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Afghans' cathedral hunger strike endsSeven of 41 volunteer to go to hospital; police remove the rest
 Irish police patrol outside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, where the asylum-seekers were holed up Saturday. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSDUBLIN, Ireland (CNN) -- The weeklong hunger strike by 41 Afghan asylum-seekers holed up in Dublin's St. Patrick's Cathedral ended peacefully Saturday evening, a journalist at the scene said. The standoff began Sunday afternoon when the men, ranging in age from 16 to 45, refused to leave the church until they were granted asylum by the Irish government. Several were treated for dehydration earlier in the week, and all but three, who saw doctors Friday, were permitted to return to the protest. The seven youngest of the group voluntarily left in ambulances to be treated for dehydration at a nearby hospital Saturday. Irish police then went into the cathedral and removed the remaining men, according to radio reporter Fergal O'Brien. Despite previous threats of violence, the men did not resist when police escorted them from the church, O'Brien said. The men said Sunday that they feared being killed if they were forced to return to Afghanistan. They said they would rather die of starvation in Ireland, O'Brien said. It was not clear why the men thought they would be targeted in their home country. The Church of Ireland tried to negotiate with the men for five days before Ireland's Department of Justice intervened and sent in the national police. Not all the men had exhausted all legal avenues for obtaining asylum, O'Brien said, so it was not clear what sparked the hunger strike. Deportation warrants had been issued for only two of them, the reporter said. Some had arrived in Ireland recently, while others had been on the Emerald Isle for three years. At least two have already been given permission to stay in the country. The adult refugees will appear in an Irish court this weekend to determine whether they will face criminal charges, O'Brien said. At one point during the standoff, 20 of them climbed to the top of the church organ loft and tied nooses around their necks. They threatened to jump from a 60-foot balcony if police tried to remove them. 
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