Westerners evacuated as Liberia unrest grows

FRENCH military helicopters evacuated Americans and other foreigners from the besieged capital of Liberia at dawn yesterday, ferrying them out of embassy compounds to a ship in the Atlantic.

The evacuations to the French navy ship came as Liberian soldiers reported more fighting on the western edge of the city, and explosions sounded in the distance.

Helicopters left first from the white-walled, barbed-wire-topped compound of the European Union, on a hillside overlooking the ocean, which houses European diplomatic staff Liberia.