World News from the BBC
Police in Russia have arrested more than 40 people after violence broke out at an unauthorised rally of gay rights activists in the capital Moscow. The fighting started when participants of the march were attacked as they were trying to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin. Some of the attackers said they were members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Daniel Sandford reports from Moscow.
Russian gay rights activists were joined by campaigners from America and Europe in what has become an annual event. Each year the authorities have refused the organisers permission, and each year there have been arrests and violence. Some gay rights activists were carrying banners reading "Russia is not Iran". One anti-gay campaigner said that God had burned down Sodom and Gomorrah and would
burn down
Moscow too if gay rights marches were allowed.
Tens of thousands of people have demonstrated across Germany to demand a
speedy
end to the use of nuclear energy. Anti-nuclear activists organised rallies in 20 towns and cities, including the capital Berlin. The demonstrations come a day before the centre-right coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to discuss the date when Germany's nuclear reactors will finally be
shut down
.
As a powerful typhoon approaches Japan, the operator of the
cripple
d nuclear power plant at Fukushima has said it's not fully prepared for heavy rain and strong winds. The defences around the plant's nuclear reactors were