WASHINGTON – North Korea (search) began nagging its communist allies as early as the 1960s to obtain a nuclear reactor with the intent of launching a hidden weapons program, according to former Soviet bloc documents released Tuesday. Over the next two decades, responses generally were negative, sometimes to the point …

NEW YORK – The integrity of the probe into the Oil-for-Food program is at stake and lives may be in jeopardy if sensitive information regarding details of the investigation is leaked, Paul Volcker (search) said Friday. Volcker, the man picked by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) to lead the investigation, …

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A man who refuses to reveal the whereabouts of his two children was sent to prison Friday for 10 years on an unrelated gun charge — a stiff sentence prosecutors hope will persuade him to talk. Daniel Porter (search), 42, is awaiting trial in November on …

NEW YORK – A list of the greatest films of all time without “North by Northwest?” No “Annie Hall,” “Bicycle Thief” or “Apocalypse Now”? Take a deep breath and relax. This is supposed to be fun. The movie critics for Time magazine, Richard Schickel and Richard Corliss, have compiled an …

This is a partial transcript of “Special Report With Brit Hume,” May 23, 2005, that has been edited for clarity. Watch “Special Report With Brit Hume” weeknights at 6 p.m. ET (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I think there is a very clear and consistent point-of-view being …

NEW YORK – Singer Seal (search) and supermodel Heidi Klum (search) were married Tuesday on a beach in Mexico, Klum’s representative confirmed to The Associated Press. There were no details Wednesday. In January, Klum said on her Web site that she and Seal were engaged. Two months later, the couple …

FORT HOOD, Texas – Spc. Sabrina Harman (search) posed for some of the most notorious photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib (search) prison, and she allegedly took a number of others. On Thursday, Harman’s lawyers will start trying to convince a military jury that she didn’t do anything wrong …

NEW YORK – A judge on Tuesday delayed jury deliberations in the trial of two top former Tyco executives accused of dipping into company coffers and “systemically” looting $150 million from the conglomerate over four years. Former Tyco (TYC) Chairman Dennis Kozlowski, 58, and Mark Swartz, 44, former finance chief …

NEW YORK – Applications for U.S. home mortgages decreased last week amid a sharp drop in purchasing and refinancing activity even as mortgage rates eased, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association (search) said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity decreased 10.5 percent to 699.2, …

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea (search) on Sunday confirmed that it had met with U.S. officials this month, implying that its return to six-party talks on its nuclear program depended on “the U.S. side’s attitude.” U.S. officials said last week the two sides had met on May 13 in …