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.

Can you imagine how much money would be lost if all economic activity was halted in Mexico City?

Mexico City is home to some 20 million people, and right now, it’s the epicenter of a swine flu outbreak that has countries all over the world ready to cut off access to the country and its pork industry.

At least 1,614 people in Mexico have been infected by the virus, and an estimated 103 have died, though at last count only 20 of them have been confirmed swine-flu deaths. But the Mexican government is taking no chances, and schools are closed until May 6, and even the bars and night clubs in the popular resort town of Puerto Vallarta have been ordered to close.

Mexico City might even halt all economic activity of the outbreak is not contained.

The airline and pork industries have been hit pretty hard, too, so traders and investors alike might want to keep an eye on these two industries as this story develops.

This is no surprise to anyone… Not even the other parties who were really fighting for second place.

Jacob Zuma, the scandalized president of the African National Congress, will be the next president of South Africa. The ANC itself has won its two-thirds majority, and the count keeps rising. Zuma predicts the party will win 70% of the seats in Parliament.

That’s more than enough to be able to change the constitution.

The ANC is ahead in eight of the nine provinces. It might lose the Western Cape, were Cape Town is located, and is the stronghold of the Democratic Alliance party that won about 16% of the vote.

COPE, the ANC branch-off party that split over the treatment of Thabo Mbeki, won just under 8% of the vote.

Now the ANC is celebrating, dancing on stages and waiting for May when the new Parliament and president take power.

Then it’ll be on to the real task of governing and fulfilling of campaign promises. There’s a lot of work to do… The country’s still staring at soaring poverty and unemployment levels, and the poor are counting on Zuma to make good on his promises.