Wynton Marsalis pulled a young Cuban trumpeter aside as he left the Mella Theater here on Wednesday after a Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra concert. The band was here for a residency that ended over the weekend, and Mr. Marsalis had seen 17-year-old Kalí Rodríguez play a few nights earlier at an official reception for the American musicians.

One day after I posted Fidel Castro's condemnation of anti-Semitism on this blog, the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, announced that he too, felt great "love and respect" for Jews, and he invited the leaders of his country's put-upon Jewish community to meet with him. The meeting took place a short while later.

President Barack Obama has proposed Carlos García-Pérez, a Cuban-American lawyer in Puerto Rico, to head the Radio/TV Martí stations that broadcast to Cuba, sources said Tuesday.

For now, Washington is focusing on "people-to-people" exchanges under which academics, corporations, humanitarian groups and athletic teams could travel to Cuba as a way to promote cultural exchanges and programs with universities.

These “missionaries of the revolution” are well-received in host countries from Algeria to South Africa to Venezuela. Yet those who hail Cuba’s generosity overlook the uglier aspects of Cuba’s health diplomacy.

The Obama administration is planning to expand opportunities for Americans to travel to Cuba, the latest step aimed at encouraging more contact between people in both countries, while leaving intact the decades-old embargo against the island’s Communist government, according to Congressional and administration officials.

American Ballet Theater announced Thursday that it will travel to Cuba to dance in the International Ballet Festival of Havana in November. The company last visited Cuba in 1960, at which time ABT was celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Cuba has signalled that it will free all its political prisoners and let them stay on the island in a bold attempt to repair Havana's ties with the international community.