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Detained U.S. hiker could be freed as early as Monday
Tehran, Iran (CNN) - Sarah Shourd, one of three American hikers detained in Iran for more than a year, could be released as early as Monday once $500,000 is submitted to the Iranian judiciary.
"Everything is in place for the release," said lawyer Massoud Shafii, who got to see the hikers for the first time on Sunday. "It's up to the family when to deliver the money."
The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported earlier Sunday that Shourd will be released if bail worth about $500,000 for her is submitted to the Iranian judiciary.
"Naturally she was happy, but her wish is for all three to be released together," said the lawyer, who met the Americans at Tehran's Evin prison after the prosecutor for Tehran's Revolutionary Court announced the offer to release Shourd on bail.
"I saw them and spoke to them," Shafii told CNN. "They were doing well."
Shafii said he doesn't know when exactly the release would take place. Read more.
Hurricane Igor, Tropical Storm Julia churn the Atlantic
(CNN) - Hurricane Igor, which quickly intensified over the weekend, was poised on Monday to become a Category 5 storm - the most-powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale that measures tropical weather.
The storm blossomed into a major Atlantic Ocean hurricane on Sunday with top winds of 150 mph (240 kph), but remained far from land, forecasters reported.
Igor, which started as tropical storm on Saturday, became a powerful Category 4 storm late Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters described it as "large and powerful."
As of 5 a.m. ET Monday, the storm was about 940 miles (1,515 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands and was moving west at about 13 mph (20 kph), the center reported. Read more.