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>> this is "bbc world news america." it is one for the record books. the first contest of the u.s. presidential race is decided by just eight votes. where does it go from here? so young and so scared. syrians who have fled across the border to escape the violence at home still fear the reach of the bashar al-assad regime. it is the headcount that would give noah a migraine. the london zoo is attempting an inventory. welcome to our viewers on pbs

and america. they spend a fortune, traveled thousands of miles, and in the end, only eight voters mattered. the first contest of the u.s. presidential election could not have finished closer. only eight votes did separate the republican candidate mitt romney and rick santorum in the iowa caucuses. now they had to the next primary race to try to actually steal the party's nomination. >> gets used to this phase. a year from now, he could be the most powerful person on earth. mitt romney one year in a photo finish. >> this is a campaign night where america when spirit we're gone to change the white house. >> mitt romney remains the best content, the best organized candidate in this race, the favorites. this results makes it clear that more conservative

republicans are looking for an alternative. >> game on. >> that alternative is called red santorum. he came within -- rick santorum. he came within eight votes of mitt romney with the support of evangelical christians. >> i offer a public thanks to god. [applause] >> as the race moves on, who are the names to watch? there is mitt romney, a businessman who governs massachusetts. rick santorum is a close second. ron paul woods/government spending. -- newt gingrich is hanging on in fourth. these contest are charmingly simple. grass-roots democracy in the world's only superpower. iowans are voting on values beat

barack obama. >> i am supporting mitt romney because i think he has the best chance to win the general election. >> i am supporting rick santorum. >> for some candidates, like michele bachmann, iowa was the last dance. she dropped out today. >> last night, the people of iowa spoke with a very clear voice. i have decided to stand aside. i believe we must rally around the person that our country and our party and our people select to be that standard. >> they have already moved on to new hampshire, which votes next tuesday. just a short time ago, mitt romney won the coveted endorsement of john mccain, the republican defeated by barack obama four years ago. >> i am here for one reason. to make short we make our mitt

romney at the next president of the united states of america. new hampshire is a state that will catapult him on to victory. >> this nomination is not a done deal. but mitt romney is the man to beat. >> for more on the republican race to the white house, i'm joined by the washington correspondent. are we closer to knowing who is going to be the republican nominee? >> the favorite has always been the guy you just one. mitt romney. the basic dynamic now, if mitt romney can keep some of these competitors in the race, it to benefit him. if most of them drop out, it evolves into a one-on-one race, there is a chance he could be

defeated. >> mitt romney was the front- runner, it is the front-runner, and probably will be the front- runner. millions of dollars are being spent and time -- you have to wonder what is it all for. >> he has been the front-runner for the 2012 race since about 2008. on the other hand, he has consistently been between 20 and 25% in the polls. a huge chunk of republicans out there who are dissatisfied with them. they have been jumping from one candidate to another. they finally landed on rick santorum at the end. there are some real question marks about whether santorum can turn his success into something real nationally. >> barack obama was watching all this from the white house last night. i was told he was watching it online. they presumably look to what

happened in iowa and felt their chances of getting a second term might have improved? >> a little bit because mitt romney is still showing weakness. he has not yet emerged from this process a stronger candidate. he looks weak, at the race has been defined by a series of challenges. by a consistent dissatisfaction with him. if he does emerge as the final person in this race, and he will not be strong. the race will not have strengthened him in the way that clinton-obama strength and obama. the constant churn of dissatisfaction among republicans. that will harm him in the general election. >> have and we just got into a stage where the republican party -- the only have two parties. the republican party is so broad, by definition, it is never going to satisfy all the various constituents. that is what we saw play out in iowa last night.

>> that is true, but there are reasons behind the dissatisfaction. one of them as health care. in the obama era, the thing that came to define opposition to obama's agenda is his health care plan. mitt romney has the misfortune of being the intellectual architect of that plan. the man who designed a version of that in massachusetts. that has been a hurdle for many republicans. they believed the centerpiece of that bad is this health care plan that mitt romney is the godfather of. there are some real issues they're better hard to -- >> we have not mentioned rick santorum. >> he does not have money, a big organization am. he has a tough record to overcome. this is a guy who's last race,

he lost. he lost the senate in pennsylvania. he is going to have a tough time. >> the arab league monetarist who arrived in syria two weeks ago where men to shine a light on the violent repression and a country where more and 5000 protesters have been killed. instead, those investigators are coming under pressure from activist to said they're being duped by the regime. our correspondent has been meeting with syrian to have managed to escape across the border to northern lebanon. >> the wounded from syria are flowing into lebanon. smuggled across the border. this man was shot by a government sniper, they said. hit twice, his chances of survival, a 50-50. for those to make it, there is

treatment in a lebanese hospital. no one shows their face, not even a six-year-old boy. that could mean and not on the door for relatives back home. -- knock on the door for relatives back home. family members said he was shot as they tried to flee. he was also shot at a demonstration. he tells me he does not believe government promises to the arab league to allow a peaceful protest. recent pictures from the city of homs show people are still being killed in the street. >> i was head and leg. people tried to help -- i was hit in the leg. people try to help. one stood up and was shot in the head.

>> syrian rebels are smuggling people out for treatment because they say protesters have been murdered in hospital. one former nurse told does he witnessed for patients being killed. they shouted, come see this by -- the spy. they stabbed him to death with needles, he said. the people doing this for doctors and nurses. the chances of a peaceful end to this are dwindling. we met a soldier injured in one of these fire fights. this man told me he witnessed executions of soldiers refusing to should protesters. some of those shot in the air, he told me. one of us just refused to shoot at all. he laid his gun on the ground.

a security officer killed them. -- killed him. we cannot independently verify such allegations. if the syrian army were to split, everything would change. there remains a bloody stalemate on the streets between government and protesters. >> almost 10 months and those protests are still carrying on in syria. doctors say surgery on argentina's president to remove a cancerous thyroid gland has been successful. he was flown by helicopter to the hospital in the capital. hundreds of supporters held a vigil for her. she is expected to remain in hospital for three days. she began her second term in october after a landslide election victory. thousands of people have

gathered outside parliament in burma to celebrate independence from britain. on tuesday, more than 900 prisoners were freed from jail as part of the celebration. the u.s. says the numbers should be much higher. some bad news for chinese fans of tv dating shows in talent contest. the government ordered to curb entertainment television. a terrible and evil crime motivated by racial hatred. that was the conclusion of the british judge who sentenced two white men convicted of killing a black teenager 18 years ago to present. gary dobson and -- were sent to prison 14 years for the murder

of stephen lawrence. name hasen lawrence's never been forgotten. finally, a penalty was handed down. david norris and gary dobson are detained at her majesty's pleasure. steven's mother bridge the end of this trial satisfied by what justice had delivered, to a point. >> the sentence is -- it may be quite low. the judge's hands are tied. i am very grateful. >> the court was packed. the convicted men said nothing when the sentences were handed down. afterwards, there was a shot from a supporter in the public gallery. the judge said, is a totally innocent 18-year-old was

brutally cut down in the street in front of eyewitnesses by a racist gang. he told the two men, they may not have held the knife, but that did not matter. your group was prepared to attack in the way in which you did. the pair were juvenile is when they murdered stephen lawrence, when police put them under surveillance. under law, they received lower sentences to reflect their ages at the time. several years were added to the total because of the racist nature of the crime. the judge also said he hoped the conviction of norris and dobson would not result in the case file began closed. outside, his father said he hoped the pair would not -- would now cooperate with police. >> these people have been found out.

they will get bought -- give up. >> they should not rest easily in their beds. we're still investigating this case. if anybody out there has any more information or evidence, please tell us. we will do the rest. >> nine people remained of interest to police. they include -- they have never been convicted of crimes, despite serious allegations. they were said to detect a youth. -- to have attacked a used. in 1999, he intervened in a row. he was stabbed in the heart.

>> i do not remember a thing. >> can we talk to about the case? >> he has refused to speak to the bbc and he was acquitted. to a jury decided he acted in self-defense. they all denied that and police currently have no information to act on. the family left court this afternoon to begin their return to normal life. they do expect to meet detectives again next week. >> the case of stephen lawrence has dominated race relations in britain for years. hard times in the mississippi delta. 40 years ago, one photographer focused on the destitute --.

today, we return to see how little has changed. the united nations is warning that thousands of south sudanese are in urgent need of emergency aid. the un humanitarian corridor said a major operation is now a party. the fighting erupted last week when zero armed members marched on the remote town in the northeast of the capital. an east african correspondent send us this report. >> this is south sudan, home to a crisis. united nations troops and soldiers are protecting what is pretty much a ghost town. last week, the people lived here fled to fearing an attack by a

rival tribe. a few families have trickled back, but tens of thousands are leaving out in the bush. no one to protect them from an army of men. these -- about 6000 of them have been attacking, torching villages, and shooting and the people they find. this is why they are all fighting, to steal each other's capital. these animals are like the bank. during some of the cattle grades, tens of thousands are taken. all this pilot is happening in a country just six months old. there was euphoria and much of south saddam went broke away from the north after years of civil war. the government needs to work hard to prevent a return to civil war. it also must build the bridges between the rival ethnic groups.

only then will have a chance of keeping this fragile nation together. one of mississippi delta u, america's poorest places, has never quite managed to shake off the reputation for racial inequality. when a young photographer studied the area in 1967, the images he captured helped bring national attention to the region's plight. the last 40 years have brought some improvement. not nearly enough. ♪ >> in the mississippi delta, change comes slowly. sometimes, it does not come at all. in this town, time seems to have

forgotten. a civil-rights worker in the 1960's, he knows this region well. her house is tiny, home to three people and seven cats. she recognizes images of the old neighborhood. >> this was your house? ♪ >> we still live in the same environment. >> of the old houses have gone, others have been torn down. unemployment and poverty remain. >> we were assured by the city administration at that time that this would be cleaned up. it is still year, 45 years

later. ♪ >> some things have changed her programs like this preschool center for low income children. the need is still great. >> when i look at in terms of number of children considered in poverty, 93,209. that is a lot of children. " for adults, job training programs try to tackle unemployment. in the 1960's, infectious diseases ravaged the delta. now there are jobs to be had dealing with obesity and diabetes. >> the younger generation, they do not have anything to do. they do not have any jobs, no public transportation.

they do not have any place to go. they're all standing around. do and what they can to survive. >> -- doing what they can to survive. >> there is competition from asia, the plants are closing, and there is no sign of anything taking their place. he has watched the delta evolved since the tumultuous days of the 1960's. gone are the violence and coercion that defined daily life for african-americans. >> paradise is not here. what really has happened is we have the into the democratic base for having a free society, and open society. the process is working. >> the character of poverty has

changed. year after year, the statistics show this is still the poorest corner of the poor state. >> the portrait of the mississippi delta. if only the animals went been -- went in two by two, the keepers of the zoo would have an easier day. they all have to be counted, right down to the last insect. >> they are counting all the animals at london zoo. pelicans, even the chickens. welcome to be humid world of the giant galapagos.

these animals are rather easy to count. >> 1, 2, 3. >> i think it is 3. >>the llamas are helping out. other animals or little more tricky. butterflies, stick insects -- he is in there somewhere. >> it is not an easy job to count them. they all looked very similar. it is very important to know exactly what we've got. you enter all the information into huge databases. make sure we have all the genetics mapped out.

>> counts and aboutcamels isn't so bad. >> head counts have been going on for decades. these pictures from the london zoo are from 1940. accurate data bases all-out zoos to attract breeding programs. some of the animals, like these jellyfish, are so mesmerizing, blasting you want to do is count them. but they will be counted along with the rest. >> that brings tonight show to a close. there is much more on our website. thank you so much for watching.

>> make sense of international news. bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu newman's own foundation and union bank. >> you are no longer in the service. only an outsider can find the double agent. >> i'll do my utmost. >> from john le carre -- >> all i want from you is one code name. >> it will take a master spy -- >> you are alone. >> you can't mention me. >> to catch a spy. >> you have to assume they're watching you. >> what the hell are you doing up here? >> things aren't always what they seem. >> "tinker tailor soldier spy." >> rated r.