CNN: US, UK and European envoys rescued from Yemen embassy

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/05/22/yemen.political.deal/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

A helicopter plucked Western and Arab diplomats from the embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Yemen on Sunday after the mission was surrounded by armed supporters of Yemen's embattled president, officials from the Emirates and Yemen's government told CNN.

The gunmen were protesting efforts by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh from office in a deal with opposition leaders. Several dozen of the demonstrators carried machine guns, and many more had pistols or batons, eyewitnesses reported.

Yemeni security forces were seen near the embassy but did not try to disperse the protesters, witnesses told CNN.

U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein reported earlier that the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, as well as those of Britain and the European Union, were being prevented from leaving the embassy.