US denies Iran prisoner swap report

The US has denied it had proposed an exchange program to get a former US Marine out of jail in Iran. Source: AAP

THE US has denied reports it had offered Iran a prisoner swap to retrieve former US Marine Amir Hekmati, who has been imprisoned in the Islamic republic since 2011.

IRANIAN media had reported that Hekmati's lawyer asked for his release in return for the freeing of Iranians in the US.

"Those reports are not accurate," State Department spokesman Jeffrey Rathke told a news conference. "The US government has not proposed a prisoner exchange for Mr Hekmati."The purported proposal supposedly came through Swiss intermediaries. The US and Iran have not had official diplomatic relations since 1980.Rathke renewed calls for Hekmati's release and urged Tehran to free two other Americans - Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor, and Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian - and to help find Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.Relations between traditional foes Washington and Tehran have improved somewhat in recent months and the two countries have had direct exchanges over Iran's nuclear program.Arrested in August 2011, Iranian authorities convicted Hekmati of spying for America's Central Intelligence Agency.He was initially sentenced to death in 2012 but Iran's top court subsequently reduced the penalty to 10 years in prison.

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Australian plane spots objects in sea

Australian planes have spotted objects in the ocean in the AirAsia search area, an official says. Source: AAP

AN Indonesian official says objects have been spotted in the sea by an Australian search plane hunting for the missing AirAsia jet.

JAKARTA'S Air Force base commander Rear Marshal Dwi Putranto says he has been informed that an Australian Orion aircraft had detected suspicious objects near Nangka island, about 160 kilometres southwest of Pangkalan Bun, near central Kalimantan, or 1120 kilometres from the location where the plane lost contact.

"However, we cannot be sure whether it is part of the missing AirAsia plane," Putranto says, "We are now moving in that direction, which is in cloudy conditions."

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