Rooyesh

Friends of the former FBI agent believed to be in custody in Iran, Robert Levinson, say he could be released as early as today based on what they describe as two unconfirmed reports from Tehran. We have received a call that he is free, and we have people at airports in Frankfurt and Dubai where we have been told he could show up,” one of Levinson’s friends told The Blotter on ABCNews.com. U.S. officials could not confirm the report, but FBI spokesman John Miller said, “We are hearing the same thing, but we have no way to judge the credibility of that information.

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Iran’s deputy foreign minister dismissed the possibility of direct U.S.-Iran talks on the sidelines of this week’s international conference on Iraq, a semiofficial Iranian news agency reported. Iran said Sunday that it would join the U.S. and other countries at the two-day gathering that begins Thursday at a Red Sea resort in Egypt. This raised hopes Tehran would help stabilize its violent neighbor and that the gathering would provide for a rare encounter between high-level U.S. and Iranian officials.

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Iranian authorities have arrested the country’s former nuclear negotiator, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s predecessor and key rival, and he reportedly could face an espionage charge. The hard-line president, meanwhile, insisted his country will not retreat “even an iota” on its nuclear program.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of indecency after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his schoolteacher. At a ceremony on Tuesday ahead of Iranian teachers’ day, Mr Ahmadinejad was photographed and filmed by state media stooping to kiss the woman’s hand and then clasping her arms in an embrace.  The ultra-conservative Hezbollah newspaper, which is not related to the group in Lebanon of the same name, criticised him on the front page.

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