Cuba

A Vision Airlines charter flight bound for Cuba from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport was temporarily diverted to BWI Sunday after reports of the smell of smoke in the cabin. The plane, a Boeing 767, "landed safely about 5:20 p.m.," said Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. A mechanic checked out the plane, and cleared it to proceed, he said. It departed about 8:40 p.m. Vision Airlines spokesman Bryan Glazer said in a statement that there were 154 passengers on board flight RBY-6401, which left New York at 4 p.m. The flight was scheduled to land at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, shortly after 10 p.m., according to an Internet flight tracker.

It sounds like a good idea - President Barack Obama's recent decision to make a maximum security prison in northwestern Illinois the new home for a "limited number" of detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay. Using the Thomson Correctional Center could hasten the critical day when the president closes Guant?namo. But the devil is in the details.

T en years after the Orioles made their controversial goodwill trip to Cuba, club owner Peter Angelos apparently would like to take another shot at improving relations between the United States and the isolated island nation with a new round of baseball diplomacy. I wouldn't count him out. Angelos told the Associated Press that he would like to return to Havana with the Orioles this spring, and the climate for such a trip might be better right now than it has been at any time since the Clinton administration gave tacit approval for the first home-and-home goodwill series.

Cuba de Ayer is the wonderful creation of Jessica Rodriguez, who thought so highly of her mother-in-law's home-style Cuban cooking that she decided to open a restaurant. Her mother-in-law, Mayra Lopez, from Camaguey in Cuba, was, I assume, first flattered and later surprised when this actually happened. Cuba de Ayer graciously serves moderately priced, wholesome, and very tasty food in cheerfully attractive and well-managed surroundings. It's the kind of suburban restaurant that is packed with merry regulars on a Sunday night, the kind of place that people discover by word of mouth and stay loyal to for years.

Progress toward a thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations gained unexpected momentum Friday as leaders of the two countries signaled a willingness to open potentially historic talks on issues that have bitterly divided them since the days of the Cold War. President Barack Obama called for a "new beginning" with the island nation, capping a surge of gestures fed by Cuban President Raul Castro's declaration Thursday that his country "could be wrong" about its approach...

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama is permitting unlimited travel and transfer of money by Cuban-Americans to their relatives in Cuba and sponsoring greater telecommunications with the island, while keeping a long-standing U.S. embargo against trade with Cuba in place. The State, Treasury and Commerce departments will lift "all restrictions" on the visits of family members to Cuba and remittances of money, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. This "series of steps ... to reach out to the Cuban people" is intended to "help bridge the gap between divided Cuban families," Gibbs said, and in turn promote greater freedom and human rights in the communist nation.

WASHINGTON - Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson are a formidable pair. One is an Academy Award winner, while the other is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. And so, it is with some trepidation that you begin an interview with them at a fancy restaurant asking if they could scooch together a little more on a couch and try to lean forward and speak directly into an old Radio Shack microcassette recorder on a table in front of them.

ARTS Cuba's art movement The contemporary art movement in Cuba will be the subject of a discussion and talk featuring curator Ana Joa and photographer Vince Gragg from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at Galerie Myrtis, 2224 N. Charles St. The talk is held in connection with the current show at the gallery, Cuba: The Island and Its People, which runs through Jan. 11. Go to galeriemyrtis.com. FILM 'One Foot In the Grave' Boasting influences that range from the classic Hammer horror films featuring Christopher Lee to a pompous writing instructor, director Chris LaMartina, homegrown Baltimore horror specialist, has scheduled the debut of One Foot In the Grave tomorrow night at the Creative Alliance.