathy to the victims families and praising the First Responders, the teachers, the entire community. I want to read this for our viewers. You say the Newtown Police department will work with our Community Partners to restore a sense of security and normalcy to newtown. Our Law Enforcement professionals are committed to helping the community through this difficult period. What do you think is the most important thing right now that the Community Needs to start, to begin this healing process . They should be assured the town of newtown is a safe place to live. With all of the Law Enforcement people weve had in the community over the last ten days or so you can certainly see the presence of those officers being felt by our community. So as we move forward and heal, that presence will still be felt and the town of newtown is very grateful that we have so much support from our Law Enforcement partners. And, chief, i understand that you, too, have a message you wanted to deliver to those who have reached out to you as well. Yes. We cannot say thank you enough for the as you said the worldwide support we have received through the emails, the food, the cards, the gifts. Its been overwhelming and over the top and it will take us weeks to get back to everyone who has been showing their support and gifts to us. Chief, michael kehoe, we thank you as well. It has been a blessing. Your community, what you have taught us through this tragedy, empathy to hold our loved ones tighter and as the president said really to get a sense of what is really important in this world. Thank you. That has been a blessing for us as well. We appreciate your time. Thank you. Hi. Im captain amanda petkowski at air base, turkey and i want to take a second to say Merry Christmas and happy new year to you my family in colorado, my dad al, my mom deborah, my sister liz, and my dog jackson. I love you and i miss you. [ male announcer ] its that time of year again. Time for citi price rewind. 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But a doctor in the rebel stronghold of homs says he treated 30 people, with symptoms ranging from breathing problems, headaches, hallucinations to more serious conditions including paralysis, seizures, and blindness. Im joined by my guest from lebanon to talk more about this. I understand there is a doctor who managed to treat some of these patients, a couple things, first of all, how did that happen . How did he treat them . And could there be some remedy to help identify what this gas was . This doctor in Homs Province said he treated 30 of the more than 60 people affected by this gas. He said that of those that he treated, they responded well to atrapene which he says is sometimes used to treat people who suffered from sarin gas. He said it is unclear at this stage what the substance may have been. Of those affected people suffered symptoms like paralysis, seizures, muscle spasms, in some cases blindness. But he also told us others who were exposed to the gas who were further away from the source suffered difficulty breathing, disorientation, hallucination, nervousness, and a lack of limb control. That can be similar to exposure to excessive amounts of tear gas. Very important to point out at this stage even the doctor we spoke with, unsure about what exactly this substance was these people were exposed to. Want to be very careful you dont over state that. Tell us what has taken place now. They have targeted civilians before but now youve got these bombings, these bakeries. These are just people who are lining up to get bread essentially. Are we looking at a shift if you will in the fighting that is taking place on the ground where now civilians become widespread targets . Suzanne, as horrific as all this news is about the bombing targeting bakeries according to opposition actors we must remember starting in late august we heard from human rights watch. They documented at least ten separate cases in aleppo province of bakeries there just these last several months coming under attack. The activists we speak with say they believe that when crowds gather in bread lines outside of these bakeries they are seen as a threat by the syrian military. That is one of the reasons they believe they come under attack. The Syrian Government denies they attack civilians lined up for bread. More and more we hear about these incidents. The past two days we are told first in Hama Province hundreds of people were lined up. This was the first day on sunday the bakery had been opened, that the town had been liberated a few days before that. There were rebels in there and thats where it was targeted. The Syrian Government denies having done so. Yesterday the very next day in Homs Province we hear of another bakery under attack. Women and children were killed in that attack. Terrible news. All playing out against the back drop of more diplomacy. People trying to come to some sort of solution there. It hasnt happen. There is fear more of these attacks will happen in the days and months to come. I am assuming the government does have some ability to be able to tell whether or not these are rebel groups or if these are women and children who are simply lined up to get bread. That sounds like an explanation that people really are not buying there. Is that accurate, fair to say . Absolutely. Very different narratives we hear from different groups on the ground. The Syrian Government maintains that these attacks are the works of terrorists. This is how they fall, opposition fighters. The term they use, they call them terrorists. The opposition actors, rebel sir free army, say no this is the government targeting civilians in areas where they know they are lined up. The Syrian Government denies it but is coming under more condemnation from International Groups for these actions. Thank you. All you have to do is take a look at this amateur video from one of these bombings at the bakery that shows folks there. They are screaming. There was one man who looks into the camera and simply yells, where are you, world . I mean, there are people here who are calling attention to what is taking place on the ground and really suffering and want the rest of the world to do something. Thank you very much. We appreciate your reporting. Well be following the story as we always do. Later today officials are expected to announce the official result on the vote of a new constitution. Supporters of president morsi a