A Myanmar pilot safely landed a jet without front wheels after the landing gear failed to deploy. The Myanmar National Airlines plane skidded down the runway at Mandalay airport before grinding to a stop. The pilot of the Embraer 190 was praised for the landing, in which none of the 89 passengers was hurt.

Captain Myat Moe Aung circled the airport twice to allow air traffic controllers to determine if the landing gear was down, the airline said. The aircraft had departed from Yangon and was approaching Mandalay when the pilot was unable to extend the front landing gear. He followed emergency procedures and burned excess fuel to reduce the aircraft’s weight, the airline said.

A video of the landing showed the plane landing on its rear wheels before the nose touched down on the runway. The plane skidded for about 25 seconds before it stopped. “The pilot did a great job,” Win Khant, Myanmar’s transport minister, told the Reuters news agency.(BBC)…[+]

HAVANA– Cuban gay rights activists held an unauthorized independent pride parade in Havana yesterday despite the Communist government warning against it and calling it subversive, an unprecedented show of civil society in the one-party state.

More than a hundred Cubans chanting “long live a diverse Cuba” and carrying rainbow flags joyfully marched nearly one kilometer (0.6 mile) from Havana’s Central Park down to the seafront boulevard before being stopped by dozens of security officials. At least three activists were arrested by plainclothes policemen while others were ordered to disperse given the activity did not have an official permit.

“This moment marks a before and an after for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community but also for Cuban civil society more generally,” said independent journalist and LGBT activist Maykel Gonzalez Vivero. “Social media is playing its role and civil society demonstrated it has strength, and can go out onto the streets if necessary, and from now on the government will have to take that into account.”(Reuters)…[+]

Amid mounting public condemnation for abuse of power and human-rights breaches and a multiagency investigation, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has denied a reggae singer’s allegations that the police trimmed his Rastafarian children and fed them meat.

But the brouhaha appears to have been the result of a simmering family spat that boiled over at the Gordon Town Police Station more than a week ago. The JCF said that its officers were not responsible for trimming the stepsons of reggae artiste JahDore, given name Sean McDonald, nor did they cause the acts to happen.

The force’s communications arm said that the boys were taken to the police station in the company of relatives and were taken to the barber and for lunch by an aunt, who had reportedly accompanied the mother. The initial report about concerns for the children’s welfare appears to have triggered the police’s action. Melesha Welsh, a woman claiming to be the aunt of the two boys, commented on The Gleaner’s Instagram post, contradicting McDonald’s claim.(Jamaica Gleaner)…[+]