Sacramento - A tent city that sprang up in the California state capital of Sacramento and became a symbol of the country's desperate economic plight is to be closed within three weeks, the Sacramento Bee reported Friday.

Mayor Kevin Johnston said the plan was to move hundreds of the tent city residents to "safer, more sanitary" quarters and cordon off the pasture which they had called home.

Washington - With an eye to the nation's expanding waistlines and dwindling incomes, Michelle Obama is organizing a vegetable garden at the White House.

The spade was to be turned later Friday for the first such garden at the White House since the victory garden planted by Eleanor Roosevelt during World War II, media reports said.

Fifth graders from a local elementary school in Washington are to help plant, harvest and cook the vegetables, berries and herbs.

Moscow/Bishkek  - Kyrgyzstan's parliament on Friday set early presidential elections for July 23, timing that observers say hands the advantage to incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Bakiyev, who came to power on the back of popular protest dubbed the Tulip revolution in 2005, announced last month he would seek a second term.

The former hero of the revolution was elected to a four-year term, but that was amended in the constitution to five. But with the declaration last month that new elections should take place in 2010, Bakiyev sparked public debate on the question.

Finally, the suspense will-he-won’t-he ends?

Ha, but I wish people had asked me instead of speculating about my contesting the elections. I looked at my colleagues in politics and wondered why they were lobbying so hard for a ticket. Gairon se kaha tumne gairon se suna tumne kuch humse suna hota kuch humse kaha hota. I’d have happily given over my candidacy to anyone who asked for it. I didn’t come into politics to become rich or to gain power. I was influenced by the political ideology of Jaiprakash Narayan . I came into this field to practice healthy politics.

Isn’t ‘healthy politics’ a contradiction in terms?

Washington  - Spurred on by public ire over bonuses paid at firms that received government bail-outs, the US Congress Thursday was considering a 90-per-cent tax on executive bonus payments by companies receiving more than 5 billion dollars in federal funds.

The action, which the House of Representatives could vote on later Thursday, comes amidst furor over actions by American International Group (AIG), the world's largest insurance firm whose near failure in September 2008 helped push a teetering US financial system into rapid descent.

Athens  - The tiny Greek island of Agios Efstratios located in the Aegean Sea would soon become the country's first "green" island, entirely powered by renewable energy sources, Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said Thursday.

The island's 250 residents would use only solar- and wind- generated energy and move around the 43.3-square-kilometre island, located north-west of Limnos on bicycles and in electric cars.

According to Hatzidakis, the 10-million-euro (13-million-dollar) project would go into effect by 2010 and serve as an international model.