News In Brief
| Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Nicaraguan ambassador to Honduras is expelled
Honduras declared Nicaraguan Ambassador Edwin Zablah persona non grata Friday and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours in response to the Sandinistas' shooting of a Honduran helicopter.
Honduran Foreign Minister Edgardo Paz Barnica, who recalled the Honduran ambassador to Managua on Wednesday, did not say if his country had broken off diplomatic relations with Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista regime.
On Tuesday, Nicaraguan forces shot down a Honduran Air Force helicopter near the Gulf of Fonseca, killing all eight persons aboard. Nicaragua charged that the helicopter was on a spy mission when it was shot down. Honduras said the craft had accidentally strayed over Nicaraguan territory in bad weather.
