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Released By Iran, Cal Hikers Arrive In U.S.

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) -- Two University of California at Berkeley graduates, released from an Iranian prison, landed in New York Sunday after being held for more than two years on accusations of spying.

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arrived in the U.S. on Sunday at Kennedy Airport.

KCBS' Bob Melrose Reports:

The two were released from prison last week. They arrived Wednesday in Oman under a $1 million bail deal and were embraced by relatives. Also on hand was Sarah Shourd, their fellow hiker who was freed last year.

Shourd said a "huge burden" has been lifted now that the two men held with her in Iran have returned to the U.S.

She said at a news conference Sunday that she had felt "it was very wrong" that she was alone when she first came home. Now that the men are back, Shourd said she's never felt as free.

The three were detained in July 2009 along the Iran-Iraq border. They said they were only hiking in Iraq's relatively peaceful
Kurdish region.

Since her release last year, Shourd has lived in Oakland, Calif. Bauer, a freelance journalist, grew up in Onamia, Minn., and Fattal, an environmental activist, is from a Philadelphia suburb.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved)

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