Cuba arrests 43 in crackdown

At least 43 Cuban dissidents have been arrested in areas near where Pope Benedict XVI visited last week, dissidents said Tuesday, as the United States urged their immediate release.
"We have been able to confirm that 43 opposition members have been detained -- 10 women and 33 men -- in a crackdown on Monday in the Santiago de Cuba area. All remain under arrest," said Elizardo Sanchez, head of the outlawed but tolerated Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission.
The commission on Monday reported 25 detentions but its figure on detentions near Santiago de Cuba -- Cuba's second-largest city -- has kept rising.
"Almost all of the detainees are members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba," an opposition force led by former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer. He was arrested on Monday along with his wife Belkis Cantillo, at their home in Palmarito de Cauto, near Santiago.