Foreign News
Cocaine haul sparks hunt for Australian trio rescued at sea
A 365kg cocaine haul has prompted Australian authorities to start a hunt for three men they rescued from the sea two weeks ago.
The trio were found clinging to a cool box off the coast of Western Australia on 1 February.
Police say they claimed they were out fishing when their boat capsized.
But they now believe the men were behind an international drug shipment and are urging them to turn themselves in.
Authorities initially praised the trio when they were rescued near Eclipse Island, 17km south of Albany in WA, issuing a press release saying their case “highlighted the importance of wearing a lifejacket and carrying an emergency beacon”.
But WA police soon found inconsistencies in the trio’s story and contacted the Australian Federal Police (AFP) who started an investigation.
Six days after the men were rescued, a black plastic-wrapped package containing parcels of cocaine was found on a beach 54km (33 miles) west of Albany.
And the next day an overturned cabin cruiser was discovered with eight similarly wrapped packages, each containing about 40kg of cocaine.
Police believe the drugs were collected from the ocean and being ferried to shore in the boat. How the drugs were initially left in the ocean is not known.
(BBC)
Independent Wexford TD Verona Murphy will be the next Ceann Comhairle (speaker) of Dáil Éireann.
She will become the first woman to ever hold the role after being elected by her fellow TDs (members of the Irish parliment).
Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness and Seán Ó Fearghaíl as well as Aengus Ó Snodaigh from Sinn Féin also ran for the position.
Politicians in the Republic of Ireland met for the first time since the general election on Wednesday.
[BBC]
A plot to assassinate Pope Francis during a trip to Iraq was stopped following a tip-off from British intelligence, according to his upcoming autobiography.
The Pope writes that, after landing in Baghdad in March 2021, he was told an event at which he was set to appear was being targeted by two suicide bombers.
Both attackers were subsequently intercepted and killed, he said in excerpts published by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The visit, which took place over three days during the coronavirus pandemic, was the first ever to Iraq by a pope and saw an intense security operation.
The years before had seen increased sectarian violence in Iraq, with fighting between Shia and Sunni Muslims as well as the persecution of religious minorities.
The country’s Christian community had shrunk dramatically, having been targeted in particular by the Islamic State group and other Sunni extremists.
In excerpts of his autobiography, the Pope says “almost everyone advised me against” the visit but he felt he “had to do it”.
He says the plot was uncovered by British intelligence, who warned Iraqi police, and they in turn told his security detail once he had touched down.
“A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading towards Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit,” he says.
“And a van had also set off at great speed with the same intention.”
The Pope adds that he asked a security official the following day what had happened to the would-be attackers.
“The [official] replied laconically: ‘They are no more’. The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up,” he wrote.
The book, entitled Hope, is due to be published on 14 January.
[BBC]
A woman from the Philippines who spent almost 15 years on death row in Indonesia and was nearly executed by firing squad is on her way home.
Mary Jane Veloso was sentenced to death in 2010 after she was found carrying 2.6kg (5.7lb) of heroin through an Indonesian airport.
But the 39-year-old mother of two has always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs.
She was handed over to Philippine officials on Tuesday night, after the two governments reached a deal to allow her to return home.
“I have to go home because I have a family there, I have my children waiting for me.”
While the agreement states that Ms Veloso will return as a prisoner, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos could grant her a reprieve.
Ms Veloso was arrested in April 2010 at Yogyakarta airport.
She said she was convinced by the daughter of one of her godparents to travel to Indonesia to start a new job as a maid.
She claimed that the woman’s male friends gave her new clothes and a new bag, which she was unaware had heroin sewn into it.
She was due to face the firing squad in 2015, but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after the woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking, while Ms Veloso was named a prosecution witness.
Her reprieve was so late that several newspapers in the Philippines went to print with front pages and headlines reporting it had happened.
The case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines (BBC)Ms Veloso’s case drew widespread public sympathy in the Philippines, which does not have the death penalty.
Her circumstances were familiar to many in the Philippines, where it is common for women to escape poverty by seeking work abroad as domestic helpers.
“I bring a lot of things, such as guitar, books, knittings … even this T-shirt I’m wearing was given by my friends,” she said while leaving prison for the airport.
Her transfer comes just days after the five remaining members of the infamous Bali Nine drug ring returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.
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