BBC news with Sue Montgomery
The leader of Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen says the country is at a critical and defining moment.He was speaking hours after his followers seized control of the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa. Here is Sebastian Usher.
The Houthi challenged to the legitimacy of president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has intensified to a new level with the attack on Mr. Hadi's own home and the capture of the palace.It leaves the president further weekened but the Houthi are still adamant that they're not interested in a coup.In a live televised address, their leader Abdel Malek al-Houthi has heavily criticized the president and those around him, saying they failed to implement political deals that should had ushered in a new era in Yemen, but the Houtis themselves have failed to abide by a key element of those deals to pull out of Sanaa. The fighting of the past two days has only seen they reinforced their control of the capital.
Two Yemeni nationals have been charged in the US with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing material to help al-Qaeda.They were arrested in Saudi Arabia and extradited to New York with they now face trial.They were accused of planning attacks against US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
A shop assistant from Mali who hide customers at a Jewish supermarket in Paris during an attack by Islamist gunmen has been given french nationality. James Reynolds reports from Paris.
Welcome to France, the country's prime minister Manuel Valls told Lassana Bathily.The audience at the Interior Ministry cheered. The 24-year-old supermarket worker in a dark suits and blue shirt smiled and accepted his citizenship papers.During the speeches made in his honor,he clustered his hands in front of him and stared at the grounds in an apparent *.He stressed that he was not a hero.Mr. Bathily ended by saying that his immediate priority was to go back home to Mali to reunite with his family and to rest.
President Obama is expected to call for higher taxes on the wealthy in the state of the union address in Washington in a few hours' time.The Republicans-controlled Congress can reject any of Mr.Obama's initiatives.Here's Jon Sopel.
On the Youtube, the president asks how do we make sure everyone benefits from the growing US economy. Answer:the president is going to push for major tax reform to help the less well-off.He unveiled a 320 billion dollar tax raising plan to be phased over ten years. It will close inheritance tax loophole and raise capital gains tax on the one percent of wealthiest Americans.The big financial institutions will also take a hit.The money will then go in tax credits to the least well-off and expend free community college education.
The Ukrainian government says its forces are under heavy attack from Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk region of East Ukraine. An army spokesman said the troops were engaged in a fierce battle with regular Russian army units at two checkpoints near the town of Slovyanoserbsk.The BBC Ukraine correspondence says if true, this will represent a significant worsening of the conflict.
The International Criminal Court has said that an Uganda rebel leader wanted on war crimes charges Dominic Ongwen is in its custody.A key figure in the rebel lord's resistance army, he surrendered to American special forces in the Central African Republic earlier this month, saying he did not want to die in the bush. From the Hague, here is Anna Holligan.
This is an uncomfortable case for the ICC. The court is fiercely outspoken on the use of child soldiers and yet Dominic Ongwen was himself kidnapped in groomed by Joseph Kony's victorious rebel army when he was just ten years old.After his abduction in 1990,Mr. Ongwen rose rapidly within the ranks. He faces charges of crimes against humanity.Leaving only two of the commanders on the ICC's wanted list, Joseph Kony and Okot Odhiambo still at large.
A Turkish court has ordered the closure of a mysterious twitter account that accurately predicted the arrest today of 24 people accused of illegally listening in to communications between president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and senior officials.The account had accurately predicted previous arrests relating to the same case.
Mali and Cameroon have drawn 1:1 in the latest match of the Africa cup of nations football tournament.It is the fifth 1:1 draw in the first eight games of the competition on the second of the day.Earlier, Guinea drew with one of the favorites ivory coast.