Obama halts Clinton's winning run

Barack Obama has stopped Hillary Clinton from gaining any momentum in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination by winning Wyoming's caucuses.

The 46-year-old Illinois senator, who would be the first African American US president, won the Wyoming contest and halted the former first lady's series of victories in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. With all of the caucus results in, Mr Obama won with 61% of the vote, compared with Mrs Clinton's 39%.

But the least populous US state offers only 12 delegates to the Democratic national convention this summer, where the party's nominee will be chosen, and these will be split between the two rivals under the party's proportional system.

Initial estimates showed Mr Obama would win the support of at least seven delegates from the state. Before these results, Mr Obama reportedly had 1,569 delegates to Mrs Clinton's 1,462, in the race to the magic number of 2,025 needed to secure the party's presidential nomination.

With neither candidate likely to reach the finish line with pledged delegates alone, the result will probably be decided by nearly 800 so-called superdelegates - influential party officials, including members of the Democratic National Committee as well as elected officials such as members of Congress and governors, whose votes are not tied to the primary season results.

The race, which has become increasingly bitter and intense between the two rivals in recent days, now moves on to Mississippi on Tuesday, a state which offers 33 delegates and where Mr Obama is expected to do well again with the help of the African American vote. The next major battleground is Pennsylvania, which offers 158 delegates in six weeks' time on April 22.

On Friday, Mr Obama's top foreign policy aide resigned after she branded Mrs Clinton a desperate "monster" who would stop at nothing to seize power in a Scottish newspaper interview. Mr Obama has promised voters he would not engage in the politics of personal destruction and a campaign spokesman said he "decries such characterisations, which have no place in this campaign".

Samantha Power made the comments during an interview on Monday with The Scotsman in London, which was published Friday.

"She is a monster, too - that is off the record - she is stooping to anything," she told the newspaper. "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too."

Ms Power expressed her "deep regret" over the comments and said: "I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."