this morning on "early today" -- close call. gop presidential candidates mitt romney and rick santorum batted it out in iowa in one of the closest caucuses in history. hands up. a modern day boney and clyde crime spree plays out in the desert. and strange new world. scientists discover a lost world of marine life in warm waters scientists discover a lost world of marine life in warm waters beneath the antarctic. captions paid for by nbc-universal television hello, good morning, i'm veronica de la cruz. today we begin with by a nose at

the wire. mitt romney has won the iowa caucus in a nail-biter defeating a last minute surge by rick santorum with eight votes to go. nbc's tracie potts is live from des moines. >> reporter: good morning, everyone. this was certainly a nail-biter. just hours ago we learned the results. mitt romney claiming victory here after what we believe to be the closest caucus in history, so close we had to wait until every last vote was counted. >> congratulations to governor mitt romney, winner of the 2012 iowa caucuses. >> reporter: hours after the candidates spoke, they call it, mitt romney wins by just eight votes. >> this is a campaign night where america wins. >> reporter: senator john mccain is expected to endorse romney in

new hampshire. it's a big win for rick santorum, he got 25% after polling in single digits just a few weeks ago. >> we will be in new hampshire. we'll leave tomorrow. we'll spend our time there. with your help and god's grace, we'll have another fun night a week from now. >> reporter: ron paul came in third and thanked the enthusiastic crowd of supporters. >> we will go on, raise the money. >> reporter: romney's biggest challenge may come from newt gingrich attacked romney's record. >> the truth seems negative. that may be a comment more on his record than it is on politics. >> reporter: coming in next to last, rick perry says he's suspending his campaign. >> with his decision tonight, i've decide the to return to texas, assess the results of tonight's caucus, determine if there is a path forward tore

myself in this race. >> reporter: michele bachmann came in dead last but gave no indication she's quitting. >> i am the conservative who will defeat barack obama in 2012. >> reporter >> reporter: republicans moving on to new hampshire with a virtual tie at the top. at 25% mitt romney's win is the smulest win in an iowa kuk cuss in at least three decades. 75% of the voters here dpnt did not vote for the winner. >> amazing, eight votes. have we ever seen such a finish? >> reporter: it's believed to be the closest. ronald reagan with 2% but nothing like this. >> what does coming in second for rick santorum moving

forward. >> reporter: this was almost a win for rags santorum in that he was polling in second digits just weeks ago and he comes within eight votes much winning the first in the nation. what it does is catapult him into the next primary, new hampshire. also giving him a forum, a stage to introduce himself. also, this is key in this nomination process, probably get him some money, lots of money. >> tracie potts for us in des moines, iowa. we always appreciate it. here's a look at other stories making news early today in morning murder. a crime spree by bonnie and clyde came to an end in nevada. they gave up after a fight after an air unit found them by air. they killed an early he would couple in their home and shot a woman in their head. the couple faces numerous charges.

a collision between a tractor-trail and jeep led to a a multivehicle crash on a dallas highway causing the truck to crash into a concrete divider. hazmat crews were called in to clean the diesel fuel spill. one person of the hospitalized. a georgia naeighborhood is looking like a scene from a hitchcock movie, invaded by a flock of hurricany vultures. wildlife officials are assessing the spooky situation. new now for a look at your national weather, meteorologist bill karins. have you ever seen his movies? >> i did. >> and "birds"?

>> i did. it was always fun to find out where he was. the cold air has moved south we always wonder how it will affect the citrus crop. it doesn't look like a lot of the crops will be hurt too bad from this freeze. a lot of crops are located south of orlando down towards tampa. they're in the mid to low 30s, freeze line north of orlando. it's expected to go down but only for an hour or two. that makes a difference with the damage done to the crops. cold up and down the northeast coast. negative numbers in most cases. it will get better as the day goes on. yesterday the worst was in indianapolis and minneapolis. 24-hour temperature change is up 10 to 20 degrees throughout the middle of the country and that

will head to the coast tomorrow. one more morning, real cold air in the east and that mild air is building in the midwest. now here's a look at the weather outside your window. miami, florida, after your cold start. you'll recover with abandon antd sunshine and 67 degrees. baltimore, very cold morning for you. slow recovery today. very quiet, no snowstorms on the horizon. >> i can handle that. that's fine. thanks, bill. stocks surge, data shines and starbucks hikes prices. your early morning business headlines is straight ahead. who is the friend kit katy perry is turning to? a controversial call, overtime in the sugar bowl.

very good morning to you. welcome back to "early today." i'm veronica de la cruz. here are some of your top headlines this morning. the taliban is setting up shop with plans to open an office to hold peace talks with the u.s. the two sides have met secretly before but this is the first time the taliban has openly expressed interest in negotiating. first decade of high level peace talks between israel and palestinian negotiators didn't go far but they agreed to keep talking. they am et met in jordan. an army special forces engineer arrested after trying to bring a c-4 explosive on board a commercial airline says he forgot it with him. est arrested saturday in texas. he told authorities he he didn't realize the explosive was still

in his luggage when he left afghanistan in april. a new year's surprise after antarctica. researchers discovered new species including a colony of crab and this octopus. now here's an early look at one of your top health headlines at msnbc.com. according to a new study scientists may one day slow down ageing with an injection of stem cells like they did in mice. when researchers injected them with muscle stem cells from young, healthy mice the they began looking and acting younger. for more, check on out the health page on msnbc.com. >> announcer: "early today" health is brought to you by vagisil wash.

here's an early look at how wall streak kicks off the day. the dow starts at 12,397. s&p climbed 19, nasdaq crimed 43. the nikkei nudged up 104 points but in hong kong the hang seng dipped 150. fueled by positive economic news, wall street started out the new year tuesday with a bang. money managers with fresh cash to spend were buying. banks, materials and industrials posted big gains. alocoa, jpmorgan chase and bank of america led the dow. alocoa was the driver. november's construction spending surged to the highest in nearly 18 months. also overseas, germany reported last year's unemployment average was the lowest in two decades. in china's slowdown it may be over. gold reversed this year.

and oil surged to almost $103 a barrel. coal-related stocks jump on last friday's court ruling delays new air pollution regulations. chesapeake energy rose after selling part of its business to french oil giant total for $2.3 billion. devon jumped. metro pcs and leap were down on speculation. bad news for kaf foon lovers. starbucks raised prices in the north and southeast. finally, after a lengthy legal battle a judge ruled an african of my american church is the rightful owner of a building red neck memorabilia.

top ranked battles in college hoops and down to the wire nba action. plus, the replay sook center stage at sugar bowl with michigan state and virginia state holding on after a ruling on this play. the cold air is heading out and a warm-up beginning. your forecast is beginning. you're watching "early today."

very good morning to you. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." in sports a season that saw the michigan wolverines march come coming to a fitting conclusion. here's fred roggin with a look at all your sports headlines. >> good morning. say what you want about the bcs but each bowl has come down to the final play. like the rose and fiesta, sugar went down to the wire. virginia rallied back against michigan. meyer forced overtime. hokies appeared to take the lead in ot. great effort to haul it in and keep a foot in bounds but they reviewed it and overturned the touchdown. virginia settles for a field goal.

gibbons for the win down the middle. michigan won the sugar bowl in dramatic fashion. college hoops, a bit of controversy michigan state/wisconsin. time winding down. evans tied it with a three at the buzzer, or did he? he didn't get the shot off in time but it depends on which clock you're looking at. the shot clock at zero, the stadium clock behind it had 0.2 of a second on it and waving the basket on off. seton hall handed uconn their first loss of the season. seton hall upset uconn 75-73. bulls score against the hawks and decided to show up. 34 in the fourth quarter alone. deng got the layup to fall with just three seconds left. the hawks let this one slip away 76-74. at thunder after lost two

straight. aldridge with a game high-30. kendrick perkins and aldridge got tangled up. trail blazers handed the thunder their second loss, 130 103-93. that's an early look at sports on "early today." which singer says she won't be an actress and which actress has been knighted by france? sflu we'll tell you about an election in iowa where afterwards all the candidates were eating.

welcome back to "early today." a cold morning for everyone on the east coast. winter in many cases, especially in florida and new england. a slow warm-up in areas like bost boston, new york and d.c. much improved in the midwest where temperatures are soaring near 40s. tomorrow, kansas city hits 60 degrees. so much for winter. if you're watching us on wch 6 on portland, maine, in brunswick take a rare glimpse into bowdoin college museum of art for your "early today" event of the day. >> cool. thanks, bill. now here's an early look at this morning headlines in

entertainment. reports say kaits katy perry is leaning on rihanna after her split from russ willing brand. they are planning a girl getaway trip to mexico. brand never took rihanna new democrat any moore will be in a porn film about linda lovelace. and kristin brought her boyfriend two vintage guitars. in a movie raising eyebrows, selma hayek has been named a knight by france's president. hayek's is the ceo of a french company. finally, whether or not you believe lady gaga followed a master plan for success called madonna there's at least one material girl direction she will not go in is acting. she insists she's just a musician. i don't know if i believe that. >> everyone wants to act, be in

the movies. >> not only, that i'm sure she gets offers all the time. exactly. this now comes to us from who channel 13 in des moines, iowa where student at one elementary displayed america at democracy in work. fifth graders received a crash course on iowa caucuses. the student put together commercials, gave speeches, campaigned for their favorite cookie. >> the oreo has to win. >> sugar and m&m cookies and then ate all the candidates. i'm veronica de la cruz. this seller "today," just your first stop of the day today on your nbc station.

breaking news. the results are in now from the iowa caucuses. former governor mitt romney eked out an eight-vote victory over former senator rick santorum. romney won with 30,015 votes to santorum's 30,007 votes. both candidates received 25% of the votes. congressman ron paul came in third with 21% of the vote

followed by newt gingrich in fourth place, rick perry in fifth, and michele bachmann in last place. there is one candidate heading home to reevaluate his campaign. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today" this january 4th, 2012. before we go back to iowa, we want to talk about our weather. it is another freezing cold morning. here's meteorologist tom kierein to talk about our forecast. we didn't think it could get any colder, but they are. >> temperatures have plummeted overnight to single digits in some locations. at reagan national, it is down to7 degrees. the dewpoint is an incredibly dry 3 below zero. keep the skin lotion handy. we've got a west/northwesterly wind around 5 to 10 miles an hour. look at the temperatures. it's down to 10 degrees in the