Odds and ends

• Granma takes note of a Washington conference calling for an end to U.S. restrictions on academic travel and exchange with Cuba.

• A resolution (pdf) under consideration in the European Parliament regarding the death of Orlando Zapata. (H/t Penultimos Dias.)

• Cuba’s civil aviation chief, General Rogelio Acevedo, 69, was relieved of his job and “will be assigned other tasks” according to a note in Granma. Acevedo was a combatant in the revolution. Here’s coverage in La Jornada and The New York Times.

• Cuban Colada: President Reagan’s agriculture secretary, John Block, speaks out in favor of unrestricted travel to Cuba as “an expression of the conservative values that brought me to Washington.”

• Politico reports on efforts to press for the release of USAID contractor Alan Gross.