Yellen Confirmed as U.S. Fed Chief
LAKE: Welcome back, I'm Maggie Lake, the headlines this hour. The governor of the U.S. state of Illinois has declared a statewide disaster as brutally cold temperatures hit the American Midwest. The National Guard has been drafted in to provide aid. Almost 7,000 people in the state went without power overnight as well as thousands more in neighboring states. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is calling on the people of Fallujah to "expel terrorists." He's dealing with his most serious challenge yet -- an armed uprising by Sunni tribesmen and Al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar Province. In Israel, doctors say the condition of former prime minister Ariel Sharon likely will continue to worsen by the day unless there is a miracle. The 85-year-old has been in a coma since he suffered a stroke in 2006. Basketball star Dennis Rodman has arrived in North Korea on his fourth visit to the reclusive state. He arrived with a group of other former NBA players to take part in a basketball game on Kim Jong-un's birthday this Wednesday. German chancellor Angela Merkel has injured in a skiing accident. The 59-year-old fractured her pelvis after falling while she was cross-country skiing in Switzerland. A spokesman for the chancellor said Mrs. Merkel is expected to fully recover.</s>STEFFEN SEIBERT, GERMAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN, VIA TRANSLATOR: The chancellor contracted severe bruising and a so-called partial fracture in her left back pelvic ring while cross-skiing over her Christmas holidays. This makes it necessary for her to lie down a lot or use a walking device respectively for the next three weeks. Accordingly, she will be concentrating on holding a few official appointments in the chancellery and in Berlin. Otherwise, she will be working from home.</s>LAKE: Well, the extreme cold weather across the United States is about to hit New York. Conditions in the South and the Midwest have been nothing short of brutal this Monday. Temperatures in the state of Minnesota are down to -48 degrees Celsius. Your skin takes only five minutes to freeze in conditions like that. The weather in the city of Minneapolis has been officially declared, and I quote, "particularly dangerous." Freezing roads have made travel across the country next to impossible. Around 4,000 flights nationwide have been cancelled. Ted Rowlands joins us from a very chilly Chicago. And, Ted, you look like you're freezing. How is everyone coping?</s>TIM ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're freezing, Maggie, that's about it. We're on the Michigan Avenue bridge in Chicago. Normally, this bridge would be packed full of people, but, look, we're the only numbskulls out here. It is 12 below Fahrenheit, I think translates to a million below Celsius. Look at the Chicago River -- the steam coming up - - you don't see that very often. It is amazing on a regular business day for Chicago to be this deserted, but that is what people are being told to do -- to stay home. A lot of employers are telling their employees stay home. Schools shut down today and will be tomorrow because it is dangerously cold. The biggest problem, frostbite. We were at local hospital here just a few moments ago, talked to one of the surgeons -- or one of the physicians -- and she told us, you know what, this can happen within minutes, and it could be very, very serious. Is it potentially pretty dangerous -- frostbite -- and what was the worst-case scenario? What happens to the body when it gets that cold and your appendages?</s>DR. MICHELLE SERGE, EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR, COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL: You can actually lose, you know, parts of your tissue -- so it could be eventually have to be amputated. Parts of your tissue could actually die, so you'll have to have pieces of your tissue you know removed or surgically taken out or amputated.</s>ROWLANDS: And so hopefully, Maggie, we won't have to get anything amputated. I don't think that'll be the case. We're going to scurry into our live truck momentarily. But the headline -- it's cold.</s>LAKE: And, Ted, I feel guilty even asking you a follow-up -- I know it's had to actually talk when it's that cold. Very quickly, this makes -- I see some cars going past you on the bridge. This makes getting around incredibly treacherous, doesn't it?</s>ROWLANDS: Yes, especially when you add to the fact we got a foot of snow over the past few days leading up to this cold snap, so now you've got snow that has been cleared for the most part, but what is left has turned to pure ice, especially over bridges. When I was driving in to the city this morning I saw a couple of cars in the ditch because they just simply lost control. It is very slippery, very treacherous. Most people wisely are staying home.</s>ROWLANDS: All right, we're going to let you get inside, Ted. I don't want any frostbite on my guilty conscience. Thank you so much for braving the elements for us. Appreciate it. Well, Tom Sater is at the CNN International Weather Center to give us an idea of how bad it's going to get, how long it's going to last. Tom, I am frightened looking at those pictures of Ted knowing that this is headed our way. What do we have in store? This is wreaking havoc on travel, isn't it?</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It really, really is, Maggie, and for you in New York, let's say if your New Year's resolution was have less coffee in the morning, mother nature is going to help you out tomorrow morning. Your wind chill tomorrow morning in New York City, -14 degrees Fahrenheit. For our international viewers, -26 Celsius. We've been talking about this -- this polar vortex if you will. Well, you know, we have this every year, and every year we see it kind of ebb and flow. Higher elevation winds kind of keep that arctic air trapped. But just like a rubber band, the elasticity every once in a while, it ebbs and flows and gives and takes. We're seeing this cold arctic air plunge all the way down in the southern parts of the U.S. Last year in March in London it was colder on Easter than it was on Christmas. Two years ago in Europe, it was deadly cold. But look at the wind chill values. I mean, when you have numbers that are -39, -40, in fact, International Falls -- it's colder in International Falls with the wind chill than it is in the Arctic Circle -- this is when it gets dangerous. This is known as the icebox of the U.S. -- we're breaking records. It gives you an idea how cold it is, and you can see the forecast. These numbers are brutal, and it feels this way to all pets, livestock -- to all mammals when you factor in the winds. So, when it is this cold, it's good for everyone to review this. Exposed to skin, all right, in ten minutes frostbite sets in and -35, only five minutes -45 and we've seen numbers already that are -50, -55, -60. It affects automobiles. How about this -- motor oil freezes at -10. Anti- freeze isn't really so 'anti' freeze -- you know, even it has its limits. And -37 in your car, tires start to lose air at -18. Thirty-two states under some sort of warning for the wind -- this is just outrageous. Schools are closed all over the place. Atlanta has been dropping -- they were -3 three -- two and a half hours ago, not it's -6. The numbers are going down. Take a look at Europe, though. It's colder in Atlanta than it is in Stockholm or Oslo -- it's at 1. Copenhagen is 6, Moscow's at 1 -- nice little warm up. When you talk about this, you can even look at Tuesday. Washington, D.C. a high of -6, -2 in Moscow for our -- 2 degrees in Moscow -- so it's much warmer there. Even in Oslo, a low temperature of 3 compared to -4 in Tallahassee. Look at the size of the storm though in Europe -- the series, this conveyor belt of storms continues. Eight meter waves off the coast of Portugal, but let me show you some video of what it's like when you are trying to land in the airport in Spain -- if we have that video, it's in Bilboa. They've had to divert five planes, they had to cancel nine other flights. This pilot just cannot seem to handle these crosswinds. Just incredible storm system here. And the outreach and the extent of it across all of Europe. Let's get in a little bit closer because, again, what we do not need with the storm system is more rainfall. As we get into Tuesday morning, still a level one in the same location that we have seen over and over. To the south and east of London near Hastings in Sussex, we're seeing the collapse of sides of cliffs -- the land is giving way, and there's more rainfall on the way. The good news is, if there's any, even though we have a saturated ground, there are two more systems on the way -- one Wednesday and one late on Sunday. But these are going to be less in intensity, just bringing with it the rain and maybe not so much the severe- ness of the winds. So, at least some good news in the near future. But it has been a crazy month and a half across parts of the northwestern European continent. Back to you.</s>LAKE: It certainly has. All of this makes me want to just crawl under my covers, I tell you, Tom.</s>SATER: Why not?</s>LAKE: Exactly. Thank you so much. Well, the weather has not stopped U.S. Congress from getting back to work. In the next few hours the Senate is planning to vote on a measure that could restore unemployment benefits for more than a million Americans. It's a topic that has become controversial between Democrats and Republicans. Speaking in the past few minutes to our sister network, CNN U.S., the labor secretary, Thomas Perez, said it was vital that those benefits were restored even as the U.S. economy improves.</s>THOMAS PEREZ, U.S. LABOR SECRETARY: The economy's making progress -- forty- five months in a row of private sector job creation to the tune of 8 million jobs. But our unemployment rate remains too high. The President would be the first to say it. When President Bush signed the law in 2007 or 2008, unemployment was 5.6 or 5.7 percent, the duration of unemployment was 17 weeks. Now we have 36 weeks average duration. Now is not the time to shut off this critical lifeline for so many people.</s>LAKE: Two countries, billions of dollars and one major problem -- how to widen the Panama Canal. It turns out, it's not as straightforward as they'd planned. We'll explain next.