PARIS - Hundreds of thousands of people in at least 150 countries around the world demanded action on climate change on the eve of a U.N. conference that aimed to find agreement on greenhouse gas emissions.

BEIRUT - The head of the Syriac Catholic Church has accused Western governments of betraying Christians in the Middle East and said it was "a big lie" to suggest Islamic State could be defeated with airstrikes.

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Unidentified assailants shot an Italian priest in northern Bangladesh Nov. 18, in the third attack on foreigners since late September.

MANILA, Philippines - As world leaders started arriving in Manila Nov. 17 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit, church leaders voiced concern that the poor might be forgotten once again in the high-level meeting.

VATICAN CITY - Here is a translation of a statement issued by the director of the Holy See press office, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, shortly after the terror attacks in Paris Nov. 13.

WASHINGTON - "Time is of the essence" to get humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as winter sets in, a group of Ukrainian religious leaders said in a Nov. 9 appeal to U.S. President Barack Obama.

YANGON, Myanmar - From his residence at St. Mary's Cathedral, Cardinal Charles Bo has a front-row seat to the changes sweeping across his country. What he has witnessed ahead of the nation's Nov. 8 election — the first fully contested since 1990 — has troubled him, reported ucanews.com.

BEIJING - China's Communist Party leaders announced they would change the nation's one-child policy, which most strictly applied to Han Chinese living in urban areas of the country.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House voted to block federal funding for a year to affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and redirect the money to community health centres.

OTTAWA - They have written electoral guides, identified national issues, and invited Canadians to vote in the Oct. 19 federal election, but one day after voters swept Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party to a majority government, most Canadian churches had no official reaction.