Nation: BRIEFLY

GAO: Fake passports easy to get

Using phony documents and the identities of a dead man and a 5-year-old boy in a test of post-9/11 security, a government investigator easily obtained U.S. passports. Despite efforts to boost passport security since the 2001 terror attacks, the investigator fooled passport and Postal Service employees on four separate applications, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office made public Friday. Two members of the Senate Judiciary terrorism and homeland security subcommittee requested the investigation. State Department spokesman Richard Aker said the agency regrets it issued these four passports and attributed “human error.” He said the State Department plans to have facial recognition screening for all applicants in six months. The agency is also talking to states to see if passport officials can check states’ electronic databases to verify licenses and identification cards.

Children ill after drinks mistake

Ten children drank windshield wiper fluid after the owner at a day care in Scott, Ark., served it from a container mistaken for Kool-Aid and placed in a refrigerator, authorities said. The owner voluntarily surrendered her state license, said Julie Munsell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services. Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid Thursday before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. One child remained hospitalized in good condition.

Governor to decide on death penalty

The New Mexico Legislature voted to repeal the death penalty. The bill now goes to Gov. Bill Richardson, who opposed repeal in the past, but said he would consider signing it. The bill replaces capital punishment with a sentence of life-without parole. Two men are on New Mexico’s death row, and repeal would not affect their sentences.

Former first lady leaves hospital

Former first lady Barbara Bush was released from a Houston hospital nine days after heart surgery. Doctors at The Methodist Hospital discharged Bush, 83, after her aortic valve was replaced March 4. A hospital statement said she left with her husband, former President George H.W. Bush.

Girl Scouts pull plug on Web sales

A North Carolina Girl Scout’s plan to use the Internet to generate more cookie sales has crumbled. Wild Freeborn, 8, posted a YouTube video in the hopes of selling enough boxes to send her troop to summer camp. But Scouting officials said it violated a ban on Internet sales and told her to take it down after she scored about 700 orders. Freeborn’s Web designer father, Bryan, said the ad was just promoting the cookies, so he thought it was OK. But Girl Scouts of the USA spokeswoman Denise Pesich said the organization wants to ensure fairness for all girls and the policy is to protect the girls’ safety.

3 face charges in Smith’s overdose

Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer-turned-boyfriend and a doctor surrendered Thursday night in Los Angeles to face charges that they conspired to provide the Playboy Playmate with thousands of prescription pills before her 2007 fatal overdose. Howard K. Stern and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor posted $20,000 bond. Charges include conspiracy, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict, authorities said. A second doctor, Khristine Eroshevich, also is accused and was expected to surrender Monday.