former governor rick santorum also got 25% of the votes. and a casualty of the voting -- tea party favorite michele bachmann has announced she is quitting the contest. >> rick santorum lost by such a narrow margin, it feels like a win. he has become a contender. >> every morning, i would give up and take on that challenge, and it would require the strength of another. one that is sacred. i have survived the challenges so far. >> mitt romney managed to scrape of victory, but for some republicans, he is not conservative enough. pragmatist's in the party see him as the candidate most likely to appeal to the widest electorate, increasing their chances of taking the white house. >> you know, i think he is electable. i think that is the big issue. some of the others are not. in the general election, they would not stand chance. >> i like that he has business experience. i like that he will cut government spending. i think he has the best shot to beat obama. >> rick santorum enjoys support among conservative christians, including in the tea party.

especially with newt gingrich and rick santorum who are counting on south carolina in much the same way that john huntsman was counting on new hampshire? >> mitt romney did reasonably well four years ago in south carolina and we shouldn't think south carolina is just a socially conservative state, a rick santorum kind of state, it has got a pretty strong establishment main street republican wing, again, don't let the candidates look to the electorate, they are just a lot more main street republicans than there are social conservatives or libertarians and that is true in just state after state and so as long as he doesn't make a mistake and he is not the sort of person that makes mistakes, he made that one line i like to fire people lines which is a semimistake that was over exploited but he doesn't tend to make mistakes and there are a lot of people just like him in the electorate so you have to think he is sitting pretty. >> mark, he made a couple of other mistakes, he talked about how he had once feared getting a pink slip, i wonder how much of that added to make him more vulnerable,

rick santorum. ron paul. they are all more or less endorsed by the tea party, very conservative movement of the republican party. mitt romney is a different story -- the front runner, but only by a slight margin. his voting record used to be very moderate. he was a moderate republican. he introduced universal health care as the governor of massachusetts, which is unthinkable for conservatives nowadays. he is trying to turn around his position on many issues. that might be good and helpful in iowa, but as you said, for the big thing against president obama for the presidential election, it is probably helpful to be more moderate than conservative. >> how is it what important anyway? >> in the last 22 years -- how is iowa important anyway? >> in the last 22 years, there were five republican caucuses and twice the ios winner went on to be the winner of the republican nomination -- the iowa winner went on to be the winner of the republican nomination. mitt romney is the favorite, and most republican voters know i

santorum and ron paul are all bunched at right around 23 percent, it is kind of a stunning three way tie at this point, and guinni have to say, what i am -- if my recollection is correct, if this is the way it enup and we are a long way from the end, this could be the lowest percentage for a winner coming out of iowa in a long time, maybe ever. >> well, certainly huckabee four years ago the republican who won these caucuses was up north of 30 percent, like 34, 35 percent, what we are seeing in this case, at this late hour eastern time, just before 10:00 o'clock eastern time about 9:00 o'clock central time the caucuses have been open for a while and we are just talking about 100 votes or so separating these top tier candidates. completely unusual, and, in fact, the networks are already reporting they don't plan to call this until every vote is counted. >> that's right. and even though we have heard from republicans, they think they are going to have a great turnout, at this point, gwyn, it looks like the turnout is going to be either on par or maybe a little less than the last time. a

former senator rick santorum has a success rate of 15%. the republican is stressing christian values and opposition to abortion. the poll shows that many voters are still undecided making the caucus a close race. the polls indicate romney and former speaker of the house newt gingrich are vying for the top position. >>> a final round of parliamentary elections are happening in egypt. polling stations across egypt opened for the third round of the elections on tuesday. the polls mark an important step to democracy after the ouster of hosni mubarak. troops are stationed at polling stations to contain the protests against the interim military rulers. >> translator: i wish my country would take the right path based on islamic teachings. >> translator: i believe this will change egypt significantly reflecting individual opinions. >> in the previous two elections held late last year, the brotherhood and islamic military gained more than 60% of the vote. they also won many single-seat districts. the final results are expected to be announced on ja

after a recount, former pennsylvania governor rick santorum was named the official winner. wikipedia is back up and running to the website had shut down for 24 hours to protest a u.s. bill and at stopping copyright infringement. wikipedia says the law amounts to censorship of the internet. more websites have joined in on the protest action, and it seems to be paying off. >> in new york, demonstrators gathered outside the offices of u.s. senator charles schumer to protest the proposed internet censorship laws. >> honestly, the u.s. has been the leader in the world for allowing free communication. it would be a tragedy that changed. >> but the issue goes beyond internet censorship to a larger struggle between silicon valley tech giant and the hollywood media industry. if the legislation passed, and to get providers would be obligated to block foreign websites who offered unlicensed and pirated music and films, protecting the rights of hollywood content providers. >> sopa is an attempt to solve a problem that is a real problem. that is the theft of american intellectual proper

rick santorum was at 11%. he failed to build momentum from his close second finish to romney in iowa. a back to back win in new hampshire would give a boost to romney's campaign. his revals are increasing attacks on the frontrunner. preliminary results are expected in a couple of hours. >>> human rights groups are increasing criticism of the syrian president after his defiant speech tuesday. assad defended crackdown on anti-government proerts blaming foreign conspiracies for the unrest. the president refused to respond to calls for his resignation. he says priority is on regaining security by hitting the terrorists with an iron hand. human rights groups said the speech was aimed at ordering troops to kill more citizens. the groups say government forces continue to fire on demonstrators across syria, killing about 30 people. the syrian administration has not offered any support to the monitors it has allowed into the country. opposition forces say the arab league isn't doing anything to halt the crackdown. >>>

romney defeated former senator rick santorum by just eight votes. romney has already arrived in new hampshire to prepare for the primary next tuesday. at a gathering in manchester the state's largest city romney appealed for support, saying the country needs a leader who can run the economy. >> and it's time for barack obama to go home and for someone who understands this economy to lead this country. he went out and said he was going to borrow $787 billion from your generation to pay back and he was going to do that to hold unemployment below 8%. not been below 8% since. >> the moderate also accepted the endorsement of senator john mccain, the republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election. romney enjoys a strong lead in new hampshire polls. it remains to be seen how much support his conservative opponents, including santorum and former house speaker newt gingrich, can win there. >>> the top u.s. diplomat for asia has met with chinese officials to discuss the situation in north korea. assistant secretary of state kurt campbell is the highest

former speaker of the house of representatives, newt gingrich, and former senator rick san tore r -- santorum tied at 6%. >>> over the past 30 years, the winner of this primary ended up clinching the party's nomination every time. romney's the front runner and will close in on the nomination with another win. iranian authorities see it as an ominous pattern and say foreign agents are to blame. the government says a car bomb wednesday killed another of the country's nuclear scientists. nhk reports from the capitol, tehran. >> reporter: this area in central tehran was a site of a huge explosion today. >> iranian security authorities say a moving car suddenly blew up. a 32-year-old university professor and another man died. a third person was hurt. investigators say a motorcyclist placed a bomb on the vehicle. >> translator: after a huge blast, i saw black smoke coming from a car and a man was lying on the street bleeding. >> the dead professor wasn't just a university lecturer, he was also a nuclear scientist. he'd worked at iran's uranium enrichment facility. investigators blame israe

santorum. the latest opinion poll shows gingrich has overtaken romney. still, romney's rivals are increasing their criticism of him through the media. texas governor rick perry dropped out of the race thursday and endorsed gingrich. >>> new video suggests the crew of the luxury cruise ship off italy failed to provide proper evacuation instructions after the ship ran aground. footage shows a crew member of costa concordia telling passengers to go back to their cabins immediately after the accident. the ship hit rocks in the waters with about 4200 people on board. at least 11 people have died, and more than 20 remain missing. on thursday, italian state broadcaster aired footage from a passenger's mobile phone, taken 40 minutes after the accident. a female crew member is seen relaying a message from the captain to passengers gathered on deck. she asked the passengers who are wearing life jackets to return to their cabins and stay calm. she said an electrical problem with the generator was fixed. t