MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin voters sent Republican Gov. Scott Walker a clear message about their unhappiness with his muscling through a law restricting union rights by sending a once runaway state Supreme Court race toward a near-certain recount and filling the governor's former post with a Democrat.

While Walker downplayed the significance of Tuesday's elections on Wednesday, saying they were skewed by exceptional turnout in the liberal cities of Madison and Milwaukee, Democrats warned they were only a sign of what's to come. Recall efforts have been launched against 16 state senators from both parties for their support or opposition to the bill eliminating most public employees' collective bargaining rights.

"This continues to add fuel to the tremendous fire of enthusiasm and passion to recall the Republican senators that support Scott Walker's backwards priorities for the state," Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said of the election results.

Progress, but still no budget deal

WASHINGTON - With time growing short, President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that he remains confident that a government shutdown can be avoided this weekend if negotiators can build on constructive talks held at the White House.

Differences remain despite the progress, but Obama announced that talks would continue through the night in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown this weekend.

"It's going to require a sufficient sense of urgency," Obama said, "to complete a deal and get it passed and avert a shutdown."

Obama emerged before reporters to declare his differences with the House Republicans were narrowing but that both sides were still stuck in an impasse.

The pressure built Wednesday as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced House Republicans would approve a stopgap spending bill blending $12 billion in new domestic spending cuts with the full-year Pentagon budget as the price for keeping the government open for another week.

Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes

WASHINGTON - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end what Gadhafi called "an unjust war." He also wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

"You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action," Gadhafi wrote in a rambling, three-page letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I am sure that you are able to shoulder the responsibility for that."

The White House confirmed the letter, but top officials shrugged it off.

"I don't think there is any mystery about what is expected from Mr. Gadhafi at this time," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, repeating U.S. and NATO demands that Gadhafi's forces pull back and cease attacks. She also renewed a demand that Gadhafi step down from power and leave the country.

"There needs to be a ceasefire, his forces need to withdraw from the cities that they have forcibly taken at great violence and human cost," she said. "There needs to be a decision made about his departure from power and ... his departure from Libya."

Rebels and pro-government forces waged nearly stalemate battles in Libya, while a former U.S. lawmaker made an unendorsed private trip to Tripoli to try to convince Gadhafi to step down. An Obama administration envoy continued meeting with Libyan opposition figures in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, with no decision on whether to increase U.S. help for the rebels seeking Gadhafi's ouster.

The rebels, aided by U.N.-authorized airstrikes intended to protect civilians from Gadhafi's forces, have maintained control of much of the eastern half of Libya since early in the uprising, while Gadhafi has clung to much of the west. Gadhafi has been putting out feelers for a cease-fire, but he refuses to step down.

Neither government forces nor the rebels have made any serious gains in recent days and the conflict has shifted to smaller objectives on both sides such as control of the key oil port of Brega, where fighting has flared on the outskirts.