The families of three Americans detained in Iran for months say their loved ones have been allowed to call home for the first time.
The families said in a statement Wednesday that they received the calls Tuesday. The three reported being well. The families called the conversations “a tremendous relief.”
The families say Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal (fuh-TAHL’) were hiking in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region in July when they accidentally crossed the border into Iran.
Bauer and Fattal are 27 and Shourd is 31. The families say Bauer and Fattal …

What if space held the key to producing alternative energy crops on Earth? That’s what researchers are hoping to find in a new experiment on the International Space Station.
The experiment, National Lab Pathfinder-Cells 3, is aimed at learning whether microgravity can help jatropha curcas plant cells grow faster to produce biofuel, or renewable fuel derived from biological matter. Jatropha is known to produce high quality oil that can be converted into an alternative energy fuel, or biofuel.
By studying the effects of microgravity on jatropha cells, researchers hope to accelerate the …

The White House said on Sunday that President Barack Obama plans to outline his administration’s vision for NASA, along with an eventual trip to Mars, during a conference in Florida in April.
According to Reuters, Obama is in need of reconciliation to defend his commitment to the space agency after submitting his budget to Congress, which cancelled a program to return U.S. astronauts to the moon.
He said he would like to refocus NASA efforts on technologies to prepare for human missions to destinations within the solar system.
Obama’s budget would spend $6 …

The Japanese have always been fascinated with Europe. They modelled their system of government on Britain’s, as well as their health care system and roads; their railways owe something to France; their banks are being remodelled in German fashion. But right now it is another less familiar nook of Europe that is provoking the most attention: Greece.
No prizes for guessing why. With Athens having last week agreed a set of unprecedented austerity cuts and declared itself open to the prospect of an International Monetary Fund bail-out, the Japanese are asking …

Speaking in her first television interview since news broke of Venables’ recall to jail, Denise Fergus demanded answers over the claims surrounding him, including that he faces child pornography charges.
She told ITV’s This Morning “whoever’s been protecting and looking after Venables in the nine years of his release” should be dismissed.
Her comments came as she prepared to meet Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to discuss the case.
She is expected to sit down with him later this week but said she does not expect to get answers to her questions.
She said …

Esat Altindagoglu has been inundated with more than 50 visitors a day hoping to see the “miracle” at his house near Paris.
The one-foot high painting was given to his wife Sevin by a Lebanese priest on her birthday in 2006, the Turkish-born salesman said.
It began weeping oil on February 12 this year, and had been “crying” every day since, he claimed.
He said: “As word spread, people started arriving from France, then from all over Europe.
“I’ve been having between 50 and 60 people a day turning up for more than three …

With his shaggy red hair, black leather jacket and skintight American flag-printed jeans, Olympic gold medalist Shaun White upstaged even glam Oscar winner Sandra Bullock at a pack of parties around town following the Academy Awards.
The snowboarder was one of a group of Olympic athletes who mingled with A-listers at the parties Sunday, sometimes eliciting “oohs” and “ahhs” from the movie stars themselves.
At Vanity Fair’s bash at West Hollywood’s Sunset Tower Hotel, a string of celebrities, including Lenny Kravitz and Jon Voight, sought out White. Even Olympic-winning speed skater Apolo …

American International Group will sell a second overseas life and health insurance unit for $15.5 billion to MetLife Inc. in an ongoing bid to repay billions in government aid.
It was the second major deal AIG completed this month to raise cash. On March 1, AIG agreed to sell Asia-based life insurer, AIA Group, to Britain’s Prudential PLC for $35.5 billion.
MetLife will get a much larger presence in Japan as well as high-growth markets in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. American Life Insurance Co., or Alico, operates in more …

Among the 1.5 million condolence letters sent to President John F. Kennedy’s widow after his assassination in 1963 were more than two dozen from Jane Dryden, a dogged and dramatic 11-year-old who churned out a letter a week for six months straight.
“I know that you hate the whole state of Texas. I do to,” she wrote to Jacqueline Kennedy from Austin in January 1964. “I wish I lived in Washington, D.C. where maybe I could maybe see you standing on your porch. I am determined to move there as soon …

President Barack Obama says his health care overhaul plan is needed to stop insurance companies from raising prices and refusing to cover people who are already sick.
Obama says insurers believe they can continue raising rates and refusing to cover the ill because there is so little competition among health insurers.
The White House released excerpts of a speech he will deliver later Monday in Philadelphia. In it, Obama asks, “How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it?”
Insurers have blamed rising rates on the growing price …