Margie Mason

Read the latest stories and analysis from Margie Mason.

Agricultural officers release parasitoid wasps (Anagyrus lopezi) inside a cage at a cassava field in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. They are the size of a pinhead and don't even pack a sting, but these tiny wasps are cold-blooded killers nonetheless. They work as nature's SWAT team, neutralizing a pest that threatens to destroy one of the developing world's most important staple foods: cassava. The wasps are being released in Indonesia, the latest country threatened by the mealybug. It's a white fuzzy-looking insect shaped like a pill that's been making its way across Southeast Asia's fields for the past six years. Scientists will put 2,000 wasps into a holding cage at an affected field in Bogor. They will be monitored to see how well they handle local conditions as they multiply to an expected 300,000 over the next month before being released into the wild to start their relentless killing spree. (AP Photo/Tatan syuflana)

Indonesia enlists wasps in war on crop killer

Margie Mason · September 24, 2014 12:42 pm

Indonesian presidential candidate Joko Widodo, popularly known as "Jokowi" smiles during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, July 10, 2014. Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and former army general Prabowo Subianto are both claiming victory in Indonesia's presidential election based on unofficial "quick counts," raising the specter of prolonged political instability in Southeast Asia's largest economy. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Indonesia deadlock: court may decide new president

Margie Mason · July 11, 2014 2:55 am

New packs of cigarettes displaying pictorial health warnings are arranged on the counter by a shop attendant for photographers at a convenience store in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, June 24, 2014. Tobacco companies on Tuesday largely snubbed an Indonesian law requiring them to put graphic photo warnings on all cigarette packs being sold, marking another setback in a country that's home to the world's highest rate of men smokers and a wild, wild west of advertising. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

More countries adding graphic warnings to smokes

Margie Mason · June 27, 2014 10:47 am

New packs of cigarettes displaying pictorial health warnings are arranged on the counter by a shop attendant for photographers at a convenience store in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, June 24, 2014. Tobacco companies on Tuesday largely snubbed an Indonesian law requiring them to put graphic photo warnings on all cigarette packs being sold, marking another setback in a country that's home to the world's highest rate of men smokers and a wild, wild west of advertising. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Cigarette makers ignore Indonesia label deadline

Margie Mason · June 25, 2014 4:36 am

In this March 11, 2014 photo, Burmese trafficking victims Min Min Chan, right, watches as his friend Kya Wue shoots video with his mobile phone on a bus that takes them to their transit hotel wait for their bus before returning to their country at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia. Tens of thousands of invisible migrants are trafficked annually through Thailand, Southeast Asia's second-largest economy. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Thailand’s rampant trafficking may carry price

Margie Mason · June 13, 2014 2:14 pm

Flight officer Rayan Gharazeddine on board a Royal Australian Air Force AP-3C Orion, searches for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in southern Indian Ocean, Australia, Saturday, March 22, 2014. A satellite image released by China on Saturday offers the latest sign that wreckage from a Malaysia Airlines plane lost for more than two weeks could be in a remote stretch of the southern Indian Ocean where planes and ships have been searching for three days. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, Pool)

Why are Americans obsessed with missing plane?

Margie Mason · April 21, 2014 2:22 pm

In this Thursday, April 17, 2014 photo provided by the Australian Defense Force, the Phoenix International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Artemis is launched from the Australian Defense Vessel Ocean Shield in to the southern Indian Ocean in the search of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Up to 11 aircraft and 12 ships continue to scan the ocean surface for debris from the Boeing 777 that disappeared March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. (AP Photo/Australian Defense Force, Bradley Darvill) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Malaysia, Flight 370 relatives talk financial help

Margie Mason · April 21, 2014 2:28 am

Malaysian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hamzah Zainudin, left, listens as Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein answers a question from a journalist during a press conference on the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, April 19, 2014. An underwater robotic submarine is expected to finish searching a narrowed down area of the Indian Ocean seabed for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane within the next week, after completing six missions and so far coming up empty, the search coordination center said Saturday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Sub search for missing jet to be finished in week

Margie Mason · April 20, 2014 3:05 am

One of relatives of Chinese passengers onboard the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 grieves at a hotel conference room in Beijing, China, Friday, April 18, 2014. A robotic submarine headed back down into the depths of the Indian Ocean on Friday to scour the seafloor for any trace of the missing Malaysian jet one month after the search began off Australia's west coast, as data from the sub's previous missions turned up no evidence of the plane.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Chinese relatives pray over lost Malaysian plane

Margie Mason · April 19, 2014 3:00 am

FILE - In this April 7,2014 file photo, the chief coordinator of the Joint Agency Coordination Center retired Chief Air Marshall Angus Houston listens to a question from the media during a press conference about the ongoing search operations for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in Perth, Australia. Houston has become the global face of the massive monthlong search operation off Australia's west coast to find the missing Boeing 777, which is believed to be resting somewhere on the silt-covered bottom of the Indian Ocean in a patch the size of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Rob Griffith, File)

Australia’s Houston: Calm face of Flight 370 hunt

Margie Mason · April 18, 2014 9:08 am

A U.S Navy P-8 Poseidon prepares to takes off from Perth International Airport en route to rejoin the ongoing search operations for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, in Perth, Australia, Friday, April 18, 2014. Investigators were analyzing data collected by a robotic submarine that completed its first successful scan of the seabed Thursday in the hunt for the missing Malaysian plane, but say tests have ruled out that a nearby oil slick came from the aircraft. (AP Photo/Theron Kirkman)

Energy and Environment

Sub scours ocean for missing Malaysian jet

Margie Mason · April 18, 2014 4:53 am

In a Monday, April 14, 2014 photo provided by the U.S. Navy, operators aboard the Australian defense vessel Ocean Shield move the U.S. Navy's Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle into position for deployment to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. On Tuesday, April 15, 2014, the U.S. Navy and search coordinators said that a built-in safety feature aborted what was supposed to have been a 16-hour mission to create a sonar map of the ocean floor after only six hours. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy, MC1 Peter D. Blair)

Robot sub makes first complete search for plane

Margie Mason · April 17, 2014 12:12 am