Iranian researcher, others head to US as travel ban eases

Enayati was prevented from boarding a Turkish Airlines flight to the United States on Monday after President Donald Trump's travel ban against seven Muslim nations took effect.

A day later, just hours after a U.S. appeals court blocked the Trump administration's attempt to re-impose the travel ban, the 29-year-old checked in Sunday for an Emirates Airline flight direct from Milan's Malpensa airport to New York's JFK.

[...] he has contacts for legal help in the United States if he needs it.

Since this is his first trip to the United States, he plans to spend a couple days in New York before going on to San Francisco.

Advocates in the U.S. are telling people to get on the earliest flights they can find after the week-old travel ban against those from seven Muslim countries was blocked Friday by U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle.

For now, it remains blocked by a judge's temporary restraining order, and federal officials have told their staffs to comply.

The State Department has advised refugee aid agencies that refugees who had been scheduled to travel before the order was signed will now be allowed into the U.S.

In Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Sunday that a ban on U.S. wrestlers had been lifted following the judge's ruling halting the Trump travel ban, allowing them to take part in the Freestyle World Cup later this month in the Iranian city of Kermanshah.

Associated Press writers Hamza Hendawi in Cairo; Cara Anna in Johannesburg; Alicia Caldwell in Washington; Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana; Robert Jablon in Los Angeles; Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan; Corey Williams in Detroit and AP Radio correspondent Julie Walker and freelance writer William Mathis in New York contributed.