On August 1st, the AFP reported, from the Kurds, the names of the hikers arrested in Iran:
Beshro Ahmed, media adviser for general security in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, said the two men and a woman had entered from Turkey earlier along with a fourth American who did not join the trek because he was ill.
According to CNN, Iran detained the three US nationals on Friday after they crossed into the country from Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ahmed named the three as Shane Bower, Sara Short and Joshua Steel while Shaun Gabriel Maxwell stayed behind in a hotel in the Kurdish region's second largest city of Sulaimaniyah.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ivwg5aFthMD0DDagn2FcRUUDw7XAToday, the NY Times reports Kurdish authorities giving different names:
The Kurdish authorities named the three Americans, all believed to be in their 20s, as
Shane Michael Bauer, of Emeryville, Calif., Joshua Felix Fattal, of Cottage Grove, Ore., and Sarah Emily Shourd. Kurdish officials described them as students, two of whom were studying Arabic in Damascus, Syria. Mr. Bauer and Ms. Shourd have also worked as freelance journalists, with recent bylines from the Middle East.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/middleeast/04hikers.html?hpIs this just sloppy journalism from the AFP in the original report? Was it an error on the Kurds end? How did Sara Short become Sarah Shourd and Joushua Steel become Joshua Fattal?