US sanctions more Cuban companies and officials

The US has imposed a new round of sanctions on Cuban officials and companies, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.

Nine state-owned mining, metal and building firms, the Ministry of Construction and officials connected to a Cuban-based international institute have been named in the latest tranche of economic sanctions.

Rubio accused various figures of "ferrying a new brigade of international sympathisers to Havana to network with regime officials" to coincide with the late former leader Fidel Castro's 100th birthday.

Cuba has denounced all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, which are part of a wider pressure campaign against the Caribbean island's leadership.

Rubio said in a statement that the figures targeted by the sanctions form "part of the regime's raison d'être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment and Communist violence across the world".