Mexico reacted with anger to the new legislation passed Wednesday in the United States that will make it impossible for undocumented immigrants to acquire a driver's license - something currently allowed in a number of states - and authorises the extension of the security walls built along the border separating the two countries.The so-called Real ID Act requires applicants for a driver's license to prove that they are in the country legally. It also establishes more stringent requirements for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States -Diego Cevallos/IPS

The U.S. Army will allow recruits to sign up for just 15 months of active-duty service, rather than the typical four-year enlistment, as it struggles to lure new soldiers amid the Iraq war, a general said on Thursday.The Army said this week it will suspend recruiting on May 20 to counsel its 7,545 recruiters on ethics

Politics as usual has been playing itself out the past month or so over the confirmation of John R. Bolton as the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.The Republicans, who clearly have demonstrated they have no concern over our freedoms and sovereignty, have been singing Bolton's good virtues while the Democrats rant Bolton is a rat.Then, to confuse this diversionary tactic even more, a handful of Republicans suddenly decided they had questions about Bolton -Devvy Kidd/WorldNetDaily

German MPs voted overwhelmingly yesterday to approve the new EU constitution in a move designed to boost the faltering yes campaign in France, which faces a knife-edge referendum at the end of the month.Germany's Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, passed the constitution with a convincing majority of 569 out of 594 votes.But some 23 rebel MPs, most of them from Germany's two conservative opposition parties, defied their own leaders and voted against -Guardian UK

A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress yesterday seeks to revise the current immigration system by allowing millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to apply to be temporary guest workers and permit residents of other countries to seek the same status if they can prove that a job is waiting for them.The new H-5A visa program proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) would allow immigrant workers to leave and enter the United States as they pleased over the three-year life of the temporary visa -Washington Post

Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee heard yesterday that President Bush's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations was "arrogant" and "bullying." They heard that he "would have been fired had he worked for a major corporation." They heard that his confirmation "would send a contradictory and negative message to the world" and that "the United States can do better than John Bolton." It sounded like more of the partisan attacks on Bolton that Democrats have delivered for the past two months -- except this time, the accuser was a fellow Republican, Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio -Dana Milbank/Washington Post

YESTERDAY was an extraordinary day of threats and counter-threats, even by the standards of the three-year row over Iran’s nuclear programme.From the early morning, telephone calls rattled between London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Washington and Tehran, after Iran threatened to restart a controversial part of its work -London Times UK

The latest insights into this cosmos of U.N.-fostered corruption come by way of a bipartisan report just released by the Senate Permanent Subcomittee on Investigations, or PSI, led by Coleman.In detail, with supporting documentation, the report shows how Saddam Hussein, via Oil-for-Food, gave rights to buy millions of barrels of underpriced Iraqi oil to two politicians who supported his regime: former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua and British Member of Parliament George Galloway -Claudia Rosett/National Review

If your eyes glaze over at the mention of trade agreements, think about the outflow of U.S. jobs and the inflow of Third World illegals and how your tax dollars subsidize it all.Many citizens realize the country is changing for the worse, but few understand the role played by international trade agreements.Even fewer know how we got them -Phyllis Spivey/NewsWithViews