A compilation of brief news reports for Tuesday, April 3, 2007.

On Monday, the United States said it sent an official inquiry to Iran via Swiss diplomats about a former FBI agent who went missing while in Iran on private business. He is believed to have gone missing several weeks ago on the island of Kish. The FBI say he has not worked for them in a decade nor is he a contractor for them. A US State Department spokesperson declined to give name, age or occupation of the missing man. The spokesperson also said that they have no indication that he is being held by any Iranian entity.

Sources

• Sue Pleming. “U.S. says former FBI agent missing in Iran” — Reuters, April 2, 2007
• Matthew Lee, AP. “Former FBI agent missing in Iran” — USA Today, April 2, 2007
• “Former FBI agent reported missing in Iran” — CNN, April 2, 2007

In early action, Asian and Oceanian markets rose while the markets pondered the impact of the United States-South Korea free trade agreement. In Japanese markets, Monday’s fears that the Institute for Supply Management‘s report would say manufacturing growth slowed more than forecast in March actually came true. However, “US markets turned out more stable than people feared yesterday and that prompted buying back of large-cap stocks,” said Yoshihisa Okamoto of Fuji Investment Management Co. in Tokyo.

Sources

• “Asian markets push ahead” — Reuters, April 2,2007
• Makiko Suzuki. “Japanese Stocks Advance; Matsushita, Mitsubishi UFJ Lead Gains” — Bloomberg L.P., April 3, 2007

Gary McKinnon of Britain lost his appeal challenging an extradition order to face charges in the United States that he hacked into military and NASA computers there. “We do not find any grounds of appeal against the decision,” said one of the judges, Lord Justice Maurice Kay.In what has been called the “biggest military hack of all time,” McKinnon allegedly used the code-name Solo as he hacked into 97 computers and caused $700,000 worth of damage according to US prosecutors. In 2006, he told The Guardian that he was searching for evidence the Americans might have about UFOs.

Related news

• “UK hacker faces extradition to US” — Wikinews, May 10, 2006

Sources

• “British hacker loses U.S. extradition appeal” — Reuters, April 3, 2007
• Mark Tran. “Briton loses extradition fight over US military hacking” — Guardian Unlimited, April 3, 2007

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that carbon dioxide should be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The majority opinion said that the EPA had offered “no reasoned explanation” for refusing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars. Previously the EPA had argued that the 1970 Clean Air Act did not give it the powers to regulate green house gases because they were not deemed to be pollutants. Twelve states and several environmental groups jointly brought the case against the EPA, contending that it was failing in its legal duty to regulate environmental pollution by not regulating green house gas emissions.

Sources

• Robert Barnes and Juliet Eilperin. “Supreme Court: EPA Can Regulate Car Emissions” — Washington Post Online, April 2, 2007
• “US ‘must regulate car pollution'” — BBC News Online, April 2, 2007