Iran asks US for new info on missing FBI agent

Iran urged the U.S. on Tuesday to provide new information about a retired FBI agent who disappeared inside the country, and says it will keep trying to discover his fate.

"On a humanitarian basis, we will continue our efforts," to find Robert Levinson, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said at a weekly briefing.

"If there is reliable information, relaying it to Iranian officials can turn this into a collective effort," he said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton appealed to Iran for information about Levinson last week after Levinson's family received proof late last year that he was alive.

The State Department issued a three-sentence statement by Clinton Thursday saying there were indications Levinson was in southwest Asia and asking Iran for help.

Iran has long said it has no information about Levinson, but U.S. officials say they believe he was taken by Iranian government agents.

Anti-tax pledge directs budget debates nationwide

The governor of Wisconsin has signed it. So have most of the Republicans in California's Legislature.

As state lawmakers grapple with how to address massive budget deficits, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist is leaving his fingerprints on legislatures across the country. His pledge against taxes is embraced by conservatives and reviled by liberals and some moderates.

In states as varied as Georgia, Arizona and California, Norquist has intervened at critical times to issue a warning or offer his critical stamp of approval to Republican lawmakers.

To many conservatives, signing the anti-tax pledge has become a badge of honor. To others, it's a shield that gives Republican lawmakers an easy out from working toward compromise or making difficult decisions about tax increases or reforms.

Norquist is president of the Washington, D.C.-based group Americans for Tax Reform and has become a flashpoint in the debate over how best to address states' budget deficits, whether he likes it or not.

Female GIs struggle with higher rate of divorce

Two failed marriages were the cost of war for Sgt. Jennifer Schobey.

The breaking point in her first marriage came when her husband deployed to Afghanistan, the last in a long line of separations they had endured as they juggled two military careers. Schobey married another combat veteran, but eventually that union failed under the weight of two cases of post-traumatic stress disorder - his and hers. They are now getting divorced.

Separations. Injuries. Mental health issues. All are added weights to the normal strains of marriage.

For women in the military, there's a cold, hard reality: Their marriages are more than twice as likely to end in divorce as those of their male comrades - and up to three times as likely for enlisted women. And military women get divorced at higher rates than their peers outside the military, while military men divorce at lower rates than their civilian peers.

About 220,000 women have served in Afghanistan and Iraq in roles ranging from helicopter pilots to police officers. Last year, 7.8 percent of women in the military got a divorce, compared with 3 percent of military men, according to Pentagon statistics. Among the military's enlisted corps, nearly 9 percent of women saw their marriages end, compared with a little more than 3 percent of the men.

Like all divorces, the results can be a sense of loss and a financial blow. But for military women, a divorce can be a breaking point - even putting them at greater risk for homelessness down the road.

It has an effect, too, on military kids. The military has more single moms than dads, and an estimated 30,000 of them have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why military women are more burdened by divorce is unclear, although societal pressure is likely a factor.

Pet pipeline gives hope, worry to crowded shelters

Every day, hundreds of animals are taken in trucks, vans and cars from overcrowded Southern shelters where euthanasia rates sometimes reach 70 percent to states in the North, where puppies and kittens are not as plentiful.

It's a labor of love for those whose main goal is getting the animals off death row, but it can also have a dark side ranging from unscrupulous operators looking to make a quick buck to well-meaning incompetence.

Animal advocates say the transports are here to stay, thanks to a supply and demand imbalance between the South and the North, where spay and neuter programs are far more widespread. These advocates want to create standards to ensure pets aren't taken from overburdened shelters to an even worse fate.

"If you could take a truckload of dogs and cats up to Connecticut, and somebody is going to pay you $100 a dog, you're going to get as many animals as you can on that truck," said Kimberly Alboum, director of the North Carolina chapter of the Humane Society of the U.S.

"It's quite a market at this point, and it's really creating problems as far as unscrupulous transporters and unscrupulous rescuers," she said.

The worst-case scenario for Alboum is a situation like the one described by police in North Carolina's Rockingham County last October. Sheriff's deputies charged Thomas and Amber Adkins with misdemeanor animal cruelty after finding around 90 dogs on the couple's property.

Emma Watson breaks studies to focus on acting

She played a girl who studied hard. But "Harry Potter" actress Emma Watson says she is going to take a break from her working on her degree to focus on her film career.

The actress - who plays the character of bookworm Hermione Granger - said Tuesday that she had found it hard to juggle her blossoming film career with her studies.

Watson enrolled to study literature at Brown University in Rhode Island in 2009. She says she still plans to finish her studies but will take some extra semesters to complete her degree.

Watson has just finished filming "Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2" which will premier in London in July. She has also just finished filming "My Week With Marilyn", opposite U.S. actress Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe.