Clinton takes Ohio and McCain wins nomination

Sen. Hillary Clinton won in Ohio, which was very much essential for her to stay alive in the presidential race. Clinton earlier broke Obama's 12-contest winning streak with her victory in Rhode Island. Obama was projected to take Vermont, but the contest in Texas was too close to call.

Senator John McCain won all four Republican contests on Tuesday to become his party's probable candidate. McCain won the primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island which gave him more than the 1,191 delegates required to clinch the GOP nomination.

"I am very, very grateful and pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a great sense of responsibility, that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States," McCain told supporters on Tuesday night. In the meanwhile, Mike Huckabee dropped out of the Republican race after the results came in. "It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but now what must be -- and that is a united party," Huckabee told supporters in Dallas.

McCain is planning to go to the White House on Wednesday to receive the endorsement of President Bush, according to reliable Republican sources. This being his second run for the White House was largely written off last summer amid outspoken opposition from the party's conservative base and disappointing fundraising. But he said earlier Tuesday that he was quite confident that he would emerge as the nominee by the end of the night.

Obama's campaign pressed to extend voting by one hour in two Ohio counties. See county-by-county results in Ohio. "Due to reports of ballot shortages in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, we requested a voting extension in those counties," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. In Texas, Clinton holds a 2 to 1 advantage over Obama with Hispanic voters, while Obama has the overwhelming advantage with black voters in the state's Democratic primary, according to CNN's exit poll. Eighty-three per cent of blacks voted for Obama, while 16 per cent supported Clinton, according to the exit poll.