Phones cut in embassy siege

SAN JOSE (Reuter) - Kidnappers holding some 25 hostages in Nicaragua's embassy in the Costa Rican capital threatened yesterday to start using strong- arm tactics against them after telephone links were cut.

Archbishop Manuel Obando y Bravo, from Nicaragua, acting as mediator in the crisis that began on Monday, said the three heavily armed men were enraged after the line to the embassy was cut. The kidnappers' leader 'told me he was going to bind and gag the hostages unless they re-establish the lines', said Archbishop Obando.