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January 21, 2012 | | SOUTH CAROLINA In a nail-biter primary that could redefine the race, voting has begun in South Carolina, a state whose winner has gone on to receive the GOP nomination in every election year since 1980. Patricia Murphy reports that Newt Gingrich has surged out of nowhere—and threatens to upend Mitt Romney's frontrunner status, as a new poll shows the former speaker of the House with 32 percent support from voters, a 6-point lead over Romney. HOPE The Italian Navy once again blasted holes Saturday in the side of the wrecked Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that crashed off the rocks of the Italian island of Giglio one week ago. “We will continue searching until all hope is gone,” said Coast Guard spokesman Cosimo Nicastro, although he admitted that “we need a miracle.” As many as 24 people are still missing, and some have held out hope that a person could survive for days in the luxury cruise liner’s cabins. A forecast for high waves in the Mediterranean has caused many to worry that the submerged 114,500-ton ship could sink or be swept out, but port officials said the search would continue while the water remained calm during the day. Experts say the ship is slipping off the rocky sea shelf at a rate of around a quarter of an inch every hour. OFFICIAL Iowa Republicans announced just before midnight Saturday—the day of the South Carolina primary—that Rick Santorum was, in fact, the winner of the Iowa caucus. Mitt Romney had originally been declared the winner of the caucus by a narrow eight-vote margin, but on January 18, eight voting precincts realized their results had not been reported. With the new votes counted, Santorum led by 34 votes, causing the Iowa Republicans to first call it a statistical tie before eventually dealing the blow to Romney. While the squeaker victory for Romney had never a landslide, it doesn’t help him as he trails in South Carolina. Meanwhile, Iowans fear that the confused results could be devastating to the future of their first-in-the-nation vote. “The caucuses have a lot of critics, and for this to happen truly jeopardizes the future of the event,” said Iowa observer David Yepsen. BLOODSHED The Arab League looked to keep monitors in Syria, a diplomatic source said Saturday, despite the reported deaths of hundreds during the monthlong observer mission. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed al-Dabi, head of the 165-member monitoring team, is due in Cairo Saturday to submit a report on Syria’s response to the 10-month uprising. Thousands are estimated to have been killed. The diplomatic source admitted the Arab League does not have “complete satisfaction” with Syria’s cooperation in the mission, but the “in absence of any international plan to deal with Syria, the best option is for the monitors to stay.” The U.S. announced Friday that it would be closing its Damascus embassy by the end of the month, the same day that French President Nicolas Sarkozy denounced Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime of “ferocious repression.” EURO CRISIS The Greek debt negotiations continued into the weekend without a deal, despite the eagerness of Athens to reach an agreement by Monday, when eurozone leaders will meet for finance talks. International Monetary Fund finance chief Charles Dallara said Friday that “now is the time to act” in an effort to move along the stalled talks. Greek leaders, the European Union and the IMF have sparred in finding a satisfactory debt-swap deal. If an agreement is reached by Monday’s meeting, Greece will be able to set in motion the paperwork and approvals necessary to get an infusion of cash into their struggling economy to avoid bankruptcy in March. | | 
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