Mark Memmott

Many headlines and stories (including some of ours) have been saying that a "double agent" infiltrated al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and foiled a plot to get another underwear bomb aboard a U.S.-bound passenger jet.

But we've been looking at definitions of spy terms and think that based on what we have been told so far, the person at the center of the story wasn't a double agent.

That character was at least an "agent."

It's incredible enough that Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton hit four home runs in one game Tuesday night — something that's only been done by 15 other major league players.

One of the most infamous ships still sailing can't dock at its final resting place just yet.

India's Supreme court has ruled that the Exxon Valdez (now called the Oriental Nicety) cannot enter a scrap yard in the western state of Gujarat until its owners can prove the tanker has been cleaned of mercury, arsenic, asbestos, residual oil and other potential contaminants.

"A Sukhoi SuperJet 100, the first new Russian passenger plane in more than two decades" has gone missing while on a "demonstration flight" in Indonesia, Bloomberg News writes.

Russia's RT News adds that "hijacking and a high-altitude crash into a mountain have not been ruled out." A search is underway.

Along with the headlines about Sen. Richard Lugar's loss in Indiana's Republican primary and passage of a ban on gay marriage in North Carolina, there's this news from Tuesday's voting:

More details are emerging about the plot to put another "underwear bomber" aboard a U.S.-bound passenger jet and what the CIA says was its successful foiling of the operation:

As NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reported on Morning Edition:

An Albanian man who more than a decade ago agreed to help the U.S. Justice build a case against a mobster accused of human smuggling has finally won his long-sought quest for asylum in the U.S.

Edmond Demiraj, his wife and adult son have been granted full asylum, NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.

As Carrie reported last year:

The death of children's author Maurice Sendak has brought back many memories for many of us.

This blogger remembers nephew Ben reading Where the Wild Things Are back in the late '60s and being fascinated by what seemed to be a very different, much more interesting, kind of book than I'd been used to as a kid just a few years before.

With same-sex marriage back in the news because of Vice President Biden's comment that he's "absolutely comfortable" with equal rights for partners in such relationships, the pollsters at Gallup are out with this report:

He made this decision before scientists told us that, back in the prehistoric day, dinosaur farts likely contributed to climate change:

Tyler Gold of York, Neb., is now officially named Tyrannosaurus Rex Joseph Gold, the local York News Times reports.

While initial headlines that said a man jumped into a vat of acid to rescue a co-worker at at New Jersey construction site may have overstated what happened just a bit, there's still a dramatic tale to tell.

According to NorthJersey.com:

Saying that "above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated," Rick Santorum on Monday evening endorsed former Republican rival Mitt Romney's presidential bid.

In an email to supporters, the former Pennsylvania senator said that:

Though she won't put a timetable on when activist Chen Guangcheng will be able to leave China with his family and go to the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that "we're certainly making progress."

Think the players on your favorite team are the most overpaid in the world?

Well, American sports fans, you may not be able to brag (or complain?) about that.

As the number crunchers at Sporting Intelligence reported earlier this month, European soccer teams hold the top four spots when it comes to average pay per player.

By saying Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that he is "absolutely comfortable" with equal rights for partners in same-sex marriages and that love is at the root of all marriages "whether they're marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals," Vice President Biden has set off speculation about whether the Obama administration may soon fully endorse same-sex marriage.

The mystery surrounding the death of Army Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark, who collapsed on April 30 while on a Skype call from Afghanistan to his wife back in the U.S., has deepened.

"The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups," reports The Washington Post, which calls the program "a bold effort to quell violence, but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks."

(Note: We updated the market news in this post at midday.)

A victory Sunday by Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande in France and the rejection by voters in Greece of that country's austerity policies have caused a "seismic shift" that threatens the future of the euro,