elizabeth palmer has our report. >> reporter: by the time the police arrived, the killer had escaped. just before classes began, the man had ridden up to the high school on a motorcycle and started shooting. the rabbi who taught yiddish was killed along with his two sons age 3 and 6 and an 8-year-old girl. parents and pupils struggled to describe the horror of children shot at point blank range. french president nicolas sarkozy suspended his re-election campaign to travel to the school and called the killing a national tragedy. it's also a national emergency. police believe the shooter is a serial killer and probably racially motivated. the same weapons was used to gun down four french soldiers in two separate shootings in the region last week. all the soldiers were either

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, london. >> pelley: in the u.s. presidential race, here is where the battle for the republican nomination stands on the eve of the illinois primary. mitt romney leads with 493 delegates, followed by rick santorum with 218. newt gingrich 120 and ron paul with 42. no one is close to the 1,144 needed to clinch the nomination. next week right in the middle of this campaign the supreme court will consider the constitutionality of president obama's health care reform law. so we thought this would be a good time to ask the republicans what they would do about health care. first, dean reynolds with the santorum campaign. dean? >> reporter: scott, senator santorum-- like the other republican candidates-- gets some of his loudest applause when he says his top priority will be to repeal the national health care law, which president obama signed two years ago. >> senator, i know you're opposed to the national health care law, but i'm a little vague on what you would do instead of it. >> not romneycare, not obamacare not governm

as elizabeth palmer reports from tehran, it was a battle between two political extremes with no place for would-be reformers. >> reporter: this election was a contest between one faction of hard-line conservatives backed by iran's supreme leader, and another backed by president mahmoud ahmadinejad. it wasn't a radical choice. but some voters were perfectly happy with it. others, disgusted that hundreds of reform candidates had been disqualified, stayed well away. the boycott worried the esteemed leaders, as they needed a strong showing to legitimize their anti-western policies, and, apparently, they got it. although there's no way to independently verify the claim, the regime says more than 60% of eligible voters in iran did cast a ballot. on the northern edge of tehran, where a cable car runs up to the local ski hill, the middle class has come to take a break. in the past, many of these people, totally disenchanted with their leaders, would have had nothing to do with an election. but this time, with israel talking about a military strike and harsh u.s. sanctions starting to bite, so

elizabeth palmer is in tehran. >> reporter: it was an entrance designed to grab attention.ran's supreme leader cast a ballot live on national television and sent a message to all iranians. "the arrogant powers" he said-- meaning the u.s. and israel-- "are bullying us." the regime needed a big turnout today to legitimize its anti- western stance and its refusal to back down on the nuclear program. there are more than 3,000 candidates running in this election and yet nowhere will you see the opposition represented. since the 2009 uprising, its leaders have been jailed and the movement crushed. the tens of thousands of people who took to the streets then to demand reforms have been intimidated into silence. the only protests they could safely make today was to boycott the ballot box. whatever the result of this election, hard-liners are certain to be in charge of iran as it heads into dangerous times. u.s.-led sanctions to put pressure on the country over its nuclear program are starting to hurt. in food markets, for example, the price of ground meat and tea is up by 50% since

elizabeth palmer, cbs news, london. >>> coming up on cbs news, appl on their investment and first lady michelle obama visits david letterman. you can part a crowd, without saying a word. you have yet to master the quiet sneeze. you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts. well, muddlers, muddle no more. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour 1 on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour 3. zyrtec®. love the air. ♪ could open a world of wonder? ♪ ♪ so sensory ♪ so satisfying ♪ the discovery never seems to stop ♪ ♪ it's the magic friskies makes happen ♪ ♪ every day ♪ in so many ways ♪ friskies ♪ feed the senses >>> first lady michelle obama was david letterman's late show guest last night. dave asked her about private conversations she's had with the president. >> hypothetically speaking, at the end of the day, has your husband ever come home and said to you, oh, that john boehner, what an idiot. >> it has never happened. never, never. he's always upbeat, particularl

we have reports from mark phillips and elizabeth palmer. to begin, mark phillips in moscow? >>reporter: at polling station 164 in central moscow, they arrived in steady numbers this morning. whatever else this election is, it's not expected to be a cliff hanger. among the five candidates there's a right wing ecsentd rick, a discredited communist, and a billionaire, and vladimir putin. for once the president who took a hiatus as prime minister is expected to sweep back into the presidency for a third term. and if everybody is not happy about that. he was booed at this campaign appearance. the main tv channel he ox*ens, stopped the bog. >> and ballot box can be kournlted with a little old time russian election rigging. a practice that led to large street demonstrations. election observers at the polls know what they're looking for. >> that was ballot box stuffing. there were all sorts of manipulation of the election commissions at the local level. so it was not a good report card. >> reporter: this election has become like a marked march madness basketball game between two une

elizabeth palmer has breaking news at the seem in toulouse, france. elizabeth. >> reporter: we're being held about 300 yards away from the apartment building where the suspect has been negotiating with police all day, threatening to give himself up but never appearing. then about 11:30 local time there were three loud explosions. the police have said they were to intimidate him. it's hard to tell from here what exactly is going on. it appears the explosions were outside the building and it seems clear that at this moment anyway the suspect is not yet in police custody. mohammed merah is the killer, say police, who road up on a motorcycle and coldly gunned down seven people, including a jewish rabbi, his two sons, and a little girl. the french prosecutor says merah, who is of algiers descent, said he was planning further attacks, including one this morning targeting a soldier. the break came in the police manhunt from this bike shop in toulouse. a customer came in asking to have his motorcycle repainted and a tracking device removed. it turned out to be

elizabeth palmer has breaking news at the seem in toulouse, france. elizabeth. >> reporter: good evening, scott. the building that he's in is about 300 yards behind me, just up that road. in the last, oh, three minutes we've heard three very large explosions. now he's been in there negotiating for almost 20 hours with the police, occasionally saying he was going to give himself up, and then didn't. everybody was waiting either for his surrender or what appears now to be happening, armed police units moving in. mohamed merah is the killer, say police, who rode up on a motorcycle and coldly gunned down seven people, including a jewish rabbi, his two sons, and a little girl. the french prosecutor says merah, who is of algiers descent, said he was planning further attacks, including one this morning targeting a soldier. the break came in the police manhunt from this bike shop in toulouse. a customer came in asking to have his motorcycle repainted and a tracking device removed. it turned out to be the suspect's brother. that tip led police to this apartment

when the police launched the raid, elizabeth palmer was there. >> reporter: a normally quiet toulouse neighborhood echoed with heavy gunfire this morning. as police commandos finally moved in on mohamed merah, after a 30-hour standoff. france's interior minister said when they entered the apartment, merah sprang out of the bathroom, guns blazing. minutes later, a police officer shot him in the head as he tried to escape from a second-floor balcony. merah, of algerian descent, is seen here in more care life free days, had a criminal record for delinquency. he had traveled to pakistan, been detained in afghanistan, and sent back to france. but the french prosecutor told a packed press conference he was still under the radar. was mohamed merah ever under any kind of police surveillance for terrorism since he came back from afghanistan? "he'd done nothing" said the prosecutor "to attract our attention." but merah was on the u.s. no-fly list, and american officials say he was known to french authorities. even so, he was able to amass an arsenal, including an uzi submachine gun, several han

. >> elizabeth palmer is following developments as they happen in toulouse, france. good morning. >> reporter: yes. it's all come to a climax just in the last few minutes. the police have confirmed that mohammad merah is dead. three policemen were injured in what appears to have been a shootout. we heard sporadic gunfire in the last hour. the police wanted to take him alive to question him. but it seems to have ended in his death. there were hours of silence. by the time the sun came up this morning, police were saying, we don't really know if he's alive or not. they went in very gingerly after we think hitting the house with stun grenades. apparently he was still alive. now, mohammad merah had been on the police radar for some time. in a video that was shot by a friend, he appears to be a very happy 24-year-old fellow. but he had a long string of delinquent crimes. appears he was quietly being radicalized in islamism. he went off to afghanistan and pakistan a couple of times, was arrested in afghanistan and sent back to france where he was under police surveillance.

correspondent elizabeth palmer is in tehran with the details this morning. >> reporter: results are still coming in from the iranian election, but it does appear as if the new parliament will be dominated by religious conservatives, followers of iran's supreme leader. the regime needed a strong showing in the election to legitimize the anti-western stance. it said it did get it with more than 60% of voters casting a ballot. though the reformists called for a but boycott claiming they were virtually eliminated from the race. those who did vote and those who didn't are worried about the effect of u.s.-led sanctions which are slowly choking iran's economy. to reverse sanctions iran's government would have to seek negotiations and a compromise on the nuclear program. that looked unlikely before and now that the parliament is going to be dominated by religious hard liners it looks virtually impossible. elizabeth palmer, cbs this morning saturday, tehran. >> in arizona, police in the phoenix suburb of tempeh are looking for two men who shot 13 people in a nightclub overnight. the motive for the

elizabeth palmer is in tehran this morning where iranian leaders are calling for a large turnout. liz, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well, the run-up to the election and in fact the election itself has been pretty subdued. that is because the process was strictly controlled. of about 5,000 candidates who wanted to run, 2,000 were disqualified at the outset. that certainly included anybody who would call for furious reforms or challenge the system. iran's supreme leader made a dramatic entrance this morning at his own personal polling station when he cast his ballot live on national tv. he was also sending a message. voting is a patriotic duty. the regime wants a big turnout today to legitimize its anti-western position and its refusal to back down on its nuclear program. there are more than 3,000 candidates running for parliament, but all of them are conservatives. the liberal opposition that blossomed so dramatically in 20 aught has been crushed. its activists are deep underground and its leaders are under house arrest. no matter who wins today's election, the hard lin

. >> cbs's elizabeth palmer is following the development in toulouse this morning. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. well mohammad merah was killed in an attempt to arrest him this morning here in toulouse. there was relief that this violent and tragic story is over but certainly frustration on behalf of the french authorities who had hoped to take him alive. ending a 30-hour standoff, an explosion and heavy gunfire marks the start of the operation to arrest merah. the police weren't even sure he was still alive. after telling negotiators he was going to surrender, he went quiet overnight. but explained french's interior minister when officers entered the apartment, merah came out of the bathroom guns blazing. he jumped out of the window still firing at police and was found dead on the ground. it was a dramatic end to a ten-day shooting spree but french authorities face tough questions about how this young man of algerian dissent seen in more care-free days was able to allude detection. after having been arrested during a trip to afghanistan and sent back to