NEW DELHI - A powerful cyclone ripped through eastern India and sideswiped Bangladesh, leaving a trail of destruction and more than 30 deaths.

Development and Peace has received an additional $500,000 from Global Affairs Canada to spend between now and Christmas to keep Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh safe, warm and dry.

RAJSHAHI, Bangladesh – The mysterious disappearance of a Bangladeshi priest just days before Pope Francis visited the country has taken a new turn, reported ucanews.com.

BANGKOK – Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, has joined other faith leaders in declaring their commitment to peace initiatives in the strife-torn southeast Asia country, a move welcomed by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Catholic parishes, ministries, religious orders and institutions stand ready to help should Ottawa heed Bob Rae’s advice on the Rohingya crisis.

VATICAN – Pope Francis’ skill at walking political and pastoral tightropes was put to the test in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Amid international condemnation of Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya people, Pope Francis will visit Myanmar and Bangladesh to recognize each nation’s struggle for independence, promote interreligious respect and encourage the minority Catholic communities.

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh – Bangladesh is bracing for a massive humanitarian crisis because of a lack of food, sanitation, medicines and even basic housing following the exodus of as many as 350,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, fleeing violence in which at least 1,000 were killed in just two weeks.

VATICAN CITY – After leading thousands of pilgrims in praying the Angelus, Pope Francis offered prayers for flood victims in Texas and Louisiana following a devastating hurricane that caused massive flooding.

WASHINGTON – Rosaline Costa heard people tell her "be careful" so often she decided that she had to flee her native Bangladesh for the United States to stay alive.

Before being shot by security forces, the Islamist militants who attacked a café in Dhaka said they would happily become “martyrs” because they had successfully completed their jihadi mission and were bound for heaven, eyewitnesses said.

The killings of two Hindus, one Christian and the wife of an anti-terror official in Muslim-majority Bangladesh last week have left members of minority religious communities afraid for their lives and skeptical of the government’s ability to provide security.

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

TORONTO - During a trip to Bangladesh, Angela Grace Macri watched with her daughter, Mary Anne, as Bangladeshi mothers taught children the lessons they learned at the Amarok Society’s “Angela Women’s School.”

It’s a school named after Macri, the 2011 Toronto Catholic District School Board Alumni Award winner.

Macri says helping to educate girls through her volunteer work with the non-profit Amarok Society borrows lessons learned about her Catholic faith from her parents and her teachers at Toronto’s Loretto Abbey High School.