Odds and ends

• The Royal Ballet of London made headlines for its performances in Havana and because several of its members came down with swine flu. But I liked this piece by NBC’s Mary Murray about the Cuban symphony orchestra players who learned the score to the ballet Manon, rehearsed four times with the British conductor, opened the boarded-up orchestra pit in the Gran Teatro, squeezed 70 musicians into it, and pulled it off with flying colors.

• The EU’s foreign relations chief arrives in Havana today and wants to “deepen the political dialogue” with Cuba on “issues of common interest,” including human rights.

• “Transformations in higher education” are in store for the coming school year, Juventud Rebelde reports, including higher admissions standards and “political-ideological work.” “In the university, the profesor or student who is not revolutionary, does not fit in its classrooms,” the Minister of Higher Education says.

• El Pais reports in detail on the murders of two Spanish priests; one committed in conjunction with a robbery, the other perpetrated by the priest’s “sentimental partner.”