Berlusconi claims he will empty Italian island of Lampedusa of migrants

Facing fierce criticism over his handling of a wave of north Africans landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa, Silvio Berlusconi has put on a vintage display of showmanship, claiming he would empty the island of immigrants within 60 hours, nominate locals for a Nobel peace prize and buy a holiday home there.

So far this year 22,000 north African migrants have sailed to the island, which has only 5,000 native inhabitants.

During a lightning visit to Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, Berlusconi told cheering locals that six chartered ferries were arriving to pick up the remaining 6,000 migrants, mainly young Tunisian men, who have made the sea crossing since the collapse of the Tunisian government in January and the suspension of coastal patrols.

The migrants will join other north Africans who have already been transferred to centres and camps on the mainland after paying out thousands of euros to make the often perilous crossing.

"In 48 to 60 hours, Lampedusa will be inhabited only by Lampedusans," said Berlusconi.

Locals have protested against the nightly arrivals by using fishing boats to block the harbour entrance as the island's immigrant centre was overwhelmed, food supplies ran short and migrants bivouacked on a rubbish-strewn hill overlooking the port.

Ivory Coast capital falls to rebels

Rebel forces in Ivory Coast have taken control of the official capital, as power seems to be slipping away from the president, Laurent Gbagbo.

Residents and military sources said troops loyal to Gbagbo's rival, Alassane Ouattara, had entered Yamoussoukro, meeting little resistance as security forces fled. The port city of San Pedro also fell.

Yamoussoukro residents told how they braced themselves for conflict before sporadic gunfire erupted. Serge Kipre, who runs a small clothing store in the city, said: "The night before, we were all calling each other to make sure nobody went outside. In the morning, I saw loads of police with balaclavas and Kalashnikovs racing across town. The market closed, shops shuttered. Everybody seemed on edge."

But the approach of the rebels was eagerly awaited by many young pro-Ouattara supporters. Kipre added: "They set a police station ablaze because they felt they would be liberated soon. We are so tired of this situation – we just want them to get it over with."

The pro-Ouattara Republican Forces (FRCI) captured the city within hours as government opposition melted away. Eyewitnesses saw soldiers taking off their uniforms and throwing guns and ammunition into ditches as they fled from the rebel army. Others say some soldiers simply switched sides and joined the FRCI.

The capture of Yamassoukro, which is in a pro-Ouattara area, is symbolic but not decisive. Gbagbo's seat of power is in the commercial capital, Abidjan, where fighting has raged for months. But the fall of Yamoussoukro opens up the main road to Abidjan, just 143 miles away.

Earlier this month a leader of rebel forces, which have controlled northern Ivory Coast since the 2002-03 civil war, told the Guardian they would "surprise all the analysts" by removing Gbagbo quickly and cleanly.

Such confidence appears to have been borne out so far as the rebels make rapid advances on three fronts and encounter little resistance.

Gbagbo has called for a ceasefire, though this has been widely dismissed as a ploy. Young men are being enrolled into the army, reportedly to replace soldiers who are not turning up for work or who have changed sides.

Ally Coulibaly, Ouattara's ambassador to Paris, claimed rebel forces now controlled three-quarters of the country. "President Alassane Ouattara was patient and gave Mr Laurent Gbagbo every possibility to leave power peacefully," he told the French radio station France Inter. "He refused every offer made to him."

Shutdown threat recedes as budget talks resume

The threat of a government shutdown seemed to recede on Wednesday as budget talks between Republicans and Democrats resumed in Congress and aides from both parties said they were more optimistic that a compromise can be found.

Though lawmakers continued to trade jabs in public, aides said privately that they had a greater sense of optimism they could reach a deal before temporary government funding expires on April 8.

"We're all focused on getting something enacted into law," a Republican aide said.

Both parties acknowledge the need to trim budget deficits that have hovered around 10 percent of GDP in recent years, but differ on how to do this.

Republicans hope to keep a campaign promise to scale back the government, while Democrats say that sharp spending cuts would hurt the economic recovery.

"We know the answer lies in the middle. Neither party can pass a budget without the other party," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said.

The two sides were initially $50 billion apart in the debate over spending levels for the current fiscal year that ends September 30. Democrats say that gap has now been reduced to only $6 billion as they struggle to finalize more than $1 trillion in annual spending.

That would amount to a reduction of between $30 billion and $40 billion from current levels, making it the largest domestic spending cut ever.

Ohio State's Jim Tressel: It's been 'a difficult past couple of months'

Speaking to the for the first time since he admitted to a major NCAA violation, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel apologized for his conduct Wednesday and admitted it has been "a difficult past couple of months."

Tressel said earlier this month he would accept a five-game suspension after failing to forward information about possible rules violations by two of his players and lying to the NCAA.

At the time, Tressel said he kept the allegations secret because of a federal investigation. A report later surfaced in The Columbus Dispatch that he did send the email to the mentor of quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who was one of the two players mentioned having received illegal benefits.

"The largest regrets I've had in my life have been when I've disappointed people, when I've let people down," Tressel said Wednesday. "The mistakes I've made are very disappointing. I'm sorry for that, as I've mentioned many times."

Tressel and an Ohio State spokesperson said the coach would take no questions regarding the NCAA investigation could be addressed.

It was announced at the press conference linebackers coach Luke Fickell would serve as Tressel's replacement during his suspension. The length of the penalty remains uncertain because the NCAA has not ruled in the case.

"It'll be difficult," Fickell said. "We have to know whose team it is. It's our team. It's the seniors' team."

Obama Lays Out Plan to Cut Reliance on Fuel Imports

President Obama called on Wednesday for a one-third reduction in oil imports over the next decade, and said the effort had to begin immediately. In a speech at Georgetown University , the president said that the United States cannot go on consuming one- quarter of the world’s oil production while posessing only two percent of global reserves. He said that the country had to begin a long-term plan to reduce its reliance on imported oil, and that the decades-long political bickering that has stalled progress toward that goal had to end.

With oil supplies from the Middle East now pinched by political upheaval with calls growing in Congress for expanded domestic oil and gas production, the president referred in his speech a similar runup in energy prices in 2008.

“Now here’s the thing — we’ve been down this road before,” Mr. Obama said. “Remember, it was just three years ago that gas prices topped $4 a gallon. I remember because I was in the middle of a presidential campaign.”

He continued: “Because it was also the height of political season, so you had a lot of slogans and gimmicks and outraged politicians, they were waving their three-point-plans for two-dollar-a-gallon gas. You remember that: ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and all of that. And none of it would really do anything to solve the problem.”

Saying there were no quick fixes to the nation’s oil addiction, Mr. Obama went on to propose a mix of measures, none of them new, to wean the nation off the barrel.

He called for a fuel-saving strategy of producing more electric cars, converting trucks to run on natural gas, building new refineries to brew billions of gallons of biofuels and setting new fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Congress has been debating similar measures for years.

“The only way for America’s energy supply to be truly secure is by permanently reducing our dependence on oil,” Mr. Obama said. “We’re going to have to find ways to boost our efficiency so that we use less oil. We’ve got to discover and produce cleaner, renewable sources of energy that also produce less carbon pollution that is threatening our climate. And we have to do it quickly.”

He pointed out that the nationn has had a tendency, ever since the first Arab oil embargo in 1973, to panic when gasoline prices rise and then fall back into old fuel-guzzling habits when prices recede.

“We cannot keep going from shock when gas prices go up to trance when gas prices go back down,” he said. “We can’t rush to propose action when prices are high then push the snooze button when they go down again. We can’t keep doing that. The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity and security on a resource that will eventually run out.”

More than half of the oil burned in the United States today comes from overseas or from Mexico or Canada.