Cuban dissidents vowed to press ahead with their fight for more political and civil rights yesterday despite the death of prominent activist Oswaldo Paya in a car crash.

The pope left Spanish-speaking Latin America’s most Roman Catholic country today on his way to its least.

The Vatican's foreign minister arrived in Cuba to discuss the island's economic plight, and rights activists hope his visit may get more political prisoners freed or at least moved to jails closer to home.

Police broke up a weekly march by wives and mothers of imprisoned Cuban opposition leaders, forcing them onto a bus and driving them home as a pro-government crowd screamed insults.