McCain wants to cut back on nukes

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho voters on Tuesday chose Republican Jim Risch and Democrat Larry LaRocco in their respective U.S. Senate primaries. The two men are seeking to replace three-term U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, who isn't running again after his arrest in a Minnesota airport-bathroom gay-sex sting last June.

LaRocco, 62, is a former congressman. Risch, 65, the state's two-term lieutenant governor, spent seven months as a stand-in governor after Dirk Kempthorne's appointment as U.S. Interior secretary in 2006.

In the nonbinding Democratic presidential primary, with 89 percent of precincts reporting, Sen. Barack Obama led Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 55 percent to 38 percent.

In the GOP primary, Sen. John McCain led Rep. Ron Paul 70 percent to 23 percent. None of the 23 GOP delegates at stake had been allocated.

McCain wants

to cut back on nukes

DENVER — Republican Sen. John McCain called Tuesday for talks with China to negotiate a temporary halt to production of nuclear-weapons-grade material and with Russia on a new treaty to destroy more nuclear weapons.

"Today we deploy thousands of nuclear warheads," McCain said in a speech at the University of Denver. "It is my hope to move as rapidly as possible to a significantly smaller force."

He did not set a specific goal but said the number would be consistent with U.S. security and global commitments.

Cautioning against relying solely on force or merely on talks, McCain proposed a bipartisan push to strengthen a broad array of international weapons treaties and nuclear monitoring. He also criticized past administrations, Democratic and Republican, for failing to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

As McCain spoke, anti-war protesters angered by his support of continued military involvement in Iraq interrupted him four times.

Obama misspoke on great-uncle's record

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Barack Obama campaign said Tuesday the candidate mistakenly referred to the wrong Nazi death camp when relating the story of a great-uncle who helped liberate the camps in World War II.

The Democratic presidential candidate said the story is accurate except that the camp was Buchenwald, not Auschwitz.

"Senator Obama's family is proud of the service of his grandfather and uncles in World War II, especially the fact that his great-uncle was a part of liberating one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald," campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "Yesterday he mistakenly referred to Auschwitz instead of Buchenwald in telling of his personal experience of a soldier in his family who served heroically."

Aides said Tuesday that his grandmother's brother, Charlie Payne, helped liberate a Buchenwald subcamp in April 1945 as part of the 89th Infantry Division.

Obama has lead in Oregon delegates

PORTLAND — The Democratic Party says the results from Oregon's presidential primary give Barack Obama 31 pledged delegates to Hillary Rodham Clinton's 21.

Obama thumped Clinton, winning 59 percent of the vote, which was counted a week ago.

But the precise allocation of delegates, announced Tuesday, awaited final results and calculations down to the district level.

Of the 52 pledged delegates, the party says, 18 are elected on the basis of statewide totals and 34 on the basis of results in congressional districts.

The party's delegation to the national convention will number 65. A dozen of those will be unpledged superdelegates. A 65th delegate, unpledged, is to be elected at the party's state convention.

Seattle Times news services