Cuba

U.S. lawmakers met with Cuba's foreign minister and laid flowers at a Havana memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King during a visit aimed at improving relations with the communist nation. The delegation is the first from the United States since President Obama took office in January. Congress is preparing to consider bills lifting most restrictions on U.S. travel to Cuba. A White House official confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Obama would abolish limits on family travel and cash remittances between the United States and Cuba, but the official said the move was not a policy shift or imminent.

A disoriented young man with a gun forced his way past security and barged onto a jetliner headed for Cuba, taking the crew hostage, firing a bullet that grazed the co-pilot's face and demanding to be flown off the island, witnesses and police said. After eight hours of negotiations, Jamaican soldiers stormed the plane and arrested the man without further injury, but authorities were deeply embarrassed about the security breach at the airport in Montego Bay, a major Caribbean tourist hub. The gunman was identified as Stephen Fray, a 20-year-old Jamaican who police said was "mentally challenged."

Re "Obama calls for new start with Cuba," April 18 It is interesting to note that President Obama never mentioned nor hinted at the need for the Cuban government to make reparations and indemnify U.S. citizens and corporations whose properties were summarily confiscated by the Fidel Castro regime. The same holds for those who are in favor of lifting the embargo and resuming relations with Cuba. How can there possibly be a "new start" unless this issue is resolved? I hope our president does the right thing and makes this point a priority in any future talks with Cuba.

Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the countries, a State Department official said. The communist government notified the U.S. on Saturday that it had accepted a recent administration overture to restart the immigration talks, suspended by President George W. Bush after the last meeting in 2003. Cuba also expressed a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and on hurricane disaster preparedness.

A federal judge ordered a former State Department employee and his wife held without bond, saying there appeared to be insurmountable evidence they had spied for Cuba. U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola ruled that Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, would remain in custody pending trial. Facciola said the pair might try to flee to Cuba, which would have a powerful motivation to help them: to reward their alleged 30 years of service, to encourage other Cuban agents working in the U.S., and to prevent the couple from cooperating with U.S. authorities.

A once-prominent neurosurgeon who became a political pariah after criticizing Cuba's healthcare system flew to Argentina, quickly taking advantage of the communist government's surprise decision to let her leave after years of rejecting her requests. Hilda Molina went to visit her ailing 90-year-old mother, who was allowed to leave Cuba months ago; her son and Argentine daughter-in-law; and their children. Molina said she had not decided whether to return to Cuba. Molina was a well-known physician at a government institution until 1994, when she resigned after questioning the ethics of using human stem cell tissue in studies on treating ailments such as Parkinson's disease.

Arthur Frommer says our embargo on Cuba is "farcical" ["The Wide World of Arthur Frommer," by Susan Spano, July 12]. What is really farcical is his liberal double standard. Don't go to Burma [Myanmar] or Libya, but by all means go to Cuba and China. After all, left-wing tyrants are much more preferable than right-wing ones. I wonder if Frommer's guide on Cuba points out the jails where political prisoners are rotting, or advises visitors not to speak disapprovingly of the Castro brothers because they may see their vacation cut short.