Republican Candidates Firm on Immigration  —  In front of what will probably be their most pro-immigration audience, Republican candidates toned down their rhetoric but told Spanish-language television viewers in a debate on Sunday that they would take strong measures to close off the country's borders to illegal immigration.

Oprahpalooza in South Carolina  —  (Photo: Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times)  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — It was a staggering sight.  Upwards of 29,000 people at a political rally.  And the Democratic primary in South Carolina is not until Jan. 26.  —  The Double O Express …

'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 9, 2007  —  Mayor Rudy Giuliani, R-N.Y.  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series continues, an exclusive interview with Republican Rudy Giuliani.  He has served as associate attorney general in Washington …

Sunday horror: Church shootings in Colorado; gunman killed by armed female church security staffer  —  By now, you've read about the two tragic church shootings incidents in Colorado earlier today.  What you may not have heard about is how the gunman at the second church was reportedly stopped:

The Paygo Farce  —  Democrats admit it was all a big confidence game. … Well, as Emily Littela, the half-witted Gilder Radner character on Saturday Night Live, would have put it: "Never mind."  Last week Congressional Democrats formally renounced their ballyhooed budget pledge to offset …

Students stone police in Iran riot  —  Students defied a clampdown on protests in Iran yesterday by tearing down the gates of Tehran university.  —  They chanted slogans against President Ahmadinejad and carried placards saying "Live free or die", "No war, no fascism" and "Women must decide their fate, not the state."

Henry Paulson's Priorities  —  By Bush administration standards, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, is a good guy.  He isn't conspicuously incompetent; and he isn't trying to mislead us into war, justify torture or protect corrupt contractors.  —  But Mr. Paulson's actions reflect the priorities of the administration he serves.

PULITZER PRIZE IN TERRORISM?  —  The Associated Press won a 2005 Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography for its team coverage of the Iraq War.  But the US Military discovered at least one team member - Bilal Hussein - had been a little too cozy with the terrorists when he got that coverage.

Paul turns down invitation to seek Libertarian Party nomination  —  Lake Jackson congressman won't run for president on third-party ticket.  —  WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Ron Paul turned down a Libertarian Party invitation on Sunday that could have kept him in the 2008 presidential race …

Disability Cases Last Longer as Backlog Rises  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — Steadily lengthening delays in the resolution of Social Security disability claims have left hundreds of thousands of people in a kind of purgatory, now waiting as long as three years for a decision.

A Year Later, Signs of Progress Around the World  —  The world looks safer, friendlier, more hopeful than it did as we approached Christmastime last year.  —  Then, we were on the defensive, perhaps on the verge of defeat, in Iraq.  The Europeans' attempts to persuade Iran to renounce nuclear weapons seemed to have failed.

The Web Users' Campaign  —  Before they chartered planes and opened teeming offices in Des Moines or Manchester, even before they announced their lofty ambitions to the world, the current field of presidential candidates set about absorbing the lessons of Howard Dean's 2004 campaign.

Lawrence O'Donnell Loses His Ever-Loving Mind on McLaughlin  —  A sane, if highly flawed, discussion of Mitt Romney's "Faith In America" speech on the McLaughlin Group was cold-cocked into the realm of crazy-faced anger by guest panelist Lawrence O'Donnell this morning, who started off by criticizing Romney …

A Pastor's True Calling  —  Huckabee's success is due, in part, to right-time, right-place luck.  But he says it comes from above.  —  For the Rev. Mike Huckabee, the podium is never far from the pulpit.  Last month, just as the former Republican governor of Arkansas was unexpectedly rising …

Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans  —  British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.  —  The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury …

Vigilantes kill 40 women in Iraq's south  —  BAGHDAD - Religious vigilantes have killed at least 40 women this year in the southern Iraqi city of Basra because of how they dressed, their mutilated bodies found with notes warning against "violating Islamic teachings," the police chief said Sunday.