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  - The United States moved to cut off aid to Madagascar on Friday following the forced resignation of the Indian Ocean island's president that amounted to a "coup d'etat," the State Department said.

The president of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, resigned on Tuesday under pressure from the military. He ceded control to mutinous generals, who in turn appointed opposition leader Andry Rajoelina as interim president.

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.

Washington - Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke Friday was optimistic about the market's responses to a series of crisis measures undertaken by the central bank to stem the financial crisis.

"So far, we have generally been encouraged by the market responses, including the decline in mortgage interest rates," Bernanke said in speech to community bankers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Washington - US auto suppliers could get up to 5 billion dollars in US government aid as they struggle to survive the recession.

The announcement on Thursday by the Treasury Department indicated that suppliers would get a guarantee that money owed them by the major car companies for products would be paid, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

New York - Financier Bernard Madoff will have to sit in jail while waiting for his sentencing after pleading guilty to a massive scam that bilked billions of dollars from thousands of investors, US media reported.

An appellate court in New York upheld a judge's previous ruling that Madoff should not be released pending his June 16 sentencing because he has the financial means to flee, MSNBC reported.