An audio message, claiming to be from Japanese hostage Kenji Goto, said a Jordanian air force pilot would be killed unless an Iraqi female prisoner held by the Jordanian authorities was released by sunset today.
Another cold day with sunny spells and further wintry showers, mainly in the north and west.
Snow will increasingly become confined to the hills of the northwest through the day.
Drier in the southeast, with winds easing in the east.
Tonight will see outbreaks of rain, sleet and hill snow move south-eastwards across Scotland and northern England.
Wintry showers continuing in the west.
The co-pilot of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was flying the passenger jet when it crashed last month, killing all 162 people on board, officials say.
Mardjono Siswosuwarno, head investigator for Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, said the plane was in good condition and that all crew members were properly certified.
He said the aircraft's flight recorder gave a "pretty clear picture" of what happened in the final moments before it crashed on December 28.
Last week, officials said the plane had been "climbing too quickly" before the crash.
The schoolboy who stabbed Leeds teacher Ann Maguire to death at Corpus Christi High School will appeal his sentence tomorrow.
A panel of judges headed by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas will hear the application on behalf of 16-year-old Will Cornick, who stabbed Mrs Maguire, 61, seven times from behind as she taught a Spanish class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds in April last year.
The appeal relates to the least time Cornick must spend in custody before he is eligible to apply for parole.
Whilst passing his sentence back in November, Mr Justice Coulson warned Cornick, who was 15 at the time, that he might never be released from prison as he passed sentence at Leeds Crown Court.
A spokesperson for the Dover Coastguard has confirmed to ITV News that four people on board a fishing boat missing in the Channel are not believed to be British.
Residents have taken to Twitter to describe the moment an earthquake struck an area of the East Midlands
