About 30 University of California students and researchers have been evacuated from Egypt as massive street protests destabilize the Arab nation.
University officials say 19 students and an 11-member team of archeologists from UCLA were taken to Barcelona on a charter flight out of Cairo. They are expected to return to California later this week.
The university says the students had been scheduled to start a study abroad program at the American University in Cairo this week. The archeology team was on a dig about 200 miles south of Cairo.
The U.S. State Department issued a mandatory evacuation order for non-emergency government staff Tuesday.
The U.S. Embassy says it expects to evacuate more than 1,000 Americans from Egypt over the next two days.