Odds and ends

• The Herald writes about Senator McCain refusing a meeting with the Cuban American National Foundation that the Foundation tried to arrange alongside a fundraiser in New Orleans. Judging from the article, the action resulted in lost donations, and the McCain camp went on to attack the Foundation; it’s a “fairly irrelevant” group, according to a McCain spokeswoman.

• The number of joint ventures with foreign investors in Cuba has dropped from 258 to 234 since the end of 2005, Reuters reports, citing testimony given in Cuba’s legislature. Officials say that investment flows have increased as the number of businesses has dropped, but no figures on that were released. There are 24 joint ventures with Venezuela.

• El “nuevo huevo grande:” China’s news agency reports that a gallina guantanamera has hatched the biggest egg in the world, 171 grams. She survived.

• The historic center of the city of Camaguey, founded 1528, has been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO.

• The U.S. Interests Section hosted a videoconference on Monday between Willy Chirino and fans; they talked music and politics. El Nuevo Herald report here, Sun-Sentinel report here.

• Al-Jazeera’s English service did a long piece on the politics of Miami in the presidential election (YouTube here). The anchor seemed frustrated that he couldn’t just make a speech into the camera to link the plight of the Palestinians to the Cuba debate. So he took it out on his interviewees, Joe Garcia and Ramon Saul Sanchez, both very patient guys.