Back from Baghdad

Fort Lauderdale

Sixteen-year-old Farris Hassan returned home to an anxious mother and a promise of a “whuppin’” from his older brother this week, after he sneaked off to Baghdad to report on the Iraqi elections for his high school journalism class. Hassan secretly flew to Kuwait Dec. 11, hoping to take a taxi into Iraq. He called his father, who is divorced from his mother, when he found the border closed. Impressed by his son’s determination, the elder Hassan, an Iraqi by birth, helped his son get a visa to enter the country. When the teen visited the Associated Press bureau in Baghdad and volunteered as a reporter, startled staffers called the U.S. Embassy, which arranged for his return. “We’re going to sit down and discuss consequences,” said Shatha Atiya, Farris’ mother. “He understands what he put us through.”

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