WASHINGTON - U.S. officials on Tuesday were investigating reports a former FBI agent is missing in Iran.The former federal agent was last known to be on Kish Island, off Iran's southern coast, and was believed to be working for an author and producer trying to set up an interview, senior U.S. officials told CNN.The man has not been in touch with his family or employer in more than a week, the State Department said.The former ... [full story]

SAN DIEGO - Federal regulators have rejected three sweeping patents that give control of all human embryonic stem cells used for research in the United States to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. The ruling released Monday could remove what many scientists say is one of the biggest deterrents to working in the promising field of human embryonic stem cell research - a barrier that has been driving scientists and funding overseas. The Wisconsin Alumni Research ... [full story]

NEW YORK - A Baltimore man who attended an Islamist guerrilla training camp in Pakistan pleaded guilty in New York to a terrorism charge.Mahmud Faruq Brent, 32, faces up to 15 years in jail at his July 10 sentencing, The Washington Post reported.Brent, who is also known as Mahmud Al Mutazzim, was scheduled to go on trial April 24 with two other defendants. His lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah, told the Post Brent didn't plan to ... [full story]

SACRAMENTO - More Californians are working past the age of retirement for money, fulfillment or a little bit of both, a study said.The study from the California Budget Project said the proportion of California people working between the ages of 65 and 69 jumped between 1995 and 2006 from 20 percent to 27 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported."Financial security, retirement security is a lot more precarious," Mark Beach, spokesman for AARP California, told the ... [full story]

MOGADISHU - War-weary residents of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have been warned the government is planning a new offensive against Islamist rebels in the city.A U.N. aid agency says nearly 50,000 residents have abandoned the battered city of 2 million in the past 10 days to escape the fighting. On Monday, Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle told civilians to get out while there was still time, a Washington Post correspondent reported.Ramshackle buses being pressed ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - At least three people were killed and seven others injured Tuesday by roadside bombs and a mortar attack in Baghdad, police said.In southwest Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded at 8 a.m., killing two civilians and wounding two others, CNN reported. An hour later, a roadside bomb exploded in southeast Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood, killing one civilian and wounding three, police said.Also in the Zafarniya neighborhood, a mortar hit a house, injuring two civilians, CNN ... [full story]

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is concerned about Romania's political instability that is slowing down judiciary and anti-corruption reforms, Brussels media said.Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has fired government ministers who support Romanian President Traian Basescu, thus ending a center-right coalition after months of political disputes between the two men that has nearly paralyzed the country, the EU Observer said Tuesday.On Monday, Tariceanu announced the list of his reshuffled Cabinet, made up of his ... [full story]

BAGHDAD - Merchants at Baghdad's oldest market say reports by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that security has improved were fallacies and unrealistic.McCain led a congressional delegation through the market on Sunday and afterwards at a news conference told reporters they were able to mingle freely and chat with merchants."Things are better and there are encouraging signs," McCain said.However, a New York Times correspondent said that before the visit about 100 U.S. soldiers restricted entry ... [full story]

NEW DELHI - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai told a South Asia summit that extremism and terrorism in all forms, as well as its sponsorship and funding, should be banned.Speaking Tuesday at the summit of the eight-nation South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation in India's capital of New Delhi, Karzai warned, "It is our duty to ban extremism and terrorism in all forms and sources, including political sponsorship and financing," reported the Press Trust of India.Afghanistan ... [full story]

GAZA - Journalists in Gaza protested the disappearance of a BBC colleague Tuesday by boycotting coverage of the Palestinian government.The head of the Palestinian Journalists' Union, Naim Tubasi, told the BBC journalists were refusing to report on Palestinian government proceedings because leaders had not done enough to secure the release of veteran BBC journalist Alan Johnston."This is unacceptable for us ... We will boycott coverage of (President Mahmoud) Abbas if Johnston is not released," Abu ... [full story]