A Canadian woman made an emotional return home to Toronto on Saturday after being stranded in Kenya since being denied exit in May because authorities alleged she was using someone else’s passport.
Overjoyed to return home after the three-month ordeal she called a “nightmare” finally came to an end, Suaad Haji Mohamud hugged her 12-year-old son tightly after arriving at the airport. She was only allowed to travel after DNA tests showing she was indeed Mohamed Hussein’s mother, proving her identity.
Mohamud’s ordeal began when she traveled to Kenya to visit her mother. When she sought to board a plane to return to Canada in May, Kenyan immigration officials arrested and detained her, accusing her of identity fraud because her lips appeared different than those on the photograph in her four-year-old passport.
After holding her for eight days, Kenyan authorities freed the 31-year-old woman on bail.
“Really it is a bad experience. I have never been in jail, even in my own country,” she said on Wednesday.
Her Kenyan lawyer, Lucas Naikuni, will file a complaint against the Kenyan and Canadian governments, and against KLM airlines, CBC public TV reported.
Mohamud’s case has sparked a debate in Canada, where media have highlighted several cases of Canadian citizens who were held or faced difficulties abroad without Ottawa stepping in to help.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has vowed to launch an investigation into the Canada Border Services Agency handled Mohamud’s case.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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