Odds and ends

• Wilfredo Cancio, formerly of the Herald, reports via Twitter that prisoner Antonio Villareal was transferred to a clinic in Villa Clara as a “first step toward releasing him.” (H/t Penultimos Dias)

• Madrid’s ABC reports that Cuban state security has visited families of political prisoners jailed in 2003 with the offer of better treatment or release if the Damas de Blanco cease to receive support from the “so-called Damas de Apoyo,” women who join them in their marches. Laura Pollan of the Damas de Blanco says that all have rejected the offer.

• NPR’s Scott Simon interviews Juan Igacio Hernandez Nodar, who spent 13 years in Cuban jail for charges related to his efforts to help Cuban baseball players to defect. The Herald wrote about his release last November.

• Al-Jazeera has a three-minute video report in English on the barbers and beauty shops in Cuba.

• In El Mundo, Rui Ferreira looks at last weekend’s Cuba Nostalgia event in Miami. With photo essay.

• Las Tunas, last Saturday, just before 7:00 a.m., at the home of Virginia Garcia: visiting brother-in-law wakes up, discovers huge snake curled up in the bathroom. Husband gets mop, delivers two blows. The late snake was a majá, a boa variety endemic to Cuba, 2.4 meters long. Juventud Rebelde has a photo and a story where the reporter asks if it was really necessary to kill it. Easy for him to say!