Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama girded themselves for more fierce battles in their tight race for the Democratic presidential nomination, as Clinton disclosed she lent millions of dollars to her presidential campaign to fuel the costly White House fight.
Republican front-runner Senator John McCain, meanwhile, reached out to his conservative critics with an appeal on Wednesday to find "something we can agree on" as he focused on translating his big "Super Tuesday" wins into the party's presidential nomination.
In a sign of Obama's growing financial advantage, Clinton acknowledged on Wednesday that she loaned her campaign US$5 million late last month as Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into the Democrats' 22-state contests on Tuesday.
Some senior staffers on Clinton's campaign are also voluntarily forgoing paychecks as the campaign heads into the next round of contests.
"And I think the results last night proved the wisdom of my investment," Clinton said.
McCain's sweep of races in California, New York and seven other US states failed to end chief rival Mitt Romney's candidacy, but firmly put the senator on track for the party's White House nomination.
McCain sought on Wednesday to smooth his path by attempting to convince his harshest Republican critics who are angered that he breaks with the conservative party line on issues such as immigration.
"I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there are areas that we can agree on for the good of the party and for the good of the country," he said, addressing right-wing pundits who argue he is too liberal for the party.
Nearly complete delegate returns from coast-to-coast races on Tuesday left McCain with 707 delegates, nearly 60 percent of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination at the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, this summer. That was far ahead of his rivals.
Even so, Romney said he would stay in the race.
Romney had 294 delegates; Mike Huckabee had 195 and Texas Representative Ron Paul had 14.
On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama split the spoils in their Tuesday contests, tightening an already close race.
Clinton won in eight key races, including the most valuable, California and New York.
Obama, however, was close behind with wins in at least 13 of the 22 states that held Democratic contests on Tuesday, and he has fresh momentum as the race moves into territory where he would seem to have an edge.
The Democratic delegate count lagged because of party rules that award delegates proportionally rather than the winner-take-all approach that Republicans use in some states.
Clinton had 1,045 delegates, to 960 for Obama, out of the 2,025 needed to secure victory at the party convention in August.
Delegates still to be allocated included 25 in New Mexico, where Democratic voting remained too close to call.
The Illinois senator campaigned on Wednesday as the Democrat tough enough to withstand Republican attacks in the general election, arguing Wednesday that he has been tested by his hard-driving rival's campaign.
Buoyed by strong fundraising and a primary calendar this month that plays to his strengths, Obama plans a campaign blitz through a series of states holding contests this weekend and will compete to win primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the Washington area next week and Hawaii and Wisconsin the following week.
Clinton will concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not