When we last checked in regarding the three UC Berkeley grads who are currently being detained in Iran, they were still doing OK and their siblings had launched a probably hopeless YouTube campaign to plea for their release. Then late last month there were reports that two of the three were in "poor health", and they were considering staging a hunger strike.

It's now been nine and a half months since Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal stumbled across the Iranian border while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iran's foreign minister told television reporters today that the mothers of the three hikers will be issued visas by Iran's U.N. mission and will be allowed to visit their children on "humanitarian" grounds.