Japan not to give up on hostages issue
Japan promised Saturday not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic militants demanding a $200 million ransom, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors. Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted... read more »
Indonesia Search Team to Float AirAsia Fuselage
JAKARTA: Indonesian salvage teams launched today an operation to raise the fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 from the sea bed as they recovered four more bodies from the wreckage of the crashed jet. The bid came a day after divers were able to enter the main section of the jet, which crashed in the... read more »
Japan Awaits Hostages’ Fate After Islamic State Deadline Passes
Japan’s government and public await the fate of two Japanese captives threatened with execution, 24 hours after the passing of a deadline on Islamic State’s demand for a $200 million ransom. The government considered the cutoff point to have been 2:50 p.m. Tokyo time on Friday. Islamic State... read more »
Death of ‘reformer’ King Abdullah: Why Saudis will remain frene...
The death yesterday (23 January) of Saudi King Abdullah – widely acclaimed as a “reformer”, albeit a one only in the context of the glacial pace of change in this semi-mediaeval kingdom – changes nothing for anybody anywhere. While the optics of geopolitical political correctness... read more »
