Odds and ends

• The Hill: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce indicates it may “score” the vote on ending Cuba travel restrictions, i.e. include it in the list of votes used to calculate the percentage of each legislator’s voting record in support of free enterprise principles.

• Granma: Damar Maceo Cruz, 47, is the new minister of light industry, replacing José Hernández Bernárdez.

• Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in Cuba, a new report from Amnesty International.

• The Herald rounds up opinion on Cuba’s church-state dialogue.

• Canada’s CTV reports on a 19-year-old from Ontario who was behind the wheel of his family’s rented car in Cuba, was involved in an accident April 29, and remains stuck in Cuba awaiting trial.

• Notimex: Hunger striker Guillermo Farinas, said by his family to be in a “critical” state, receives a visit from the local bishop.

• EFE: A Cuban-Venezuelan joint venture has broken ground on a new nickel plant in Holguin.

• The Herald’s Jordan Levin interviewed Silvio Rodriguez before his Orlando concert.

• Reuters: Cuba’s reduction in international trade is reflected in shipping data for 2009.

• The Russian state enterprise Zarubezhneft opens an office in Havana and is working on secondary recovery efforts at oil fields east of Havana. AFP Spanish here, English language report from Voice of Russia here.