Odds and ends

• Sources tell Reuters that an offshore oil drilling platform has been found and will soon be on its way to Cuba. Drilling could therefore be only months away. This platform follows the exploratory drilling by Spain’s Repsol in 2004, with apparently promising results.

• The Herald: the State Department “is looking to confirm dates” for migration talks. In Cuba, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon gives an interview to AP and says that Cuba wants to talk about more than migration.

• More on the Wednesday TV Marti hearing: links to witnesses’ statements are here.

• Journalist Kirk Nielsen, veteran of past Cuba spy trials, looks ahead to that of the Myers.

• The State Department’s annual report on human trafficking, another of the reports where Congress requires the Executive to pass judgment on the rest of the world, has been issued. Judge the section on Cuba for yourself. It says that Cuba views “U.S. attempts to engage officials on trafficking issues as politically motivated.”

• The New York Times profiles Gwendolyn and Kendall Myers.