USA

Because an insufficient number of diplomats have volunteered to serve in Iraq, the State Department Monday will notify 200 to 300 members of the foreign service that they've been selected for one-year postings. They will have 10 days to accept or reject one of 40 to 50 vacancies expected next year. Those who refuse assignment could be dismissed.

In a close vote, the United Auto Workers union ratified a new four-year contract with Chrysler LLC Saturday. The UAW, which earlier struck a deal with General Motors Corp., now turns its attention to bargaining with Ford Motor Co. in what analysts believe could present the most difficult negotiations. Ford, which lost $12 billion last year, can't offer much job security.

On Saturday, New York State approved a new generation of highly secure driver's licenses designed to help border states in meeting new, tighter rules for border crossings. Other states to adopt similar measures are Arizona, Vermont, and Washington. New York reached a compromise with the Homeland Security Department that will allow illegal immigrants to get a version of the new licenses.

With assistance from a robotic arm, space shuttle Discovery astronauts unhooked a 35,000-pound girder from the International Space Station Sunday in preparation for attaching it to another part of the orbiting complex Tuesday.

Neil Armstrong, the first person on the moon, Saturday helped dedicate a new building named for him at Purdue University, his alma mater. He was joined by 15 other astronauts with degrees from the West Lafayette, Ind., school. Above, Armstrong admires a statue of himself unveiled outside Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering.

Homeland Security Department boss Michael Chertoff vowed Saturday to discipline Federal Emergency Management Agency employees involved in a phony press conference held last week about aiding people affected by California's wildfires. FEMA workers, playing the part of reporters, asked soft questions of FEMA's deputy director. Chertoff called it a case of "extraordinarily poor judgment."

The Army overturned the convictions of 28 black World War II soldiers late last week who'd been found guilty in one of the largest courts-martial of the war. The Board of Corrections and Military Records ruled that the accused were denied access to attorneys and investigative records of a riot at Fort Lawton in Seattle that led to the death of an Italian POW. Only two of the 28 soldiers are believed to be still living.