World IN BRIEF : NICARAGUA : Hints of Impending Attack on Esteli Told

The army heard about rebel plans to take Esteli a week before the attack and sent 100 extra troops to guard the city, a military spokesman said. But when the rebels entered Esteli last Wednesday afternoon, soldiers at the city’s main entrance did not stop them because they arrived in buses and no arms were visible, Lt. Milton Sandoval said. “They looked like were going to a protest march,” Sandoval said. He denied media reports that the army failed to stop the rebels because it wanted a confrontation so former leftist Sandinistas who pose a threat to army power could be crushed.