Thousands are on the move as a powerful Cyclone stalks India’s east coast – Another immigrant ship disaster kills dozens in the Mediterranean – And the Nobel Prize Committee its lumps for this year’s less than inspiring Peace Prize.

More than 200,000 people are being evacuated in advance of Cyclone Phailin’s arrival on India’s east coast.  Forecasters believe the storm will bring winds up to 220 kilometers per hour to Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states on Saturday night, along with a 3-meter storm surge and heavy rain.  Officials say they are better prepared for this than they were in 1999, when a similar storm killed more than 10,000 people.

At least 27 people are dead after yet another immigrant ship capsized in the Mediterranean Sea.  This happened off Malta, which is getting some help from Italian ships in the search-and-rescue.  203 people have been rescued.  The search area is only 120 kilometers from Lampedusa Island, where an immigrant ship capsized last week killing more than 300 African immigrant seeking asylum in Europe.

Libya’s Prime Minister Ali Zeidan says this week’s kidnapping drama was an attempted coup d’etat, and blamed his political opponents.  Gunmen from a quasi-official militia kidnapped Zeidan at his hotel Thursday morning and held him for six hours before members of a more loyal militia group sprung him.  Zeidan says an unnamed political party couldn’t get the votes to dismiss him through parliament, so it attempted a coup. 

Syrian rebels murdered as many as 190 civilians and kidnapped more than 200 hostages during an offensive in August.  The group Human Rights Watch says the rebels targeted entire families were targeted for death in areas where president Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect are the majority.  20 groups took part in the offensive, including rebel factions loyal to al Qaeda.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Afghanistan to try and kick start a stalled security agreement.  The US wants to have some troop presence in Afghanistan after the 2014 NATO troop withdrawal.  But President Hamid Karzai has balked, and accuses the western forces of failing to bring stability to his nation.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa is threatening to resign if the National Assembly passes a bill to decriminalize abortion.  It’s part of a criminal law reform package that would also toughen certain prison sentences and deal with crimes against women.  Correa says his anti-abortion views are well known to members of his party, which controls the legislature, and considers the decriminalization bill to be “acts of betrayal and disloyalty”.

An autopsy suggests that former Formula One test driver Maria de Villota died of lingering complications from the injuries she suffered in her July 2012 crash at the Duxford Aerodome in Britain.  She suffered profound cranial injuries and lost her right eye when her Marussia car crashed into the back of a parked truck.  Despite putting on a brave face at public events, De Villota dealt with complications ever since then, and was found dead in her hotel room in Seville, Spain on Friday morning.

And then there’s the 2013 Nobel Prize.  Ugh.

More than a few eyebrows were raised as the Nobel Committee announced the winner of this year’s Peace Prize was not Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban bullet to the head, to become a champion of childrens’ education.  Or to Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who has helped huge numbers of rape victims.  Instead, it went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the group doing the very important work of making sure chemical weapons are decommissioned in Syria.  It comes a year after the Nobel Committee awarded it to the European Union:  Two years of European institutions patting other European institutions on the back.

Reaction hasn’t been terribly kind.  Some Middle East analysts say honoring the OPCW is premature, because it’s nowhere near realizing the end of its mission.  The UK Guardian Newspaper ran a scathing editorial congratulating Malala Yousafzai for not winning, and therefore not joining the ranks of unworthy winners such as hawkish former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.  

As for Malala, she didn’t let it slow her down.  The 16-year old met with US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michele Obama, and their 15-year old daughter Malia.  She also tweeted her congratulations to the OPCW and said the prize she really wants is for every child to be able to go to school.