there on christmas day. the white house condemning these blasts. nigeria s president calling an end to the sectarian violence voug to catch those responsible. churches also bombed in nigeria last christmas season. more arab league observers are on their way to sir yeah here s why. an opposition group says security forces killed more than 20 people in the city of homs today. the observer planned to go there. u.n. says more than 5,000 people have died since syria s crackdown on protests began in march. a suicide car bomber in iraq got through six security check points before setting off an explosive device at the interior ministry. at least five people killed there, 39 wounded. this happened after iraq s prime minister was meeting with the senior security officials to talk about how to keep the country safe. a series of explosions killed almost 70 people in baghdad just last week. mexico says it s captured the chief of security for one of the most wanted alleged drug king
endorsement from the state s gop king maker. they fought wars over their borders. now a strange bit by pakistan s turning, once again fwloob a big tourist attraction. i m wolf blitzer, you re in the situation room. the first vote in 2012 presidential campaign is only eight days way. we re talking about the republican caucuses in iowa. and the latest poll there shows what amounts to be a dead heat. ron paul is on the rise. he s the current favorite of likely republican caucus goers. the arg poll shows him with 21%. mitt romney is next at 20%. and newt gingrich who s been slipping a bit lately is at 19%. there s a big drop off to rick perry at 9%. michele bachmann, 8%. jon huntsman at 6%. rick santorum who has been to every iowa county and there are 99 counties. he gets only 4% in this arg poll. with time running out, you would think the candidates would be pounding pavement in iowa but santorum on this date, is the only one on the campaign trail and he is getting a visit w
going in a mad dash. we re seeing violent scenes even. they re tearing down doors. people being arrested. you know what they re all after? a shoe. not just any shoe, though. an air jordan. we ll explain. also, possible ground breaking lawsuit against the nfl. a number of former players suing over concussions they say they got while playing the game. one of those players, jamal lewis, in studio with me in just a matter of minutes. don t miss that. let me start with this major political road block now for newt gingrich and rick perry. both candidates failed to qualify for the virginia primary. neither of them came up with enough valid signatures. this means now that there are only two candidates that will square off in virginia s march 6th showdown. let me bring in our athena jones. first of all, how could this happen? how could they not make the ballot? virginia has stringent rules. among the most stringent of all the states. you have to get at least 10,000 signatures from a
bipartisan support and house republicans rejected earlier this week. that opened up a divide between house hard-liners and the gop establishment. leading republican voices were openly calling on john baner to back down to agree to a two-month extension or risk ruining the bran. tonight, looking pretty grim. doing the right thing for the right reasons is always the right thing to do. and while everyone asks for a full-year extension of these programs, a lot of people wrn willing to put the effort in as the holidays were aetch proing to get it done.ç our members were. so i m proud of the efforts they put into this. dane a bash will join us shortly to explain the specifics. president obama was quick to praise the outcome, the staple reading this, this is real money that will make a real difference in people s lives. i want to thank everyone american who raised their voice to remind folks in this town what this debate was all about. to give you an idea of the intense pressu