Sarah Shourd, one of the three Cal hikers arrested for crossing the Iran border, will be released on Sunday, according AP/CBS 5. "Bak Sahraei, second counselor of the UN mission confirmed Thursday in an e-mail that Sarah Shourd would be the one set free on Saturday," in a gesture of sorts to mark the end of Ramadan. more ›

It's now been over six months since those three Berkeley grads were taken hostage by the Iranian government after mistakenly crossing the border into the country while hiking in Iraqi Kurdistan. A couple weeks back, Iranian President Ahmadinejad offered to swap the three hostages for 11 Iranians held in the U.S. for various crimes including arms deals; Hillary Clinton balked and refused. The siblings of the hikers have put up a website, with a petition and a video plea (after the jump) asking for YouTube submissions to give the kids "strength" while in captivity -- though it seems doubtful that they have YouTube access. more ›

The parents of the three U.C. Berkeley grads being held in an Iranian prison since July have retained a prominent Iranian lawyer to argue on their behalf. The three hostages -- Shane Bauer, his girlfriend Sarah Shourd and their friend Joshua Fattal -- wandered inadvertently across the Iranian border in July while hiking (for reasons unfathomable to SFist) in the mountains of Kurdistan. They have not been permitted to call home, but their families recently read reports that they may face undisclosed charges in an Iranian court, and the Chron has learned that they have hired the services of Attorney Masoud Shafii to represent them in court. more ›

The hostage standoff is over. No one died. Nothing went ka-blam. The "deranged man" at Clinton's HQ was simply the town crazy infamous around those parts for his kooky mental instability. (Then, this situation must happen on a daily basis over at Hillary Clinton's SF headquarters.) According to CBS 5: WBZ Radio's Lana Jones learned that the [wacky] man's stepson reported to police that his stepfather had been drinking for two days. The son... more ›