Britain has shut its embassy in Yemen and advised any citizens to leave immediately after the country was taken over by Shia rebels
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said diplomatic staff were being withdrawn from the capital Sana'a because they were judged to be at "increased risk".
The US also said it had closed its embassy and evacuated staff.
Last week Houthi militiamen announced on TV that they had dissolved Yemen's parliament and were forming a five-member presidential council to replace Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi for an interim two-year period.
Security guards outside Yemen's parliament, which has been dissolved
Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said: "The security situation in Yemen has continued to deteriorate over recent days.
"Regrettably we now judge that our embassy staff and premises are at increased risk.
Video:19 Jan: Yemen In Turmoil
"We have therefore decided to withdraw diplomatic staff and temporarily suspend the operations of the British embassy in Sana'a.
"Our ambassador and diplomatic staff have left Yemen this morning and will return to the UK.
"British nationals who remain in Yemen despite our longstanding and consistent message to leave the country should leave immediately.
"We continue to believe that a stable, united, democratic and prosperous Yemen is the best future for the country.
"We will continue to work internationally to help Yemen achieve a legitimate, transparent political transition in which all Yemenis are represented."
Video:Al Qaeda Praises Paris Gunmen
The crisis in the country escalated last month when the rebels kidnapped the president's chief of staff and stormed his palace - prompting Mr Hadi's resignation.
He and a number of his ministers have been under house arrest, while UN-organised talks between the country's political factions broke down this week amid claims of threats from the rebels.
US officials said the closure of their embassy would not affect counter-terrorism operations against al Qaeda's Yemen branch.
The terror group, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris and one of the attackers, Said Kouachi, is believed to have trained in Yemen camps.
A Belgian court has convicted the leader of an Islamist group and many of his followers for sending jihadists to Syria.
Fouad Belkacem, the chief of the now disbanded Sharia4Belgium group, was led into the court in handcuffs and smiled as he was jailed for 12 years.
Only eight of the 46 accused appeared in Antwerp's tightly secured courtroom during the five-month trial, with the remainder believed to be in Syria or to have died fighting.
Jejoen Bontinck and his father Dimitri (Photo: allainjules.com)
Judge Luc Potargent said: "Belkacem is responsible for the radicalisation of young men to prepare them for Salafist combat, which has at its core no place for democratic values.
"Sharia4Belgium recruited these young men for armed combat and organised their departure for Syria."
Video:Reaction To Belgium Terror Verdicts
Belgium has more jihadist fighters per head of population than any other European country, with authorities estimating 350 Belgians have left for Syria, and the sentence comes with the country on high alert after a plot to kill police was uncovered last month.
Belkacem, 32, a Moroccan-born car engineer, is already serving a two-year sentence for inciting hatred against non-Muslims.
He is known for his street sermons and was a leading figure in persuading young Belgians to fight in Syria, despite never having been there himself.
Video:Major Terror Trial In Belgium
The aim of his group of radicals was to establish Sharia law in Belgium, an intention he expressed in a series of YouTube videos.
Public prosecutor Ann Fransen told reporters: "Belkacem's words can only be interpreted as a call to violence and jihad."
One of the young men Belkacem was accused of radicalising is 20-year-old Jejoen Bontinck, who was charged with belonging to Sharia4Belgium.
Video:How I Found My Son
Bontinck later became a key prosecution witness and was given a 40-month suspended sentence.
The teenager claimed he had travelled to Syria to help victims of the conflict, but his father, Dimitri, who brought him home, said he knew his son was being indoctrinated.
The other members of the group were sentenced to between three and five years in prison, with some of the sentences being suspended.
The captain of the stricken Costa Concordia has told his trial "a part of me died" on the night of the disaster - as judges retire to consider their verdicts.
Francesco Schettino wept in court as he addressed three judges who could decide his fate at 6pm this evening (7pm local time).
He claimed the blame for the disaster that killed 32 people lay with his employer Costa Cruises and said the media had portrayed him unfairly.
He said: "In this court a lot of words have been said to destroy my dignity. I have spent the last three years in a media meat grinder.
Schettino arrived at court in Grosseto just after 10am local time
"It is difficult to call what I have been living through a life.
"All the responsibility has been loaded on to me with no respect for the truth or for the memory of the victims.
Video:Time Lapse: Concordia Under Tow
"I want to say that on 16 January a part of me died."
He was unable to finish his statement, breaking into loud sobs before declaring "basta" (enough) and slumping back into his seat.
Schettino is charged with manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and leaving the liner ahead of some of the passengers when it hit rocks and capsized off the island of Giglio in 2012.
The trial has heard there is a "tsunami" of evidence against the cruise ship's former commander, as prosecutors called for him to be sent to prison for 26 years.
Ian Donoff and his wife were among the 37 British passengers and crew on board during the chaotic and delayed night time evacuation.
Mr Donoff told Sky News: "We said our prayers together and we said it was so unfair that we were married only 11 days and this would be happening to us.
Video:Chilling Video Of Sunken Liner
"Everything passes through your mind and I said 'I don't think we're going to get out of here'."
Lawyers spent Wednesday morning summing up the case in court in Grosseto, Tuscany, where the trial began in July 2013.
Lead defence lawyer Domenico Pepe said his client was "the victim of a legal and media circus", who had suffered a lot of pain since the disaster.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Stefano Pizza called the captain's conduct "reprehensible" and said: "It was a Titanic affair that merits adequate punishment."
He said: "There is a tsunami of evidence against Francesco Schettino but he has admitted to nothing.
"It would be easier for a lawyer to fly than to defend Schettino."
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Gallery: Italian Cruise Ship Runs Aground Off West Coast Of Italy
Rescuers on inflatable boats are seen next to the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off the west coast of Italy
The cruise ship suffered a lengthy underwater gash after hitting a submerged rock and foundered just yards from shore on the island of Giglio
Taiwan's TransAsia Airways will pay nearly half a million US dollars in compensation to relatives of each victim following a plane crash earlier this month.
The offer of $14.9m Taiwanese New Dollars (£307,000) for each family comes seven months after the airline made a similar payout to the families of 48 passengers killed in another crash last July.
TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 crashed last Wednesday just minutes after taking off from Taipei's Songshan airport.
There were 53 passengers and five crew on board and at least 42 of these were killed.
Dramatic footage captured by a bystander showed the plane hitting a road and cart-wheeling into the Keelung River.
Video:Plane Crash Recording Released
The compensation deal comes after private discussions held in Taipei between the airline and representatives of some of the families affected.
A spokesman for the airline said the amount was offered as compensation for each person who died in the accident, adding: "We hope to reach a settlement with the families.
"We can fully understand that it would be hard for the families to accept it immediately. Still we hope the representatives could take the proposal back and take it into consideration."
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Gallery: Survivors Of TransAsia Plane Crash
Rescuers are working to help survivors. Click through for more photos
It may seem strange but a precursor to a ceasefire is often a spike in the actual fighting on the battlefield and that is exactly what is happening in eastern Ukraine.
Both the government and rebel forces are engaged in what are effectively land grabs as the expectation of some type of deal being reached in Minsk draws nearer.
There may of course be no deal or not one that lasts too long, so it sort of makes sense for the protagonists to go at each other "hammer and tongs" as the countdown begins.
If you are sheltering in a Soviet-era block of flats while grad rockets land in your neighbourhood it might not feel like it makes any sense at all.
There has been a ceasefire deal of course. It was agreed in September last year and brought around a period of some stability rather than an actual end to the fighting. Both sides took the opportunity to strengthen their positions though and as the year began the hostilities grew more intense and finally flared into the current state of war once again.
Who wants what in a divide up of part of Ukraine's east
The key question is whether the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany and, of course, Russia can come up with a renewed plan acceptable to everyone.
In essence, the formula for the peace deal would be an immediate ceasefire; after that its starts getting more tricky.
Video:Mortar Attack On Bus Station
A wide demilitarised zone on both sides of the front line and monitored by international observers is being proposed with a similar observer corp on the proper Ukrainian/Russian border.
Heavy weapons would be withdrawn by both sides and prisoners exchanged in the ensuing peace.
Ukraine would maintain its territorial integrity but the Kiev government would give greater autonomy to the local governments of Donetsk and Luhansk.
All of the above agreements would be acceptable to all sides as well as the countries watching in. The problem is that the details aren't just sticking points - they could be game changers.
Video:Ukraine's Conflict
To begin with, exactly where is the demilitarised zone and the "border" with western Ukraine? Since the September treaty, the rebels have taken more ground and want to keep it. Ukraine wants it back.
What constitutes heavy weapons and will some of the rebels' suspiciously new bits of kit return across the border to Russia from whence it came?
What about those rebels who everyone acknowledges are Russian? Sent by the Kremlin or not, Ukraine says they have to go home.
What will be the status of the newly empowered rebel-held regions? Ukraine wants to remain the government of the whole country. The rebels and Russia, to all intents and purposes, want these areas to be autonomous although remaining within Ukraine to act as a veto for any future attempts by Kiev to strengthen its ties to Europe.
Video:UGC Captures Attack On Kramatorsk
What happens to Crimea is probably way too toxic for these talks and will probably be set aside and put in the "just don't go there" bin for now.
So if all these issues have been addressed and everyone sticks to their side of the bargain a permanent peace is imminent.
However, I wouldn't bet on it.
Both sides have said they will strengthen their positions and prepare for a greater escalation in the war if no deal is reached. Regardless, one must expect them to strengthen their positions and prepare for war anyway; it just might be further back than the current front lines.
Video:Obama Warns Putin On Ukraine
What the local population can hope for is a ceasefire and a return to a sort of peace. Most agree that they want the fighting to stop and it all to go away. While many support the Kiev side, many also distrust Kiev, won't forgive attacks by government troops on their towns and are fearful of revenge by the substantial right-wing militias that make up Ukraine's "Civil Defence" forces.
A year on, Ukraine remains bitterly divided and riven with complex ideological, social and geographical problems.
A Minsk deal won't solve these problems but it might halt the killing; for a while.
More than 300 migrants are feared drowned after their overcrowded dinghies sank in the Mediterranean on the way to Europe.
The victims are among migrants mainly from sub-Saharan Africa who had left Libya at the weekend in four small boats, the UN refugee agency said.
"This is a tragedy on an enormous scale and a stark reminder that more lives could be lost if those seeking safety are left at the mercy of the sea," UNHCR Europe director Vincent Cochetel said.
Hearses transport the remains of migrants who died on the journey
Details emerged after nine survivors out of a group of more than 200 packed into two dinghies were rescued by the Italian coastguard and taken to the island of Lampedusa.
"Nine were saved after four days at sea. The other 203 were swallowed by the waves," a UNHCR spokeswoman reported on Twitter.
Video:February - Italian Navy Rescue
The agency later said information gathered from the Italian coastguard and the survivors in Lampedusa suggested over 300 people were missing.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said the surviving migrants from the latest disaster spoke French, so probably came from west Africa.
"Because of the bad weather conditions, the two dinghies collapsed and the people fell at sea. Many drowned," said the IOM spokesman in Italy Flavio Di Giacomo.
Video:January - Stranded Migrants Rescued
Its spokesman in Geneva Joel Millman told AFP that information was coming in about another stricken boat and warned that the overall toll may reach as many as 350.
The tragedy is the latest in a whole series involving migrants trying to get to Europe from north Africa.
In the last year alone, several thousand people died on what the UN described as the most dangerous route in the world.
There has been a dramatic increase in violence in eastern Ukraine as talks aimed at resolving the 10-month conflict are due to begin in Belarus.
Nineteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 78 wounded in rebel attacks near the key railway town of Debaltseve, a military spokesman said.
In rebel-held Donetsk five people including a bus driver were reportedly killed and nine wounded in mortar attacks on a bus station and a metal plant.
French President Francois Hollande arrives in Minsk for the summit
The attacks have come despite pleas for the warring factions to refrain from hostilities that could derail peace moves.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has revealed he made an impromptu visit to the war-torn region early on Wednesday.
Video:Ukraine Leader Blasts Rocket Attack
He stopped in the city of Kramatorsk, some 50km (30m) from the front line, where Kiev says 16 people were killed and 48 wounded in a rocket strike on Tuesday.
"We demand an unconditional peace," Mr Poroshenko said in a statement. "We demand a ceasefire, a withdrawal of all foreign troops, and closing of the border... We will find a compromise within the country."
The summit in the Belarus capital Minsk follows last week's discussions between Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko, led by Germany and France.
It will be attended by Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko along with French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who have now arrived for the talks.
Video:Ukraine's Conflict
They are expected to focus on withdrawing heavy weapons, creating a demilitarised zone in eastern Ukraine and starting a dialogue between Kiev and the rebels.
Hopes of striking a deal have been put at 70% by a Russian diplomatic source, while a spokesman for Mrs Merkel said they offered "a glimmer of hope, nothing more".
EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini has urged Moscow to become a "responsible actor" and help end the fighting in Ukraine, which has cost more than 5,300 lives since April.
She said the summit would be a "turning point for good or for bad", and if no agreement was reached the consequences would be "at the least worrying".
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Gallery: Ukraine Crisis: Fighting Increases
Local residents look at the remains of a rocket shell on a street in the town of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine
Seven civilians have been killed and 26 wounded in rocket strikes on the town of Kramatorsk
A man has been arrested following the fatal shootings of three university students in North Carolina.
Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder after the killings in Chapel Hill on Tuesday afternoon.
The victims, all members of the same family, were Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19, of Raleigh.
Chapel Hill Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday morning the incident may have stemmed from an argument over parking.
Hicks reportedly turned himself in
Police Lt Joshua Mecimore said: "Our preliminary investigation indicates that the crime was motivated by an ongoing neighbour dispute over parking.
"Hicks is co-operating with investigators."
But the Muslim faith of the victims stirred alarm among the US Islamic community.
On a Facebook page that appears to be Hicks', he described himself as an atheist and made posts condemning religion.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged police to address "speculation of a possible bias motive" in the case.
Spokesman Nihad Awad cited "the past anti-religion statements of the alleged perpetrator, the religious attire of two of the victims, and the rising anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society".
Although police have not described it as a hate crime, the hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter began trending nationally early on Wednesday.
Mr Barakat was a dental student at the University of North Carolina and volunteered with a charity providing emergency dental care to children in Palestine.
His wife listed herself on Facebook as a student at North Carolina State University, where her sister was also enrolled.
Hicks, who reportedly turned himself in after the shooting, was expected to appear in court on Wednesday morning.
