The News in 2 Minutes

From The Associated Press

State GOP elects delegates

MESA ?— Republican activists have finished picking the Arizonans who will serve as delegates to the national GOP convention.

Nearly all of the 50 delegates elected Saturday were from the slate of candidates assembled by party officials and supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Arizona GOP Chairman Randy Pullen says all political parties have some dissension in their ranks, but he’s confident the state’s delegates to the national convention in St. Paul, Minn., will support McCain.

Obama overtakes Clinton in superdelegates

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Barack Obama erased Hillary Rodham Clinton’s once-imposing lead among superdelegates Saturday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party’s nomination for president.

Obama added superdelegates from Utah and Ohio, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton. The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton’s total for the first time in the campaign. He had picked up nine endorsements Friday.

The milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination. They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.

Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who will automatically attend the Democratic national convention this August in Denver. They can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.

They are key because neither Obama nor Clinton can win the nomination without them.

Nearly 800 superdelegates will attend the convention. Obama has endorsements from 275, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. Clinton has 271.5.

News Corp. withdraws bid to buy Newsday

NEW YORK— News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has withdrawn its bid to purchase the Long Island daily paper Newsday, a News Corp. spokeswoman said Saturday.

News Corp. had offered about $580 million for the paper, one of the country’s biggest, but it was competing against rival bids from Cablevision Systems Corp. and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman. Cablevision had reportedly made an offer of $650 million for the paper, now owned by the Tribune Co.

A deal would have made News Corp. an even bigger giant in New York media. The company already owns the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, plus two area television stations.

Myanmar’s junta holds referendum

YANGON, Myanmar— Myanmar’s military rulers held a referendum Saturday aimed at solidifying their hold on power while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign. In some cases, generals’ names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.

Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the vote, which seeks public approval of a new constitution.

The referendum came just one week after Cyclone Nargis left more than 60,000 people dead or missing. The U.N. estimates that at least 1.5 million people have been severely affected.