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January 10, 2012 | | MUDSLINGING Today’s the day: New Hampshire residents go to the polls Tuesday in the nation's first presidential primary. Mitt Romney is polling between 35 and 40 percent, so he's expected to win easily. But as his Republican rivals jostle for second place, they’re beginning to embrace the bruising left-wing critique of Romney as a cold-hearted, job-destroying businessman. (His gaffe on Monday that he likes “being able to fire people” certainly didn’t help.) The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz says Mitt can survive the line of attack for now—but it could come back to haunt him in the general election. Stubborn In his first speech since June, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told his people that he's not going anywhere. Once again blaming unrest on “foreign planning,” Assad promised to fight “terrorists with an iron fist.” He also made vague promises of reform, saying Syria might hold a referendum on a new constitution, maybe in March. Meanwhile the situation in Syria is not improving. The visit of an Arab League monitoring team has done little to stem the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since security forces began cracking down on demonstrations 10 months ago. Assad's former friend Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned the country was headed for civil war. NEW HAMPSHIRE Voting for the 2012 Republican presidential primaries began at midnight in Dixville Notch, N.H., ending in a tie between Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, who each scored two votes. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich got one vote each, as nine registered residents of the first precinct to report returns cast their ballots. Given the small number of voters in the tiny resort town—three registered Republicans, four undeclared voters eligible to vote for either party, and two registered Democrats—the results took only moments to report. In the past, Dixville Notch has been the forerunner for the rest of the state. Primary voters in 2008 selected then-senator Barack Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain, who went on to win their party’s nominations. NUCLEAR The U.S. has shot back at Iran, saying the enrichment of uranium has escalated the nation's violations of U.N. resolutions. Earlier, diplomats confirmed Iran's claim that it's begun the enrichment at a secure underground bunker. Iran's state media claimed that enrichment has begun at the country's Fordo site near the holy city of Qum. The Fordo centrifuges are reportedly producing uranium enriched to 20 percent, far higher than the 3.5 percent made at Iran's primary plant. The new uranium can more easily be made into warhead material, and the bunker—underground and protected by air defenses—is difficult to attack. If Iran is using the uranium for a weapon, American officials estimate they would have six months to a year to react before Iran finished enriching weapons-grade uranium. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad met in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez—and the joked about the bomb. Democracy Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi may finally get to take office after 15 years spent under house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate confirms that she will run for Parliament this April. She was under house arrest during the 2010 elections, the country's first in 20 years. That vote replaced the ruling military junta, but the government remains strongly tied to the Army. The military itself is guaranteed about a quarter of the seats in Parliament, and the main pro-military party holds 80 percent of the remaining elected seats. Still, a victory would give Suu Kyi a voice in government. | | 
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