A Clinton Win, China Quake Impact, and More

Hillary Clinton handily won the West Virginia primary last night. But providing fresh evidence that rival Barack Obama has the Democratic nomination all but locked up, two superdelegates endorsed the senator from Illinois shortly thereafter. While Clinton's campaign continues to argue that Obama will have trouble attracting blue-collar voters in swing states, Obama is already pressing ahead to the general election.

Thousands of Chinese troops are attempting to fix a dam that was cracked by Monday's massive earthquake, while rescue workers for the first time are getting to the epicenter of the quake that killed an estimated 15,000. The Zipingpu Dam is upriver from the city of Dujiangyan, and major damage to the dam could lead to the city being "swamped," the official Xinhau news agency reported. Chinese officials said the quake had damaged 391 mostly small dams.

Today, President Bush called Israel's 60-year anniversary a reason for optimism about democratic change in the Middle East. "I suspect if you looked back 60 years ago and tried to guess where Israel would be at that time, it would be hard to be able to project such a prosperous, hopeful land," Bush said during a meeting with Israel's President Shimon Peres. Upon Bush's arrival at the airport at Tel Aviv, he hugged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the subject of a new criminal investigation that could push him from office. Earlier, broadcasters' microphones had picked up Olmert's assurances to a senior White House official: "Holding on, holding on, don't worry."