Yemen tries to release kidnapped South Koreans

The Yemeni government says its security forces have surrounded a mountainous area where tribesmen are holding three South Koreans hostage.

The three Koreans -- a diplomat's wife, her three-year-old daughter, and a businessman -- were seized on Monday.

An Interior Ministry spokesman in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, said the troops had been deployed while negotiations took place with the Hadda tribesmen to try to secure the safe release of the hostages.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service