Former coworker Derrick Shore, who traveled with Ling to dangerous areas of São Paulo, says, "she had this way of making me feel calm." Another friend, Morgan Wandell, says of Ling, "for as long as I've known her, [she] has always had a global conscience and was interested in stories that were happening around the world." And a former employee, Dan Beckmann, adds, "I've never had a boss who was ever that worried that everyone working for her was happy." Beckmann also knew Lee, and says of her, "She's one of those people who's the unsung hero, makes sure the work gets done — she was working to help out the team when she went to China because she was the only person on the team who spoke Korean."

Though some have said that the women jeopardized themselves and put the United States in a bad position when they crossed into North Korea, their families say that if they did in fact cross the border, it was unintentional. "We don't know what really happened on March 17, but if they wandered across the border without permission, we apologize on their behalf and we are certain that they have also apologized," the families said in a statement.

Asked for her take on Ling and Lee's plight, Saberi, who was released from Iran in May after a four-month imprisonment for alleged spying, says,

I imagine they feel very wronged to have been detained and tried without their basic human rights being observed. They might also feel disoriented to be experiencing all this in a place whose laws and customs are foreign to those of the country in which they were raised. They likely see themselves as political pawns in a larger, complex game.

She has this advice for them as they await their release:

Try to turn the challenges you are facing into opportunities. Do not fear but love, have hope and courage, and stand up for what you believe in. No one can hurt your soul. You are not alone. You have a whole world of supporters who are rallying and praying for you.

Friends speak up for L.A. journalists held by N. Korea [LA Times]
Saberi to Lee and Ling: 'You are not alone' [CPJ, via Columbia Journalism Review]

Earlier: American Journalists Sentenced To 12 Years Hard Labor

A week after Saberi returned to the U.S. following her 100-day imprisonment, she and her parents met with Clinton at the State Department. At a conference in the Netherlands in March, Clinton broke with the usual diplomatic isolation of Iran and passed a letter supporting Saberi's release directly to the country's delegation.

Yesterday, Clinton told reporters:

This was a matter of great concern to our country, certainly to the Obama administration, to me personally, not only as secretary of state, but as a mother. My heart went out to Roxana and to her parents every single day.

Saberi thanked Clinton, President Obama, and the American people and others around the world for lobbying for her freedom. She said:

When I found out that I had the support while I was in prison, I gained a lot of strength and hope, and I didn't feel so alone anymore. It's wonderful to be back in the United States. I'm very proud to be an American, just as I'm proud of my Japanese and Iranian heritage. It's wonderful to be back.

The 32-year-old journalist had been living in Iran since 2003, but was convicted of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to eight years in prison following her arrest in January. Earlier this month, an Iranian appeals court reduced her sentence to a two-year jail term suspended for five years on grounds that she couldn't be punished for cooperating with a hostile nation since the U.S. and Iran are not at war, according to The New York Times.

In the Press TV account of Saberi and Clinton's meeting, the state-run news agency noted that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also wrote a letter to judiciary officials asking for a fair trial. The articles stated that Saberi "had confessed that she had been engaged in acts of espionage by gaining access to classified documents," but still hasn't thanked the Iranian officials who released her.

Clinton Celebrates Journalist's Release From Iran [CNN]
Saberi Thanks Clinton For Support [The New York Times]
Saberi Thanks Clinton For Pressuring Iran [Press TV]

[Washington, D.C., May 27. Image via Getty]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks with Roxana Saberi, an American journalist that was freed last week from an Iranian prison, during a meeting at the State Department in Washington, DC, May 27, 2009. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

• Saberi said she was moved to hear that so many people worked for her release. She added, "I think that if somebody is supposed to speak about my case from now on, nobody knows about it as well as I do, and I will talk about it more in the future." • Tennessee has nullified the 18-month marriage of a transgender woman and a man because the state considers them both men. The woman was born a man and had a sex change operation, but the state does not recognize gender change (or gay marriage) even after sex reassignment surgery. • A Sacramento woman survived a car crash because she was hurled out of the car, over the the highway sound wall, and landed in a plum tree in a backyard. Firefighters say she survived because the tree cushioned her fall. • A Turkish court has ordered that an employer give a woman her job back after she was fired for kissing her boyfriend at work. The kiss was brief, and no customers say it, but her boss caught it on a security camera and fired her. • The banning of four books of French erotic literature in Turkey has caused debate over the qualifications of committee members to determine what is literature and what isn't after they decided to ban a book by the acclaimed French poet Apollinaire. • A new study suggests chemicals and hormones produced from our changing moods can affect eggs and sperm, altering the patterns of genes that are active in them and thus how a child develops. • Scientists have found that by observing the pattern of activity in the brain they can tell whether a person heard words spoken in anger, joy, relief, or sadness. This is the first study to show that emotional information is represented by distinct spatial signatures in the brain. • Scientists in Australia have figured out why there is an obesity epidemic: we eat too much food. They calculated how much people are eating today as opposed to three decades ago by comparing agricultural data. They determined that based on the total amount of food that is grown and imported, humans are actually less fat than we should be based just on changes in consumption, which may be explained by exercise. • A McDonald's in Alabama pulled Kidz Bop CDs from the store's Happy Meals because parents complained they could hear an obscenity in a cover of Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be." McDonald's says there's no obscenity in the song, but a parent says, "In the song the word is supposed to be 'looking,' but they're saying the f-word with the -ing on the end." • A stripper working at a Times Square peep show caught an ex-con who was counterfeiting money. She noticed that the two $10 bills he handed her looked like they were made on an Ink Jet printer and alerted her manager. When confronted, the man panicked and dropped 21 more bills. The man was arrested and is currently out on bail. • A British man was arrested after he drove up to a police officer posing as a prostitute and how much she would charge to have sex with his 14-year-old son, who was sitting in the car. The man won't serve jail time because of his "previous excellent character" and the boy will be allowed to live with his father, but the man will be put on the sex offender registry for five years. • A study found that in many police units in England and Wales female officers have to wear uniforms and stab vests designed for men. Maria Eagle, the justice minister, said, "It does make a very clear point, doesn't it? How welcome would you feel as a woman in a police force like that, if you can't even get clothes that fit you? It's crazy." • Police are investigating whether a Russian gynecologist, Igor Ivanov, purposely sterilized his pregnant ex-fiance, Olga Sokolova, when she was admitted to a hospital with abdominal pains. Sokolova had called off their wedding on the night before they were supposed to get married because she believed he was cheating on her. She started dating someone else and got pregnant. Ivanov was the only doctor on duty when she was admitted to the hospital, and he told her she was miscarrying and performed emergency surgery, causing serious internal damage that will prevent her from having children. • On Saturday Sister Mary Elizabeth Lloyd will run a 100-mile marathon in Florida while wearing her nun's habit to raise money to help orphaned children. ''I'm like Johnny Cash,'' Lloyd said. 'I wear black to draw attention. And when people ask me: 'Why in God's name are you doing this?' I can say, 'For the orphaned children.''' • A video posted by the U.K. National Health Service in Leicester was banned by YouTube after 24 hours for showing what looks like a teenage girl giving birth on a playground while students watch. The NHS was trying to get their anti-teen pregnancy message to young people with a viral video. • Business is booming at Cryos, the world's biggest sperm bank. In 2008 the number of donors tripled, from 30 a day to 100 at its four offices in Denmark. The worldwide demand for sperm surged in the past three or four years and Cryos "can't meet the avalanche of demand from the western world, in particular the United States," said Chief executive Ole Schou, "We help a tsunami of highly-educated single women who are more demanding and who prioritised their careers and who want to have a child before it is too late." • Vietnam is experiencing a boom in male births, which researchers believe can be blamed on the tenfold increase in the availability of ultrasounds in the last decade. They believe women being able to know the sex of their unborn child is increasing the number of sex-specific abortions. • A scientist who writes under the name "Mike The Mad Biologist" blogged that he perceives a double standard in how female scientists are viewed when they party after work. "If a female scientist at a meeting parties hard and flirts, she is viewed as a 'party girl.' In other words, she is no longer viewed as a scientist with an interesting social life, but as 'a good time' (although perhaps not sexually)," he writes, adding, "Mind you, I think this double standard sucks. But... I'm not sure what we (including male scientists) can do about it, other than not be assholes (which would be a good start)." • Here's a letter to the Princeton Alumni Weekly from an alum of 1945: "Gone is the distinct masculine flavor of an all-male college. The maleness of the Nassau Inn's Tap Room has been replaced by a female, dainty, tearoom atmosphere... My fear is that the Princeton University I knew has been taken over by a female majority (for better or worse). I am surprised that other male graduates are not upset by these developments." • English ice cream maker Frank Frederick is reviving his Italian family's 100-year-old gelato brand, along with his grandfather's practice of singing opera to his cows to make them produce endorphin-rich milk. Frederick flew in opera tenor Marcello Bedoni from Italy to serenade his cows. "The cows are such gentle beasts and have a good ear for opera," said Bedoni. •

Originally arrested for buying alcohol and later charged with espionage, Saberi only recently ended a hunger strike in protest of her imprisonment, when an appeals court agreed to hear her case. Though Saberi's original trial was held behind closed doors, her appeal "was arranged to appear fair and open." The appeal took place before a panel of three judges, and lasted much longer than the initial trial, which Saberi's father described as a "mock trial" that lasted only minutes.

Many aspects of the case remain murky. It's unclear why her appeal date was moved forward, from Tuesday to Sunday. The evidence against her still hasn't been released. One of Saberi's prospective lawyers was not allowed to meet with her in prison, and the paperwork she signed for her appeal was at one point "lost." And although Saberi has ostensibly been freed, her father told Reuters today he was still standing in front of the prison, waiting for her release.

Many suspect that Saberi's arrest was motivated by political concerns. Iranian conservatives may have wanted to derail the Iranian-American peace process, or the Iranian government may have wanted to use Saberi as a "bargaining chip." Whatever the case, Iran seems to have pulled back — but Saberi's fate will only be certain once she is actually released.

Less fortunate are journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were captured May 17 by the North Korean military on the border with China, where they were covering North Korean defectors. Ling and Lee have received less press than Saberi, in part because the U.S. hopes, according to the Wall Street Journal, "that not provoking the North Koreans may lead to a speedy resolution." But the two remain in custody, a source says "North Korea isn't talking to the U.S. at all," and many speculate that hardliners have gained power in the wake of Kim Jong Il's illness, and are forcing North Korea into an increasingly hostile relationship with the West. Now that Saberi is free, perhaps diplomats can turn their attentions to Lee and Ling — but their case remains far more uncertain, and the three women together form a disturbing pattern of U.S. journalists held for political gain.

Reporter's Hearing In Iran Moved Up [NYT]
U.S.-Born Reporter Freed: Iranian Judiciary Source [Reuters]
Roxana Saberi, US-Iranian Journalist, 'To Be Freed' [TimesOnline]
Iranian-American Journalist ‘To be Freed' [Financial Times]
US Journalist Appeals Against Spying Sentence [Independent]
Iran 'To Release' Reporter Saberi [BBC]

Earlier: U.S. Journalist Held In Iran Continues Hunger Strike
Roxana Saberi Ends Hunger Strike
American Journalists To Face North Korean "Justice"

• The D.C. Council has approved a bill that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal. The legislation is considered the first step toward allowing gay marriages to be performed in Washington, but it's unclear how the bill will fare in Congress, which has final say over D.C.'s laws. • The Maine House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow same sex couples to marry in the state. Now the bill will go back to the Senate, which voted last week to support the bill. Gov. John Baldacci has not said whether he will veto the bill or allow it to become law. • The body of a man believed to be homosexual has been dug up twice in Senegal because people don't want him buried in the Muslim cemetery. The second time his body was exhumed it was left outside the family home, and it is believed that he is now buried on the property. Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal, a majority Muslim country, and anti-gay sentiment has been on the rise since a court overturned the conviction of nine people for committing homosexual acts last month. • Greece's only two same-sex marriages, one male and one female, have been annulled by a court. The couples used a loophole in the law that did not specify gender in civil weddings to marry. • A judge ruled that 20-year-old University of Colorado student Abby Toll will be allowed to stay at her mother's house this summer with her dog, even though she is accused of taping her boyfriend's dog to a refrigerator. Police say Toll bound the 2-year-old shiba inu's legs, snout, and tail with packing tape, then stuck him upside down to the side of the refrigerator. Toll is charged with felony aggravated cruelty to animals and drug possession. The dog is at the local Humane Society, and will be put up for adoption. • Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his wife Veronica Lario have chosen their divorce lawyers. She has chosen Maria Christina Morelli, who is famous for winning the right for a woman who had been in a coma for 17 years to be removed from life support. Following the verdict, Berlusconi launched an unsuccessful effort to change the law and keep the woman alive. • Berlusconi went on state-run television today to deny that he had an affair with an 18-year-old and repeat that his wife should publicly apologize for embarrassing him and admit that she was wrong. • A front-page editorial in the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference said Berlusconi's behavior is "worrying" and said Italy deserved a Prime Minister who was a "mirror of the country's soul" and called on him to be more "sober and sombre". • In a study of 6,437 children from the age of 7 to 12, British researchers found that pre-teens who were bullied as children have twice the risk of having delusions, hallucinations, and other psychotic symptoms. The scientists said bullying may even trigger people who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia. • Mia Metzgers of New York is suing a woman who outed her as a dominatrix in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Metzger's boyfriend. Metzger says the revelation ruined her nursing career. • Dozens of women are suing the company that manufactures ObTape, a vaginal sling that is surgically inserted under the urethra to prevent urine leaks. In one case, several months after the surgery, a patient developed a painful, bloody, vaginal discharge, and pieces of the tape started working through her vaginal wall. The product had been cleared for sale by the FDA. • Disney has eliminated the "image screening positions" at its parks. The employees used to check photos taken during certain rides to censor photos in which women purposely flashed their breasts, in hopes that they would be put on the photo preview for everyone to see. Disney says anyone who exposes him or herself on a ride will still be ejected from the park. • 44 people were killed at a wedding in Turkey, including the bride and groom, by masked men armed with assault rifles and grenades. The men are believed to be from a family feuding with the bride's family. They were angry that a relative had been rejected as the groom. • A survey of 400 men who attend church by a UK men's magazine found that 60 percent don't like flowers and embroidered banners in church. Nearly 60 percent said they enjoyed singing, but preferred "proclamational hymns" to emotional love longs. 72 percent said their favorite part of the service is the sermon. • A Kansas State University researcher Kay Ann Taylor says that poverty is rooted in the U.S. education system because, "Far too many schools continue to endorse a curriculum of the absurd that encompasses 'heroification' of primarily white males, while the contributions of women and people of color appear in pop-out format in textbooks," and laws like the No Child Left Behind Act and military recruitment in low-achieving schools leave poor students at a disadvantage. • Denis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel featured on Cathouse, may offer Drew Peterson an apprenticeship after Rod Blagojevich turned him down. Hof said, "He doesn't have an old lady now; at least they can't find her. He might as well be on my show and have some fun with the girls." • A fight broke out in an Oregon bar after a man slapped a woman's butt while she was singing karaoke. Her husband confronted the man, which led to a 12 person fight involving beer bottles and chairs being used as weapons. • The towns of Newton and Wellesley in Massachusetts have released a list of their most popular names for dogs. Bailey is most popular in Wellesley and Lucy is most popular in Newton. Several dogs in each town are named for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. • The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ban the trade of seal products across Europe. • The hand-cranked device in this video reenacts the "Don't Tase Me Bro" incident with mechanical figures. •

• Iran has consented to review the 8 year prison sentence, but judiciary officials deny that Saberi is on hunger strike. • Yesterday hundreds gathered in Philadelphia to march for gay rights. It is reportedly the first national rally for equality held outside Washington, DC. •  Ugh: Swiss authorities are investigating the appearance of a condom in a 7-year-old's Happy Meal. • New research has found that men with mental health problems are at an increased risk of passing their issues on to their sons. • A British mother was nearly killed while birthing her abnormally large son. Her child weighed 13 pounds, 10 ounces, which is almost double the average birth weight. • A recent study has found that the brothers of women who are fertile late in life tend to live longer, but their wives (sisters-in-law to the older mothers) do not. • Researchers have found that African-American women face a much greater risk of dying from breast cancer than white women, regardless of socio-economic status, the age at which they are diagnosed, the type of cancer, or type of treatment. • This fascinating report compares the leisure habits of different countries. Findings include: men in Italy have 80 minutes more of down time per day than women, and the French spend more time sleeping and eating than any other country included in the study. Fuckers. • Doctors have found new ways to identify autism in infants, which they hope will lead to better treatment of the disorder. • A new study from the Children's Hospital in Boston indicates that kids who watch adult-targeted TV are more likely to be sexually active at a younger age than those who stick to Saturday morning cartoons. • A woman in Dubai has been convicted of accidentally killing her fetus in a traffic accident and has been ordered to pay blood money to compensate for the (possibly) resulting stillbirth. • The Sleepy Eye Police Department is investigating the theft of Snoopy's nose. • Bear trapping is big business in China, where bears are held captive in order to collect their valuable bile. The bears are often held in cages no bigger than their own bodies. •  Following the case of the 8-year-old girl who was married to a man 40 years her senior, Saudi Arabia has begun to consider banning marriage for girls under the age of 18. • A 17-year-old girl who dialed 911 when her father had a seizure was berated by the cop who answered the call because she began swearing. Click here to hear the full tape. • Silvio Berlusconi has demanded an apology from his wife, Veronica Lario, for her recent comments about their possible divorce. •

"She might be the first woman of color that females in male-dominated countries have seen as confident, bright, educated, articulate and persuasive," says Barbara Perry, author of Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier. • A mother in Brazil partially severed her boyfriend's penis after her teenage daughter accused him of raping her from age seven. The man had reconstructive surgery and the mother is still on the run. • A federal judge upheld a $100 million jury verdict for Mattel Inc. over the rights to the Bratz dolls. Mattel sued the makers of Bratz dolls in 2004, accusing designer Carter Bryant of developed the concept for Bratz while working for Mattel. • Spanish police arrested a doctor who is suspected of using a pen camera to film female employeesin a locker room while they were undressing. He would leave his lab coat in a strategically placed area with the camera in the pocket. • Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have seized a rare 2-year-old female gorilla from traffickers at an airport. She was hidden under clothes in the bottom of a bag for more than six hours and was suffering from over-heating, dehydration, and a wounded leg when she was discovered. • But 20-year-old Amy Thomas is the support Roxana Saberi, an American journalist jailed in Iran. Saberi has been on a hunger strike in prison for about a week. • In one of the most insane justifications for sexual assault that we've ever heard, a dentist convicted of a dozen counts of sexual battery for molesting his patients said he wasn't fondling the women's breasts, but massaging their chests as treatment for the jaw condition TMJ. • A 24-year-old New York police criminologist was found strangled with the cord from a cell phone charger, with a knife stuck in her neck, and her stomach burned with an iron. Her roommate slept all night in the room next door before finding her body, but is not a suspect. • In an editorial, psychologist Michael Oberschneider says he's seen increased symptoms mental distress among his clients due to the bad economy, including anxiety, stress and depression, marital and parenting conflicts focused on spending, trouble sleeping, and stress-induced stomach pain and headaches. He says, "What I hear from my clients and colleagues suggests that the financial downturn and continued uncertainty have overtaxed us emotionally." • In Lebanon, the health minister has advised people to discontinue the traditional greeting of kissing the cheek three times to first confirmed case of swine flu, but the minister in charge of the health department says is should be referred to as "Mexico flu," because pork is non-kosher. The minister is a member of one of the ultra-Orthodox political parties. Haaretz columnist Benjamin Hartman, criticized Israel's "demented Legoland" political system, saying that only in Israel could "a man who can't say the word 'vagina'" be put in charge of a ministry that supervises teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases." • Stylists and models from around the country competed last week in the International Fantasy Hair Competition in New Hampshire. The winner was model Amaris Brown and stylist Kevin Carter of Detroit for "Proud Peacock," a big spray of feathers with hair shaped into what looked like the bird's tail feathers. •

Saberi was sentenced to eight years in prison after a one-day trial behind closed doors on April 18, according to the Associated Press. She was held in late January for buying a bottle of wine, then arrested for reporting without press credentials. Later she was charged with espionage.

Saberi's parents were allowed to visit her in Tehran's Evin prison yesterday for her 32nd birthday. ''Roxana is very weak and pale," said her father, Reza Saberi, ''She is only drinking sweetened water to remain alive.''

Saberi, a dual Iranian-American citizen, was born in the U.S. The former Miss North Dakota attended Northwestern University and moved to Iran six years ago, where she freelanced for National Public Radio and the BBC. Iranian officials revoked her press credentials in 2006, but NPR says she continued to file short news items. She was also working on a book about Iranian culture.

After her detention, U.S. officials immediately demanded Saberi's release, and her case has been a source of tension between the U.S. and Iran as President Obama attempts to ease relations with Iran. CNN reports that last weekend President Obama said he is, "gravely concerned with her safety and well-being," adding, "she is an American citizen, and I have complete confidence that she was not engaging in any sort of espionage." During an interview last week, ABC News' George Stephanopoulos asked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if he would accept President Obama's word and release Saberi as a goodwill gesture. Ahmadinejad said, "Let's see if our judiciary allows for that, sure. But if they do not allow for that, no. I am afraid not." Saberi's lawyer appealed her case on Saturday and a spokesmen said Iran's appeals court would reconsider her verdict.

Many people are campaigning for the Iranian court to commute her sentence. The Obama administration said it is working with Swiss intermediaries in Iran to secure her release and Jesse Jackson has offered to "travel with a delegation to Iran, if we are permitted, and make an appeal for her freedom," says CNN. Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has also released a letter claiming that he and Saberi were engaged; in the letter, reprinted in Time, he says that she wanted to leave Iran, but he convinced Saberi to stay until he finished his film. He wrote:

It is with tears in my eyes that I say she is innocent and guiltless. It is me, who has known her for years, and shared every moment with her, who declares it. She was always busy reading and doing her research. Nothing else ...

And now my heart is full of sorrow. Because it is me who incited her to stay here. And now I can't do anything for her. Roxana wanted to leave Iran. I kept her from it.

Father Says U.S. Journalist Jailed In Iran "Very Weak" [The Associated Press]
Jesse Jackson Offers To Go To Iran To Help Free Journalist [CNN]
George's Bottom Line: Journey To Tehran [ABC News]
Roxana Update: Letter From her Friend [Time]