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Romney to S.C. voters: Follow N.H. voters

COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Mitt Romney asked South Carolina Republicans to sweep him to victory as New Hampshire GOP voters did so he can win the GOP nomination and then the White House.

Barack Obama is "a failed president," Romney said at a victory party at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester Tuesday after winning the state's primary with nearly 40 percent of the vote.

"We are asking the good people of South Carolina to join the citizens of New Hampshire and make 2012 the year he runs out of time," the former Massachusetts governor told supporters, referring again and again to Obama, but not acknowledging any of his Republican opponents by name.

Libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul of Texas finished second with almost 23 percent.

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who staked his entire campaign on New Hampshire, placed a distant third with just under 17 percent, largely on the strength of the votes of independents and moderates, but pledged to fight on.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- who ratcheted up his criticism of Romney in New Hampshire and promised to dial it up even further in South Carolina, near his home state of Georgia -- came in fourth Tuesday with 9.4 percent of the vote. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who finished a mere eight votes behind Romney in Iowa a week earlier, was fifth in New Hampshire with 9.3 percent.

Pakistani officials: Drone strike kills 4

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Four militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region were killed in what Pakistani officials said was the first U.S. drone strike since November.

Iran's Press TV, quoting security officials, reported two missiles struck a private compound outside Miranshah near the border with Afghanistan in the strike late Tuesday.

The United States does not confirm or deny drone strikes. The drone program had been halted in November after a NATO airstrike in which 24 Pakistani soldiers died.

That attack, on Nov. 26, set off huge protests in Pakistan, causing already deeply strained relations between the United States and Pakistan to further deteriorate.

A U.S. investigation into the November incident blamed poor communication and "inadequate coordination" between the two sides. But the Pakistani side maintained the strike was unprovoked and closed supply routes to NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The New York Times said the pause in the drone program had been meant to prevent further worsening of bilateral relations but quoted U.S. officials during the weekend as saying that any pause was not to be taken as a weakening of counter-terrorism efforts.

Diplomats and intelligence analysts told the Times the lull in the program was allowing greater freedom of movement for battered insurgent groups.

A logistics operative with the Haqqani terrorist group, which uses sanctuaries in Pakistan to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, told the Times in a telephone interview there were still drones on surveillance missions "but there is no fear anymore."

Alito: Broadcast TV a dinosaur like LPs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Broadcast TV should be allowed to die without the U.S. Supreme Court meddling with rules on cursing and nudity, Justice Samuel Alito Jr. said.

"Broadcast TV is living on borrowed time. It is not going to be long before it goes the way of vinyl records and eight-track tapes," he told government and broadcast lawyers during oral arguments on whether broadcasters should still be fined for showing vulgar programming that is constitutionally protected when presented on cable TV or the Internet.

Lawyers for American Broadcasting Cos. Inc. and Fox Television Stations Inc. said the First Amendment should fully protect them too, arguing so-called indecency rules are vague, arbitrary, "hopelessly out of date and fundamentally unfair."

The regulatory Federal Communications Commission has, for instance, said swearing in "Saving Private Ryan," a Steven Spielberg movie that includes scenes of soldiers in World War II, shouting and cursing as they fight on the beaches of Normandy, France, was OK. But it said swearing by blues masters in a music documentary produced by Martin Scorsese was not OK, the lawyers argued.

Nudity in "Schindler's List," another Spielberg movie, was allowed, they said, but a few seconds of partial nudity in the ABC-TV police drama "NYPD Blue" was not.

Justice Elena Kagan commented wryly on federal regulation in this area.

"The way that this policy seems to work -- it's like nobody can use dirty words or nudity except for Steven Spielberg," she said.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., the only justice with small children, defended the policy.

Car bomb kills Iranian nuclear scientist

TEHRAN, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A man said to be a nuclear scientist working at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant was killed Wednesday in a car bomb attack officials blamed on Israel.

The death of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was similar to killings of other Iranian nuclear scientists the Iranian government blamed on Israel and the United States and both countries denied, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

A person who was in the car with Roshan when the bomb detonated died later of injuries he sustained in the explosion, the Tehran Times said.

Officials said a motorcycle rider attached a magnetic bomb to the vehicle carrying Roshan and the other person.

The Web site of Sharif University in Tehran, where Roshan, 32, a chemistry expert, graduated, said the scientist "has been working as the deputy in charge of commerce at the Natanz site."

"The responsibility of this explosion falls on the Zionist regime," Tehran province Gov. Safar Ali Bratloo told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam broadcaster. "The method of this terrorist action is similar to previous actions that targeted Iran's nuclear scientists."

There was no immediate response from Israeli officials, the Telegraph said.