Mickey Bristow
Appearances
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Well, this is a mother of two, Mary Jane Veloso, who was a domestic helper. She spent some time abroad in Dubai, came back to the Philippines in 2010 and was promised a job in Malaysia. Travelled to Malaysia, the job didn't materialise, but the person who had recruited her said, could you take a suitcase to Indonesia? She did do that.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
Unwittingly, she says inside the suitcase was 2.6 kilograms of heroin. She was caught at the airport, put on trial and sentenced to death. And she's been on death row now for nearly 15 years. And there have been some quite close calls in 2015, for example. She was scheduled to be executed by firing squad with eight others. The Philippine government made a last desperate attempt to save her life.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
She wasn't executed, but that last-minute reprieve came so late that in the Philippines they didn't even know until afterwards when they found out there'd been eight people executed, not nine, that their appeal had been successful. So there's been a real... desperately long campaign to have this woman freed because many in the Philippines thought she'd been duped.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
She is going to get quite a reception. There's a lot of sympathy for her in this case, particularly a trial itself. It was conducted in Indonesian, translated into English. Two languages that she knew nothing of, really. She didn't really speak English. Her language is Tagalog, a Philippine language. It wasn't until a few days after her sentence she actually realised she'd been sentenced to death.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
A priest had to tell her she hadn't understood the sentence when it was delivered in court. Also because of her situation... Lots of Philippine women go abroad as domestic workers. They work hard. Not always are they treated well. They leave their families back home. So that generated a lot of sympathy as well.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
So there's been an awful lot of sympathy with this case and there'll be an awful lot of people at the airport glad to see her back.
Global News Podcast
US says it's cautiously optimistic that a deal to end fighting in Gaza is within reach
OK, you're OK. You're OK, you're OK.
Global News Podcast
Fatalities and injuries in German Christmas market attack
Like many things, the soil was contaminated following the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear facility in 2011. Much of it is topsoil collected in order to decontaminate vast areas surrounding the plant. Japan plans to use the least radioactive soil in civil engineering projects such as road embankments. More heavily contaminated soil will be disposed of.
Global News Podcast
Fatalities and injuries in German Christmas market attack
The International Atomic Energy Agency has approved the proposal, but as with the discharge of water from the plant, some people will not be happy.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
Our Asia-Pacific regional editor, Mickey Bristow, told us more. He was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing overnight, a regular five-and-a-half-hour flight. But shortly after takeoff, the plane veered, instead of going northeast, it veered westwards over the Malay Peninsula, and then contact was lost with it.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
Initially, the search focused around the area where it had been lost, but then it became clear that the plane had actually continued to fly thousands of kilometres off the route which it was intended to fly and had ended up in the Indian Ocean where investigators believe it had crashed. Initially, there was a search there, firstly by the governments of Malaysia, China, and Australia.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
That was over a vast area, 120,000 kilometers. That ended. There was then a second search by the company Ocean Infinity. That didn't find anything. And so that stopped. And the investigation appeared to have died down. And as you suggested, they're a great aviation mystery because so many people on board, so little knowledge about what could have happened to the plane.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
Why was it over the Indian Ocean? Why did it get there? So those questions remained. That's perhaps why the investigation has been reopened.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
I think since the last search there's been a lot of work done on actually trying to take the information we do know about the plane to try and pinpoint more accurately where indeed investigators think that it crashed. And if you listen there to the transport minister from Malaysia, he suggested that this new area was 15,000 square kilometres.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
It sounds a big area, but it's far smaller than the initial search area. So I think they feel now they've pinpointed, the area where the plane crashed. Also, there's, as you can imagine, real pressure from the families to try and find out what went on. So the Malaysian government knows that and now it's got this fresh information.
Global News Podcast
US sends diplomats to Syria
I think it's keen to try and look once again to try and find this plane.