A Gay Rights rally in Russia ends in Violence – Malala asks Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan – Islands of the Mediterranean say Europe must help with asylum seekers before more lives are lost – And critics say Britain’s new health minister has her head up the wrong problem.

Dozens of people were arrested after Russian police allegedly helped a crowd of Orthodox protesters set upon a small group of Gay Rights demonstrators in Saint Petersburg.  While the demonstrators called for an end to homophobia in Russia, the counter protesters chanted orthodox prayers and took the rainbow flags from the group of 15.  Many fear that Russia’s constant brutality towards gay rights protesters will may the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year.

Malala Yousafzai issued a statement after her meeting with US President Barack Obama and members of his family, including a detail not revealed by the White House.  Malala said she was honored to meet with Obama, but that she told him she's worried about the effect of U.S. drone strikes.  The Pakistani schoolgirl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt told Mr. Obama, “Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people.”

The African Union (AU) is insisting that the International Criminal Court (ICC) must not prosecute a sitting head of state and must postpone the trial of Kenya’s President Uruhu Kenyatta, who denies charges of organizing political violence in 2007.  The AU stopped short of calling for a mass resignation from the ICC, but rather urged Kenyatta to remain in Kenya should the trial proceed at the Hague.  Critics say the ICC disproportionately targets African.

Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says the Mediterranean is becoming a “graveyard” for African immigrants trying to reach European shores.  He credits quick action by his island and Italy for launching a search and rescue effort that kept the death toll to around 30, but condemns Europe seeming inaction.  Divers had recovered another 20 bodies from the sea in the immigrant ship disaster that happened near Lampedusa a week earlier, bringing that incident’s death toll to 359.

All 52 passengers aboard a makeshift bus that plunged off a cliff in Peru are dead, including 13 children.  The Quechua Indians were returning home from a party in southeastern Peru when the vehicle went over the side and landed in a river.  Bodies were found as far as 100 meters from the crash site.  The high-altitude roads of the Peruvian Andes are notorious for bus plunges, and last year, more than 4,000 people were killed in such accidents.

A powerful cyclone tore into India’s east coast, killing at least five people and sending more than a half million into overcrowded emergency shelters.  Cyclone Phailin snapped trees and electricity poles and smashed windows as it moved inland in the states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.  The full extent of the storm’s destructive power will be assessed this week as rescue workers are able to fan out.

The US and Afghanistan are stalemated in talks to keep a US troop presence after the main NATO withdrawal.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants a promise of US military aid in the event of a foreign invasion, which the US doesn’t want.  The US wants immunity for troops stationed there, which like Iraq before it, at which Afghanistan is balking.

UK public health minister Jane Ellison is taking on a big challenge:  She’s battling “builders’ bum”.  Days after starting her new role at Britain’s Department of Health, Ellison’s bottom line is cracking down on bare cheeks peeking out from ill-fitting jeans on overweight construction workers and tradesmen.  The DoH is starting a new campaign to encourage these guys to lose weight and get fit.  Critics (and there are a few) say it’s an example of “the nanny state gone mad”, and are urging her to refocus the department priorities on old age care and plugging holes in the National Health.