Bangladesh and India launched major relief efforts on Tuesday after a cyclone hit the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal, killing at least 84 people.

A powerful cyclone that hit the west coast of Madagascar killed three people and left nearly 3 000 homeless, officials said on Thursday.

A powerful cyclone hit the west coast of Madagascar on Wednesday, destroying buildings, flooding large areas and cutting off thousands of people.

A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last year it was "likely" that global warming meant more intense cyclones in future.

Emergency relief operations are winding down in Burma's cyclone-struck delta, but aid workers say a return to normality is a long way off.

Rebuilding Burma's cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions will cost $1-billion over the next three years, the UN and Asean say.

Khin Nyo San dashes from her tent to a nearby shack in the desperate hope that a visitor from Rangoon might have news of her missing child.

More than 84 000 people died in last month's deadly cyclone, while nearly 54 000 are still missing, a Burma official said on Tuesday.

The Burma military junta's arrest of a popular comedian campaigning for victims of Cyclone Nargis is part of continuing serious human rights violations in the country, a United Nations investigator said on Monday.

Burma is forcing weak and hungry survivors of Cyclone Nargis to move back to flattened villages and in some cases refusing aid unless rebuilding work is done, Amnesty International said.