ARIRANG NEWS 20:00
In the headlines...
Fears of weak demand and a glut in global supply continue to weigh on oil prices. The price of U.S. crude fell below the 50 dollar per barrel mark.
Search crews confirm the discovery of the tail section of AirAsia flight 85-01 in the Java Sea. If the right part of the tail section has been found, the flight recorders could be retrieved.
A former vice president of Korean Air was indicted Wednesday on charges of obstructing aviation safety law in her nut rage incident.

Title: Oil prices hit fresh lows
U.S. benchmark oil slipped to below the 50 dollar per barrel mark on Tuesday… setting another fresh low not seen in more than five years.
Analysts say the downward trend is moving things toward financial crisis in oil exporting nations for example, Russia.
Kim Min-ji ... starts us off.
Another oil shock.
Global crude prices plummeted to fresh lows on Wednesday over mounting concerns of oversupply and sluggish global growth.
Benchmark Brent crude temporarily fell below the symbolic threshold of 50 U.S. dollars per barrel for the first time in five and a half-years.
U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate also traded at less than 48 dollars a barrel.
Crude prices have slumped almost 10 percent this week alone,... and have lost more than half their value since mid-2014.
Although the price cut could help growth for some economies... a joint analysis by state-run Korean think tanks... is not ruling out the possibility of a financial crisis in countries that are heavily reliant on oil exports.
The study added financial troubles in these countries such as Russia and Venezuela... could have spillover effects on emerging economies including Korea,... especially when coupled with a U.S. rate hike down the road.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
Title: Korean finance minister dismisses concerns of deflation amid falling oil prices
Despite those concerns, Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan disagrees.
He says the drop could actually help the Korean economy... by bringing down prices of imported raw materials and eventually perking up demand.
Kim Ji-yeon reports.
Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan has dismissed concerns that falling oil prices could lead to deflation.
In fact, he says the declines could actually help boost domestic demand... as the prices of imports fall.
At an economic ministerial meeting on Wednesday, Choi said that "the decline in oil prices is fundamentally different from deflation, which occurs due to a shortage of demand rather than an oversupply."
He also cited projections from five state-run institutes which forecast that Korea would save 30 billion dollars in oil import expenses... if crude prices maintain an average of 63 dollars per barrel.
Choi′s remarks came amid concerns that deflation is spreading in the Korean economy,... currently struggling from sluggish domestic consumption and low inflation rate increases.
Some local institutions in Seoul even compared the

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