London Collapse: The ceiling of the 113-year-old Apollo Theater in London collapsed during a performance last night, injuring 76 people, seven of them seriously. About 700 people were watching a show when, according to witnesses, the ceiling fell into the audience and the balcony partially collapsed. People in the theater said they were enveloped in clouds of plaster dust.

Healthcare: The Department of Health and Human Services unexpectedly announced that people whose healthcare plans have been cancelled because they don’t meet the standards of Obamacare will not be fined for having no insurance. Cancelled customers will be allowed to buy “catastrophic” plans usually reserved for people under 30, or who qualify for a hardship exemption.

World: Russian President Vladimir Putin today pardoned his political critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has spent 10 years in prison. Khodorkovsky was once Russia’s richest man, but was sent to jail for vague “financial crimes”. Putin also said he would free two members of the dissident group Pussy Riot in what appears to be an effort to burnish his human rights image before the Sochi Olympics.

• India demanded a formal apology from the US for its treatment of a New York embassy officer arrested last week on charges of visa fraud and under-paying her immigrant housekeeper. Devyani Khobragade was handcuffed, strip-searched and thrown in the tank with some unsavory characters before her release on bail. Prosecution documents say Khobragade wrote on her housekeeper’s visa application that she would pay $4500 a month, but actually paid only $573, which is less than NY State minimum wage

Wedding Bells: New Mexico’s supreme court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal. With New Mexico joining, 17 states and the District of Columbia now recognize gay marriage.

Nanny City: The NY City Council voted to ban foam takeout containers and to restrict electronic cigarettes the same as the real thing. The laws are likely to be among the last signed by outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  

The Obit Page: Al Goldstein, the publisher of Screw Magazine who made raunchy pornography into mainstream entertainment, died in a Brooklyn nursing home at age 77. Sex in his magazine was not beautiful, romantic or airbrushed. It was as dirty as it gets. In his first issue in 1968 Goldstein wrote, “We will apologize for nothing.” He was arrested on obscenity charges a dozen times and even his lawyer Alan Dershowitz said, “He clearly coarsened American sensibilities.”

Measured Diagonally: Katie Couric’s daytime talk show on ABC is being cancelled at the end of June. The show got enough viewers but Couric was paid about a quarter of the show’s $85 million budget over its two-year run, which made it difficult for anyone else to make money. Couric recently signed a $6 million deal with the Internet search engine Yahoo, which loyal fans will have to use to search for Katie Couric in the future.

Out: Olympic gold medal skater Brian Boitano announced just ahead of the Sochi winter games that he’s gay. President Obama is sending Boitano and Billie Jean King to represent the US in opening ceremonies as a thumb in the eye to Russia’s hostility toward homosexuals. This is Boitano’s first public announcement that he’s gay but really … Brian … we knew.

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