PYONGYANG, North Korea - U.N. nuclear inspectors arrived at North Korea's atomic plant in Yongbyon Thursday and announced a July date to begin monitoring its closure. International Atomic Energy Agency deputy Director General Olli Heinonen and three other inspectors traveled to the plant from Pyongyang to tour the 5-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor, a plutonium-producing radiochemical laboratory and a nuclear fuel rod fabrication plant, the Yonhap news agency reported. Meanwhile, IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told Voice of ... [full story]

SHIRQAT, Iraq - At least 20 people were killed and another 35 wounded Thursday when a car bomb was detonated in Baghdad. Police said explosives were placed in a parked car at a bus terminal in southern Baghdad. The blast ripped through crowds of commuters and set about 40 vehicles on fire, the BBC reported. Also Thursday, Iraqi police found 20 decapitated bodies southeast of Baghdad in Madaen, CNN reported. Meanwhile, three British soldiers were ... [full story]

ATLANTA - An NAACP leader has criticized a Georgia judge's cancellation of a bond hearing for a man convicted of child molestation. "The NAACP is convinced that justice has taken a summer vacation in Georgia," Dr. Francys Johnson, the organization's southeast regional director, said, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Superior Court Judge David Emerson on Wednesday issued an order canceling a July 5 bond hearing for Genarlow Wilson, 21, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - A no-bid contract ballooned to 15 times over its initial estimate at the new Department of Homeland Security, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The 2003, $2 million contract with Booz Allen Hamilton had increased to more than $30 million by the end of 2004, the Post reported. Under a second no-bid contract the next year, the company was paid $73 million, the newspaper reported. The McLean, Va., company provided employers for the new ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The fate of the fractious immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate was shakier Thursday after the chamber voted down amendments and lost supporters. The bill, which U.S. President George Bush is pushing to pass, has 26 amendments from Democrats seeking to soften some restrictions and Republicans wanting to stiffen them. Each of the amendments has supporters, most of whom have said their overall votes will be tied to the amendments' passage, and ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - The issue of Social Security has become part of the fractious U.S. congressional debate over immigration reform, USA Today reported Thursday. One of the elements of the bill before the U.S. Senate would allow some of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants to collect benefits once they have completed certain obligations. That prompted Shannon Benton of the Senior Citizens League to tell a House subcommittee last week the additional obligations would "result in ... [full story]

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Officials ruled a 3,000-acre fire that has destroyed 200 homes near Lake Tahoe, Calif., was caused by human activity. Investigators didn't know exactly what sparked the wildfire, which officials said was about 55 percent contained Wednesday, the South Lake Tahoe (Calif.) Daily Tribune reported. "Is it a cigarette, a campfire or some other cause? We don't know," Rich Hawkins, a Forest Service fire commander told the Tribune. Officials said they don't ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - Phoenix moved into the top five on the list of largest U.S. cities but New Orleans lost half its population, U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday show. The Census Bureau issued its city population report based on data as of July 1, 2006. New York, with a population of 8.2 million, remained the most populated U.S. city followed by Los Angeles (3.8 million), Chicago (2.8 million) and Houston (2.1 million). But Phoenix passed ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES - Heiress Paris Hilton said Wednesday it was her claustrophobia that caused the most problems while doing time in a California jail. Hilton, in her first post-pokey interview, told CNN's Larry King she had a "panic attack" when first placed in her cell. "I wasn't sleeping. I wasn't eating," she said, and when told she would have to return to jail after being sent home by the sheriff, "I was terrified." But she ... [full story]

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles prosecutors have filed complaints against two hospitals and a transportation company for dumping homeless patients on skid row. In one case, a paraplegic man was found crawling in a gutter, the Los Angeles Times said Wednesday. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and Methodist Hospital are accused in four separate incidents of alleged patient dumping over a 14-month period. Empire Enterprises, whose van driver allegedly left the paraplegic man, has been named ... [full story]