Powerful Hurricane Paloma slams into Cuba

MIAMI (Reuters) - Dangerous Hurricane Paloma made landfall near Santa Cruz del Sur in southeastern Cuba on Saturday as a Category 3 storm with 125 mile-per-hour (200-kph) winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm, which had been forecast to produce a sea surge of 20 to 25 feet, was the third hurricane to batter the island this year and came almost 76 years to the day after a November 9, 1932, cyclone that killed 3,000 in the area.

(Reporting by Michael Christie; Editing by Jeff Franks and Peter Cooney)