The United States on Thursday denied it used its overseas aid agency to mount a covert operation on social media to incite unrest against Cuba's communist leaders.

But the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) did say it had created a Twitter-style application on which Cubans, subject to strict curbs on expression, were able to "talk freely among themselves" consistent with universal rights and freedoms.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez shared their amazement and joy upon the triumphal return to power of the late Venezuelan leader after a brief coup in 2002, an exchange vividly captured in a transcript released Friday.

"You have to make a movie about it," a delighted Castro told Chavez in a lengthy telephone conversation shortly after the Venezuelan president was welcomed back to presidential palace in Caracas by cheering masses.

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica reaffirmed Monday his government's decision to take in five detainees from Guantanamo, saying it was not conditioned on the U.S. release of imprisoned Cuban spies.

Mujica had said he would be asking Washington to help obtain the release of the three Cubans, but clarified his position in a radio interview.

Uruguay's President Jose Mujica said Friday he has asked Washington to release Cuban prisoners held in the United States in return for taking in Guantanamo detainees, stressing negotiations were still underway.

The leftist president told reporters that a Palestinian and four Syrians were among the one-time terror suspects he had agreed to host in his country.

A Yemeni national who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo for 12 years on Thursday tried to convince a U.S. review panel he no longer poses a threat and should be sent home.

With a thick beard and gray prison garb, 34-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed al-Rahizi was presented to the panel reviewing his case as "possibly having served as a guard" for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

A Cuban spy who spent more than 15 years in prison in the United States returned home Friday to a hero's welcome, Cuban state television proclaimed in a triumphant broadcast.

Fernando Gonzalez was released Thursday from a maximum-security prison in Arizona and then deported to Cuba.

Weeks of protests in ally Venezuela are reviving the concerns of many Cubans dependent on the largesse of the socialist Caracas government while buoying the opposition on the communist island.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing his biggest test since succeeding the late Hugo Chavez last year in a narrowly won election, with near-daily demonstrations against his administration leaving 17 people dead since early February.

Pungent smoke filled the room, obscuring the lights and leaving clothing and skin reeking. There was applause, shouts and laughter, and above all plenty of H. Upmann Sir Winstons — formidable 7-inch (17.8-centimeter) Cuban cigars.

More than 450 stogie aficionados took part in an unusual contest Thursday at Havana's annual marquee Cigar Festival: competing to see who could create the longest unbroken ash.

The former Cuban rebel commander Huber Matos, once one of Fidel Castro's closest comrades before eventually going against the communist leadership, died in Miami on Thursday. He was 95.

Matos, who was hospitalized Tuesday after a heart attack, asked doctors to turn off his breathing apparatus a day later, according to a statement issued by Independent and Democratic Cuba, the political party he led in exile.

One of the so-called "Cuban Five" -- intelligence agents convicted in a U.S. spy case that made them heroes in Havana -- was released from an Arizona prison Thursday and will be deported, officials said.

Fernando Gonzalez, the second member of the group to be released, walked out of a federal penitentiary in Safford, Arizona after serving more than 15 years of a 17 year and nine months sentence, prison spokesman Chris Burke told Agence France Presse.