TODAY’s brief, Fri, Jan 23
This file image taken from an online video released by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, purports to show the group threatening to kill two Japanese hostages that the militants identify as Kenji Goto Jogo, left, and Haruna Yukawa, right, unless a $200 million ransom is paid within 72 hours. Photo: AP
Deadline for Japanese IS hostages
Japanese officials are working against the clock to save two nationals held captive by Islamic State, which has threatened to kill them with a deadline that will expire sometime today. In a video released earlier this week, the two Japanese men were seen kneeling on the ground in orange jumpsuits with a masked, knife-wielding figure threatening to kill them if their government failed to pay a US$200 million ransom.
International coalition against Islamic State
The world reacts to foreign ministers from the international coalition against the Islamic State group who gathered for talks in London yesterday, with the threat posed by foreign fighters in focus following jihadist attacks in France. US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond are co-hosting talks involving 21 of the 60-odd countries that are working together to tackle the militant IS group based in Syria and Iraq. It will be the first time the US-led coalition has met since this month`s Paris attacks that left 17 dead.
AirAsia Flight QZ8501 recovery efforts continue
Indonesian divers continue to bring up bodies from the AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea last month with 162 people on board, and are hopeful of reaching the fuselage. A total of 59 bodies have now been found following the crash of flight QZ8501 which went down on December 28 in stormy weather as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Release of Singapore’s CPI for December
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) probably fell from a year earlier for a second straight month, a Reuters poll showed, due to lower transport costs and falling oil prices. The all-items CPI in December likely fell 0.1 per cent from a year earlier, according to the median forecast in a Reuters survey of 12 economists. In November, headline CPI fell 0.3 per cent from a year earlier, the first time Singapore’s headline inflation rate turned negative in nearly five years.
Release of URA Q4 Property Index
Private residential property prices fell 1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) flash estimates released on Jan 2. It was a larger decline than the 0.7 per cent slide in the previous quarter, and the fifth consecutive quarter of price decrease.
