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Jordan has vowed to do all it can to secure the release of a pilot captured by Islamic State, after a video was released appearing to show the beheading of a Japanese hostage.

Jordan echoed Japan in strongly condemning the murder of Kenji Goto.

The pilot, Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh, was captured when his plane came down in December on a mission to support the US-led, anti-IS military coalition.

Jordan says it is willing to exchange an Iraqi prisoner for his safe return.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momeni told the official Petra news agency the administration was doing «everything it can to save the life and secure the release of its pilot».

He said: «All state organisations have been mobilised to secure the proof of life that we require so that he can be freed and returned to his home.»

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Sydney has joined the list of cities with a Frank Gehry-designed building.

The Chau Chak Wing Business School building has been dubbed the «brown paper bag» by local media.

Speaking at Monday’s opening, Mr Gehry said he hoped the building would generated a «spirit of invention» in those who work and study in it.

The A$180m ($140m; £93m) building for the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), is named after businessman and philanthropist Dr Chau Chak Wing.

It is the architect’s first design to be built in Australia.

Mr Gehry said he had designed a «flexible» building with only a few fixed parts, allowing the building to be changed over time to meet the changing needs of its users.

«People will invent ways to use it,» he said

Gehry said that five years after its conception, there were perhaps some things he would change but he was pleased with the finished result.

«I am Jewish and I feel guilty about everything,» he joked.

The building – tucked between several small streets in the inner city suburb of Ultimo in Sydney – is a key part of the university’s campus master plan. It will house 1,630 students and staff for the UTS Business School.

Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko has announced plans to recruit 100,000 men, as fighting with Ukrainian forces intensifies.

The rebels want to push government forces out of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and are trying to capture the key town of Debaltseve.

Dozens of people including civilians were killed in clashes and artillery fire at the weekend.

Attempts to agree a truce failed when rebel negotiators did not turn up.

A fragile ceasefire agreed in early September in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, collapsed last month when rebels stepped up their offensive on several Ukrainian positions and seized Donetsk airport.

Rebels were accused of carrying out an artillery attack on the south-eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol which left 30 civilians dead.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Budapest shortly – and further visits by foreign dignitaries will give Hungary unusual prominence this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin follows on 17 February, the Turkish, Georgian and Nato leaders soon after.

«That’s just the way life here is,» Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told the BBC. Hungary has long had to balance East with West.

Critics hope Ms Merkel will chide Mr Orban for his authoritarian policies.

But he will be hoping for praise from a fellow conservative leader.

The cover of the HVG weekly shows Hungary as a seesaw with Mrs Merkel on one end and Mr Putin on the other. «Playground» reads the headline.

It’s not a new story. Endre Ady, one of Hungary’s best modern poets, depicted his motherland in 1905 as a «ferry-country», constantly travelling from East to West, «though preferring the return journey».

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Italy’s parliament has elected constitutional court judge Sergio Mattarella as the country’s president.

Mr Mattarella, 73, will succeed Giorgio Napolitano, 89, who stood down earlier this month citing «signs of fatigue».

The result, confirmed on a third day of voting, will be seen as a boost for Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who nominated Mr Mattarella.

Italy’s president is largely a ceremonial role, but includes the power to appoint a prime minister.

That power is one quite frequently invoked in Italy, where politics is famously volatile.

Mr Napolitano named five prime ministers during his eight-and-a-half-years in office.

Analysis: James Reynolds, BBC News, Rome

Sergio Mattarella comes from a prominent Sicilian family which bears the scars of a painful fight against organised crime.

In 1980, the Mafia shot and killed Mr Mattarella’s elder brother Piersanti, then the island’s governor. Sergio Mattarella entered politics three years later, as a member of parliament for the now-defunct Christian Democrat party.

He later became a minister in several governments and once stood down in opposition to plans to make it easier for Silvio Berlusconi’s media empire to expand.

Most recently. Mr Mattarella has been a justice of Italy’s Constitutional Court. But he continues to be most well-known here as a politician and ally of the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Sergio Mattarella’s election to the presidency is widely seen as a significant political victory for the prime minister.

Applause

Mr Mattarella was elected after three inconclusive rounds of voting, in which no candidate secured the two-thirds majority needed to win.

Saturday’s fourth round required merely a simple majority of the 1,009 eligible voters to produce a result.

Applause broke out in the Chamber of Deputies as Mr Mattarella’s vote passed the 505-vote threshold.

He is expected to be sworn in next week.