US Hikers Held in Iran Call Home: 'We're Strong'

The trio of American hikers Iran arrested last summer have been allowed to call home for the first time. "She told me, 'I'm OK, I'm coping,'" the mother of Sarah Shourd told the San Francisco Chronicle. Shourd said she was being kept in solitary confinement in a Tehran prison, but was allowed to meet with fellow prisoners Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal once a day.

Fattal's mother says her son also reported they were being treated well. "He said he's strong and he's well and he's doing a lot of exercise," she said The three Berkeley grads were arrested and charged with spying after straying across the Iranian border while hiking in northern Iraq. Their families hope the phone calls may signal that the hikers will be released during Iran's Nowruz festival in late March, when prisoners are often freed.
(More Sarah Shourd stories.)