worldinbrief

SUVA: A powerful cyclone packing sustained winds of 175 kilometers an hour smashed into Fiji Monday, damaging homes and crops and forcing thousands of people to flee to evacuation centers. Cyclone Tomas was classified as a category-four cyclone—the second-most destructive on a five-point scale—the Fiji Meteorological Service said, with gusts that wreaked havoc across the north of the country.

ROME: Pope Benedict XVI visited the Lutheran Church of Rome on Sunday (Monday in Manila) in a show of unity between Catholics and Protestants as the Vatican fights to limit damage from child sex abuse scandals. With Catholic authorities in Germany facing a series of revelations about sexual abuse against children in schools, the pastor of the Lutheran community called for the two Christian churches to face difficulties together.