Sanders wins Wyoming caucus

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won the Democratic caucuses in the US state of Wyoming on Saturday, but still trails former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in delegates.

Not only does Wyoming award just 14 delegates, but the caucus platform doles them out proportionally, so he is likely to win only seven or eight delegates (as he took 56 percent of the vote).

Hillary Clinton leads the overall count, with 1,286 delegates to Sanders' 1,037.

When superdelegates - party officials who can back any candidate - are factored in, Clinton has amassed an even more daunting lead: 1,755 delegates to Sanders' 1,068.

A not-so-close race

Sanders has won 16 of the 34 state and territorial contests, compared with 18 for Clinton. But Clinton has fared better in primaries rather than caucuses, and in states that have larger minority populations. And going forward, most of the remaining races are in multi-ethnic states that are running primaries.

Sanders, who has won eight of the last nine contests, does have a certain amount of momentum, which he will need if he hopes to snatch the nomination away from Clinton.

"I think it's fair to say that when we began this campaign, we were considered to be a fringe candidate," the 74-year-old Sanders said during a campaign stop in New York.

"I think that it is very fair to say that we were way, way behind during the first half of this contest," Sanders said, "but we are having - to say the least - a very strong second half, and we are closing very fast."

But it may not be fast enough. To win the nomination, he will need to win 68 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted superdelegates. It takes 2,383 to win.

The next prize is April 19 in New York, where Clinton once served as senator, and where Sanders was born. The state primary offers 291 delegates, and Clinton leads Sanders in the latest poll among likely Democratic voters in the state by 54-42 percent.

Sanders to the Vatican

Sanders has been invited to the Vatican to participate in a discussion marking the 25th anniversary of an encyclical by Pope John Paul II that addressed economic questions during the fall of the Soviet Union.

Its unclear whether the senator will meet the pope, but Sanders said he was "delighted" to participate in the meeting on "restoring social justice and environmental sustainability to the world economy."

"I am a big, big fan of the pope," said Sanders, who is Jewish. "He has played an unbelievable role of injecting a moral consequence into the economy."

bik/tj (AFP, AP, dpa)