News broke today that the American-Iranian journalist jailed for spying has been released from prison, her sentence adjusted to a two years suspended term.

Roxana Saberi had been working as a freelance journalist for the BBC and NPR, and had moved to the country in 2003. In January, she was arrested for buying a bottle of wine, and the International Herald Tribune says the charges grew from there.

She was next charged with working without a press card (which had expired in 2006), and finally with spying for the United States. Last month, she was convicted but Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked the prosecutor to take a second look at the case.

The International Herald Tribune article on the release quotes Saeed Leylaz, a political analyst in Tehran:

Maybe Iran wants to send a message to Washington with her release that we are powerful. Secondly, that we are flexible, and thirdly, that if we receive the right incentives, we will hold talks as well.

It might win Iran some chips at the table for the ongoing wrestling match over the country’s nuclear program.

On Monday I wrote about the swine flu and how it could affect markets. I also wrote about it for Taipan Insider that was released to subscribers yesterday.

But I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read this BBC News article, “Egypt slaughters pigs to stop flu.”

Egypt has between 250,000 and 400,000 pigs, and the mass slaughter are eliminating them by the thousand.

There has been 159 deaths associated with swine flue but all of them have been in Mexico, with the first U.S. death coming today with a child in Texas.

There have been two confirmed cases of Swine flu in Israel, but there has been not confirmed connection to pigs in Egypt. The country has a right to be cautious. Twenty-two people died in a bird flu outbreak in the country between 2004 and 2008.

But slaughtering all the pigs is quite over-the-top. There have been no cases of swine flu found in anyone in Egypt.

It would seem that a large number of frontier markets are concentrated in the Middle East these days. Iran is a major energy trader with China and Russia; Dubai is opening movie studios in Hollywood; and Iraq is now exporting oil.

And now, Syria is becoming the next hot spot for Middle East opportunities.

President Bashar al-Assad has recently introduced new laws that make it easier for international companies to do business in socialist Syria. Al-Assad is quick to point out that these changes are economic only, and not political in nature, but economics commentator Jihad Yazigi told the BBC that it’s a way for Syria to break its isolation:

“It’s a circle. More investments improve political relations and political relations attract more investment [sic] and more investments.”

More investments like Lafarge (LG:Paris) and Total (TOT:NYSE) teaming up after French President Sarkozy took a trip to Syria in early September. Lafarge will set up two cement factories, making it the largest foreign investor in Syria, and Total would extend its operations at the Deir Ez Zor oil block and sign a gas development deal.

Other European companies are investing in Syria, too. EADS (EAD:Paris) and Alstom (ALO:Paris) both have long-term deals in the country.

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Over the past several months, the investment world has turned its ever-roving eye on the Middle East and North Africa.

Since July, four new exchange traded funds have hit the market focusing on these regions. They are the WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund (GULF:Nasdaq), the Market Vectors Gulf States Index ETF (MES:NYSE), PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries Portfolio (PMNA:Nasdaq), and the SPDRs S&P Emerging Middle East & Africa ETF (GAF:AMEX).

But the one thing lacking in these ETFs is investments in Iran.

Of course, the U.S. has decreed it will not make investments in Iran, who it considers a state-sponsor of terrorism. That’s nothing to fool around with.

While much of the Western world stands firm by not investing in Iran, other nations, like China and Russia aren’t quite as righteous. Russia has repeatedly stood against strong sanctions in response to Iran’s nuclear program… as has China, but for different reasons. Iran and Russia have a history that goes back to before the Cold War. But China…

Iran is the world’s fourth largest oil exporter, and China, in early December 2007, signed a $2 billion deal with the country to secure oil supplies.

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