The Iranian government has issued visas for the mothers of the three US hikers who have been held for more than nine months. The mothers are expected to travel soon to Iran to visit their children for the first time since their arrest. Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal were detained last July after straying across Iran’s border during a hiking trip in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan region. In other news from Iran, a correspondent for Newsweek has been sentenced in absentia to more than thirteen years in prison. Maziar Bahari was arrested last year and held for four months. Bahari’s sentencing came a day after five Iranian Kurdish activists were hanged in a Tehran prison.