barbie nadeau, thank you. we'll check in with you in a short time. thank you for the latest. we'll let you do more digging and then we'll check back in with you. thank you so much. that italian cruise ship there on the side listing. three people dead. 70 missing. >>> turning now to politics, one week to the south carolina primaries and the gop candidates are fanning out across the state. we are heading there live coming up. i had a heart problem. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen. i just didn't listen until i almost lost my life. my doctor's again ordered me to take aspirin. and i do. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ mike ] listen to the doctor. take it seriously. ♪ baby, baby, come along ♪ baby, baby, come along with me ♪ [ air horn blows ] ♪ i love you and i need you ♪ just to hug and squeeze you ♪ baby, why can't you see? [ female announcer ] the space of a small suv. the fuel efficiency of a prius. ♪ well, baby, can't you see the all-new prius v from toyota. ♪ come along with me >>> and to politics now and the b

on the phone now from a port near the accident site is journalist barbie nadeau. barbie, first of all, update us on what you're seeing, who's there and what people are still missing. >> all right. right now we have got still between 50 and 70 people missing that were -- whose names were on the passenger manifest and who have not been accounted for. either coming through the port of porto santo stefano on the mainland where people have been processed by the italian authorities and the cruise ship company. what we don't know, though, is whether or not those people belonged on the list or if they actually got on the ship or not. there have been reports in the last 20 to 30 minutes, though, that there has been potentially not -- this is not confirmed but some indication there are still bodies in the boat. this is coming from divers who are out in -- at the site. that is an unconfirmed report but there are people coming back to the shores here that are saying that there are some bodies left in the ship which, you know, i think everyone's expecting this death toll could

it's really unbelievable. >> barbie nadeau, thank you for following this for us. we're going to check back in with you. she's live from rome. so many details emerging this morning. it's kind of tough to see him in handcuffs going home. >> i couldn't tell though. >> his hands, i looked at it very carefully to see. his hands are in the front. >> it would be odd, certainly as you're free. >> something we would never do in this country. >> you are home, right? >>> as you're looking at headlines, i don't know if you've got your early papers, this one is absolutely remarkable. the "new york post" basically saying "chicken of the sea" with a picture of this captain. in the smaller print, it has the port authority's quote to him over the transmissions. "get back on board for "f" sake." that wraps up the conversation between the two parties. and we're hearing about the huge operation in that ship. there is a heck of a project they're start to go think through. step one, get what barbie was talking about, the 500,000 gallons of fuel out of the ship's 17 tanks. it was only t

. >> barbie nadeau, thank you very much for that update. keep us posted as you get more information. >>> there's new evidence of increasing tensions between the u.s. and iran. u.s. defense department just released these images showing iranian boats speeding towards u.s. military and coast guard ships in two separate incidents on friday. one of these incidents took place in the strait of hormuz. this comes as they threaten to close the stait of hormuz, the only outlet for oil being. barbara starr says they may have gained important information from these encounters. >> reporter: the thinking is the iranians were not looking for a shooting match. they were going to break off but were going to cause a little heart stopping action before they did that. one of the things here is, look, the iranians gained intelligence by getting so close to u.s. fave i have ships. they were able to gauge the u.s. military response as they came at those ships. that gives them valuable information if the next time it's not just a cat and mouse game. >> word of the

thank you, barbie nadeau. we'll have more including a professor of naval architecture. he says this reminds him of the sinking of the "titanic." check out c nchbnn.com for more passenge passengers. partially under water from what you saw from those amazing pictures. >>> another story making headlines right now. former mississippi governor haley barbour defending his decision to grant pardons and other forms of clemency to more than 200 passengers. some had committed murder and other felonies. days after barbour's action, the outrage is flowing across the state. martin savidge is in jackson for us. he talked with one of the convicted killers who is now free. i want to know what he had to say. no matter how many times i hear from people involved with this from you, it is still as fascinating as the first time you hear about it. >> reporter: it is. it is a remarkable story, no doubt about it. the way this whole thing transpired, and it's been nearly a week now since former governor haley barbour passed along those now infamous pardons. it was sunday when he pardoned the fi

. >> barbie nadeau, thank you for that update. keep us posted. >>> meantime in this country a tanker carrying much-needed fuel to the alaskan town of nome is saul most there. crew members are waiting the find the safest path into the harbor. nome's mayor says they can finally see the lights of the tanker and the ice breaker accompanying it. without the delivery the town would only have enough fuel to last until spring. there's new evidence today of increasing tensions between the u.s. and iran. u.s. defense department has just released these pictures. they show iranian boats speeding straight toward u.s. military and coast guard ships in to separate incidents last friday. one of these incidents took place in the strait of hormuz. it has been a deadly day in iraq. a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman blew himself up killing at least 53 people. 137 others were wounded. most of the victims were shiite pilgrims on their way to a mosque to mark a holy day. >>> the four u.s. marines seen on video desecrating the bodies of taliban f

. >> barbie nadeau reporting to us from italy there. thank you so much. we'll check back in with you in just a little while. to give you some perspective, the costa concordia is three times as large as the titanic. it measures 3 1/2 football fields. it was at cruising speed, moving 25 miles an hour. when it hit the reef, it appears to have come to a dead stop. when it was christened in 2006, it was believed to be the biggest cruise ship in all of italy. it's owned by a company called costa cruises, whose parent company is miami based carnival, the biggest cruise line in the world. costa did not have a good year in 2010. one of its cruise ships slammed into a cargo ship in china, injuring three people, and another costa ship slammed into a dock in egypt, killing three passengers. >>> in nome, alaska, the city of 3,500 residents was dangerously close to running out of fuel. but a massive fuel tanker and icebreaker were able to chop through the waters. this was the first time a delivery like this has been made through the winter ice to a western alaska town.

. >> barbie nadeau there reporting for us out of rome. barbie, thanks. >>> major protest is underway this hour and it's as close as your computer. several websites, including wikipedia, are blocking out their web pages for the entire day. it's all in protest of an anti-piracy bill in congress that website employees say could put them out of business. christine romans is in new york. christine, for the sake of full disclosure, of course, cnn's parent company time warner supports this bill. >> right. >> let's talk about the protests that are going on and those that see this pending legislation as a threat. >> so it's called sopa, the stop online piracy act and it's really pitting hollywood and silicon valley. hollywood wants to protect its creativit creativity, content, movies, songs, the things that people are paid to come up with and do that the rest of the world wants, right? those things are knocked off quite frequently overseas. they're put up on websites. pirated, make their way back here to this country where people can basically see

barbie nadeau reporting live. >> every morning, we give you an early start to your day. wisconsin governor scott walker could become just the third u.s. governor in history to be recalled from office. today, his opponents are expected to submit 540,000 signatures, that would be enough to force a recall election. walker came under fire last year of scrapping collective bargaining rights for most public workers. >> and welcome back to work, congress, at least those of you in the house who are returning back. the senate is ending its winter break next week. but those congressmen, well, they better get their kevlar on because just 11% of us approve of what they've been doing when they go to work every day. >> and president obama's job heads to the white house today. the panel of business leaders will urge the president to call for a corporate tax overhaul, expand domestic drilling and new regulatory reforms. ten min uts passed the hour here. we'll be watching europe very closely this morning after standard and poors downgraded many countries. >> when you start talking gas pr

. >> let's get to cnn's barbie nadeau, in the courtroom, the captain is being questioned by a judge. she joins us by phone for an update. where does this stand right now? has the captain said anything officially in front of the judge? >> right now the court is closed to the public but we've got reports coming out. just adjourned for the morning, whether it's for the lunch break or the day. we haven't heard yet. the prosecutor will come out and say a few things and the lawyer is expected to come out and also speak. we do know that from reports and people inside the court who are affiliated with the court who have been communicated with reporters out here that he did answer all the questions that were asked-oim. he reserved his right, would be the guidance of his legal counsel, to not answer all of the questions. but basically today we're not going to get much more than whether or not he has to stay in jail. he's been in custody since saturday and his lawyer right now is trying to get him out of jail for the investigative period. he can be held for one year without being charged by ita

. >> barbie nadeau reporting live from italy. thank you very much. in about 30 minutes from now, we'll talk to captain jim staples. he's been a captain for 20 years. about whether he is surprised this accident didn't happen sooner. >>> tonight on 8:00 eastern on cnn, five candidates will go head to head and head to head to head. they'll debate for two hours for that republican nomination. did i do enough of those head to head to head? we have two days now, two days before the critical south carolina primary. a lot of people saying it could be all over by then. some big problems for newt gingrich. abc news is about to hit the airwaves with an interview with maryann gingrich, his second wife, on who he is reported to have cheated and is now with his third wife, calista. they are concerned about this story. his daughters from his first marriage have sent a letter to abc and they're talking about some of the timing of the abc report. they write this, failure of a marriage is a terrible and emotional experience for everyone involved. anyone who has had th