President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday Russia plans to reopen a Cold War listening post in Cuba as new U.S. sanctions over Ukraine ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Moscow.

Russian broadsheet Kommersant, citing several official sources, reported on Wednesday that Moscow and Havana had agreed in principle to reopen the Lourdes spy base during Putin's visit to the Communist-run island last week.

A U.S. Navy nurse has refused to take part in force-feeding Guantanamo inmates on hunger strike, the first time a medical officer has openly objected to the practice, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

The male nurse, whose name has not been disclosed, was part of a medical team at the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that feeds detainees by inserting a tube up their nose, down the throat and into the stomach.

Russia has provisionally agreed to reopen a major Cold War listening post on Cuba that was used to spy on the United States, a Russian daily reported Wednesday after President Vladimir Putin visited the island last week.

Kommersant reported that Russia and Cuba had agreed "in principle" to reopen the Lourdes base, mothballed since 2001, citing several sources within Russian authorities.

The United States on Monday blasted Cuba's recent mass arrest of dissidents as an "intimidation tactic" to silence critics, and called for the end to such detentions.

Cuban authorities broke up a Sunday march by the Ladies in White, arresting about 100 of the opposition activists as they marked the 20th anniversary of the sinking of a tugboat in which 37 people drowned while seeking to flee the communist-ruled island.

President Vladimir Putin visited Russia's Cold War ally Cuba on Friday, launching a tour that will see him cozy up to Latin America amid newly frayed relations with the West.

Putin's six-day trip will also take him to Argentina and Brazil, where he will take part in a summit of the BRICS group of emerging countries -- an agenda that neatly aligns with his push for a multi-polar world at a time when the Ukraine crisis has brought Moscow-Washington relations to a post-Cold War low.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he hopes to increase Russian investments in and trade with Latin America.

During a tour in Cuba that will also take him to Argentina and Brazil, the Russian leader said he was focusing on enhancing technological cooperation and investment, especially in the sectors of energy, nuclear power and machinery.

A group of 33 Cubans refugees were rescued in Honduras, after a two-week voyage on a rickety raft, local media reported on Wednesday.

The migrants arrived Tuesday in the Baja Mar region of Cortes state, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of the capital city Tegucigalpa.

Much of Google remains off limits to Internet users in Cuba, despite a recent visit here by top executives from the popular site, state-run media complained on Wednesday.

Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt paid a two-day visit to the Americas' only communist-run country last week along with three other officials from the company, which has been accused by Havana of "scandalously" blocking some of its services.

Cuba is cracking down again on dissidents, according to opposition leaders, who said Monday that the numbers held in prison rose from 87 in late November to a current figure of 102.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation said another 12 dissidents are currently free, but on conditional release.

The United States called on Cuba on Wednesday to allow an imprisoned American contractor to travel home to attend his mother's funeral as a humanitarian gesture.

Alan Gross, 65, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Cuba in 2011 after being convicted of "acts against the independence or territorial integrity of the state" for allegedly distributing communications equipment as a contractor for the U.S. aid agency USAID.