Odds and ends

• Reuters: Sentences of three to five years were given to four dissidents for distributing leaflets in Havana last January. Human Rights Watch condemned the action in this statement. The Herald, citing Elizardo Sanchez, notes that this action marks a shift in the government’s tactics, away from the practice of short-term detentions.

• AP: Cuba’s health sector sheds 48,000 workers, a 14 percent cut.

• Are you Cuban-American? Wondering how to “visit the motherland without (hopefully) getting disowned by your exiled grandparents or by your Bay of Pigs-veteran old man?” That question is posed and answered by Miami New Times writer Joshua Abril in three installments articles: Crashing for the Night, Where to Eat, and Getting Around. (H/t el Yuma.)

• The Washington Post reviews the Ballet Nacional de Cuba, now at the Kennedy Center.