U.S. ambassador told to leave

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry told the U.S. ambassador to leave the country and recalled its ambassador from Washington over economic sanctions the United States imposed on the former Soviet republic last year.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart had not been formally expelled.

The Foreign Ministry said its demand had been prompted by U.S. sanctions imposed against Belarus’ state-controlled oil-processing and chemicals company, Belneftekhim. The U.S. last fall froze the company’s assets and barred American companies from doing business with it.