Foreign travel briefing: Cuba, Israel, China and more

1.Cuba has loosened restrictions on travel abroad. Cubans no longer need a letter of invitation from someone in the host country or an exit visa.

2.An amethystine python lodged itself next to an exterior engine on a Qantas Airways flight from Cairns, Australia, to Papua New Guinea. The constrictor did not survive the trip.

3.A State Department warning on Israel, issued last month, urges travelers to avoid the Gaza Strip and exercise caution in the West Bank and at religious sites in Jerusalem.

4.Children born under China’s “one child” practice grow up less trusting, competitive and conscientious, according to a study by Monash University in Australia.

5.Protesters gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in London to demonstrate against the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They called for the release of Shaker Aamer, a British resident who has been at Guantanamo since 2002.

6.Bolivia has rejoined a United Nations convention on narcotic drugs now that the U.N. has recognized the practice of chewing coca leaves as legal within Bolivia.

Sources: Associated Press and U.S. State Department