Yemen

The agreement, which would see the rebels withdraw from parts of the capital in exchange for concessions, could defuse a political crisis that has threatened the stability of a key U.S. ally.

Yemen has once again been plunged into chaos as rebels reportedly have taken the presidential palace. The U.S., Saudi Arabia and Iran all have an important stake in the troubled country.

The Associated Press is calling the "shelling ... a dramatic escalation in the violence that has gripped Sanaa since Monday." Some Yemeni officials are calling the rebels' move "a coup."

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's chief of staff was kidnapped from his car in the heart of the capital Sanaa. Security officials blame Houthi rebels.

Three assailants who allegedly carried out two separate attacks in and around the French capital this week were reportedly linked by religious zealotry and a 2010 prison-break plot.

When U.S. Navy SEALs raided an al-Qaida hideout in a failed bid to rescue American Luke Somers, they didn't know that South African Pierre Korkie was also being held there.

A brief statement says that a joint mission with the Yemeni military retrieved some hostages, but journalist Luke Somers was not at the target location.

The man in the video says he's a British-born American citizen, who was kidnapped in Sanaa in September. A militant on video says the U.S. has three days meet unspecified demands.

Four of them are the first Yemeni detainees to be transferred since 2010. There are still 143 men at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

President Obama says the strategy the U.S. would pursue against the Islamic State would be similar to how it targets al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen and Somalia. But both countries are deeply unstable.