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Obama, McCain on top in Wisconsin

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain were the projected winners in their parties' presidential primary elections in Wisconsin Tuesday.

With 23 percent of the vote counted, Obama, the senator from Illinois, led Hillary Clinton, the senator from New York, 56 percent to 43 percent, results posted by CNN showed. On the Republican side, McCain, the senator from Arizona, led former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee 55 percent to 37 percent. Texas Congressman Ron Paul had 4 percent.

Those margins were good enough to project Obama and McCain victors, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other major media outlets determined.

Obama's ninth straight win gave him 1,276 delegates to 1,220 for Clinton. A total of 2,025 are needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

McCain has 894 delegates to 217 for Huckabee, with 1,191 the number needed to clinch the GOP nod.

Sarkisian in lead in Armenian election

YEREVAN, Armenia, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian appeared to have won a first-round victory in the Armenian presidential election Tuesday.

The Central Election Commission reported early Wednesday that Sarkisian had 57.8 percent of the vote with about one-third of the ballots counted, Armenialiberty.org reported. Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian had 18 percent and former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian 17 percent.

Both the Ter-Petrosian and Baghdasarian campaigns accused the CEC and Sarkisian of rigging the election. A Ter-Petrosian spokesman said that CEC's turnout figures were inflated.

"The elections took place with blatant violations which seriously affected the overall results," Nikol Pashinian told reporters at a news conference.

Observers from the European Parliament said that the election was carried out according to international standards, PanArmenian.net reported.

The results were in line with an exit poll commissioned by state television and conducted by a pro-government group. Another exit poll conducted by a coalition of 30 organizations put Ter-Petrosian in the lead with Sarkisian just behind him.

Armenia, a landlocked country wedged in between Turkey, Georgia, Iran and Azerbaijan, seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Officers say U.S. military stretched thin

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Almost 90 percent of senior U.S. officers polled for the annual Military Index believe the military is near breaking, a think tank reported Tuesday.

While 88 percent of respondents said the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have stretched the military dangerously thin, 56 percent said the breaking point has not yet been reached, the Center for a New American Security said.

The center and Foreign Policy magazine surveyed more than 3,400 officers, both active and retired, holding the rank of major or lieutenant commander or higher.

The officers were most concerned about the Army. Asked to rate the services on a scale of one to 10 with 10 meaning "completely ready to deploy," the Army averaged 4.7, followed by the Marine

Corps at 5.7, the Air Force at 6.6 and the Navy with 6.8.

Morale remains high despite the problems, the officers said.

While 88 percent said the increase in U.S. forces in Iraq known as the surge and Gen. David Petraeus's counter-insurgency strategy had improved the situation, a majority said Iran or China would be the big winners in Iraq, not the United States.

7 die in South Korea copter crash

SEOUL, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Seven South Korean military personnel were killed when their army helicopter crashed after completing a medical emergency mission, a report said.

The UH-1H helicopter, carrying two army pilots, two medical officers and three enlisted members, had just dropped off an emergency patient at a military hospital near Seoul when it crashed about 1:40 a.m. Wednesday near a mountain in Yangpyong, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"Immediately after the accident, the army searched the area, mobilizing all its available (resources) and located the bodies of all seven people on board and the wreckage of the helicopter," the army's public affairs office said in a statement.

The cause of the accident had yet to be determined.