Washington  - One day before President Barack Obama travels to Mexico, the administration named Alan Bersin to lead efforts to police the United States' southern border and announced a new clampdown on Mexican drug gangs.

Bersin, who served in a similar capacity under former president Bill Clinton, will lead the effort to make our borders safe while working to promote commerce and trade," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said during a visit to El Paso, Texas.

Mexico City  - Only five US presidents have visited Mexico City in the past 100 years, but one more name will be added to the list Thursday with the arrival of President Barack Obama.

Obama is set to visit the city, which was once ancient Tenochtitlan - the former capital of the Aztec civilization, on Thursday, 12 years after the last visit of then-president Bill Clinton. The city is today the second-largest in the world in terms of population, with 19 million people in its metropolitan area.

Tel Aviv - United States special envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel Wednesday evening on the latest leg of a trip in the region to kickstart stalled peace efforts.

Mitchell met Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv shortly after arriving in the country. On Thursday he will meet new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. It will be his first meeting with them since they took office at the end of last month.

San Francisco  - Apple's iPhone could see wider distribution in the US next year as the company has not yet agreed to a request from AT&T to extend the telecom giant's exclusive rights to the hit smartphone, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The report said the exclusivity deal signed in 2007 is set to expire in 2010 and AT&T is asking Apple to extend it for two years.

Washington  - As US workers rushed to meet an annual deadline to file their tax returns, demonstrators fanned out across the country Wednesday for a series of "Tea Parties" to protest their heavy tax burdens and unnecessary government spending.

The protests drew their inspiration from the 1773 Boston Tea Party, where US colonialists protested unfair British taxes by throwing tea from three ships and into the Boston Harbour.

Los Angeles  - The US governor ousted from office after allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama was elected president has been cast in a popular reality TV show, according to the Hollywood Reporter Wednesday.

Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday to racketeering and fraud charges, is hoping to take part in the NBC summer reality series, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!