[tex-live] Biber issue after update

[Karl Berry]

    I suspect some glitch may have found its way into the latest biber, as
    at any rate it should not search for PAR in /usr/local/

It is not biber that is searching for the PAR module, it is Perl.
Your cpan install presumably installed PAR somewhere that Perl is not
looking.

    Does anyone know for a fact that PAR is now required by biber whereas
    it wasn't before?  

I was under the impression it has always been required. But maybe it was
a variant of PAR (PAR::Packer?); I'm not sure. Best to check with the
biber author.

    I never had to install it until now.

Changes in your perl?