Efforts by Japan and Jordan to secure the release of two of their nationals held captive by Islamic State militants remain “deadlocked” and the situation remains highly unpredictable, Japanese officials said on Friday.
Militants earlier threatened to kill Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh unless a would-be suicide bomber on death row in Amman was handed over by sunset on Thursday.
Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was also being held by the militants.
Photo: Reuters
“The situation is deadlocked,” Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhide Nakayama said in Jordan late on Friday, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida yesterday said in Tokyo that the situation was unpredictable, NHK reported.
“Anything could happen,” he said. “We cannot predict it at all. While preparing for every situation, I want to make every effort for Mr Goto’s release.”
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga arrived at Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office yesterday afternoon, and the prime minister remains on standby to receive regular updates on the situation, NHK said.
Jordan’s army on Friday said that state agencies were “working round the clock.”
An audio message purportedly from Goto said the pilot would be killed if Jordan did not free Sajida al-Rishawi, jailed for her role in a 2005 suicide bomb attack that killed 60 people in Amman.
The crisis comes as the group, which has already released videos showing the beheadings of five Western hostages, is coming under increased military pressure from US-led air strikes and by Kurdish and Iraqi troops pushing to reverse the Muslim extremist group’s territorial gains in Iraq and Syria.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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