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Iran denies plans to swap prisoners with United States

Iran is not considering a prisoner exchange with the United States, a senior official said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected verdict for an Iranian-American journalist held in Tehran for more than a year. “The reports on the possible exchange of prisoners are not true and it is not on the table,” Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi was quoted as saying by Iran’s ISNA news agency. There has been speculation

'Millennium' author backs Danish newspaper boycott

The Swedish author of the highly-anticipated sequel to the Millennium crime trilogy said Tuesday he supported a Danish newspaper boycott of him over his publisher’s refusal to let literary critics read the book in advance. The boycott concerns David Lagercrantz’s book “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” — the fourth instalment of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling Millennium trilogy which is due for release in 25 countries on Thursday and in the

Zimbabwe's Mugabe booed in parliament over economic crisis

Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe was booed and heckled by opposition lawmakers over the deteriorating economy as he gave his state of the nation address to parliament Tuesday. Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lawmakers questioned his economic policies, jeering as the 91-year-old delivered a policy speech which lasted less than half an hour. When Mugabe — who has been in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980 — outlined