Nelson Mandela is making "slow but steady" progress back to health, although he remains critically ill, the office of the South African president said Sunday.

The 95-year-old former president and anti-apartheid icon has been in hospital for more than two months with a recurring lung infection.

An insurgent attack in volatile eastern Afghanistan killed three foreign soldiers on Sunday, a statement said.

The deaths bring the number of fatalities among foreign troops this year to 114, according to the independent icasualties.org website, which recorded 402 such deaths in 2012.

Americans owe U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden a debt of gratitude because he prompted President Barack Obama to promise an overhaul of secret surveillance, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said.

Australian-born Assange said the U.S. President had "validated Edward Snowden's role as a whistleblower" by announcing plans which promised greater oversight and transparency.

Pakistan Sunday accused Indian forces of firing on its border posts in disputed Kashmir and in neighboring Punjab province, where it sparked an "intermittent exchange of fire" between the two sides.

The fighting is the latest in a spate of recent cross-border skirmishes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors who have fought three wars since independence from the British rule in 1947, two over the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.

Flash floods triggered by heavy rain and hail storms killed more than 20 people on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghan officials said Sunday, with a mosque, houses and farmland also damaged.

The flooding hit the Shakardara and Paghman districts to the north and west of Kabul after the unseasonal rains left knee-deep water across many parts of the war-battered city.

Pope Francis reached out to Muslims on Sunday to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and called on them and Christians to promote mutual respect.

"I want to send a hello to Muslims around the world, our brothers, who a short time ago celebrated the conclusion of the month of Ramadan," the pontiff said in front of thousands of the faithful gathered for his Angelus blessing in St Peter's Square.

Zimbabwe's government on Sunday denied a report in the British newspaper The Times that it had reached a secret uranium export deal with Iran.

The Times story published Saturday quoted outgoing deputy minister of mines Gift Chimanikire that Zimbabwe signed a deal with Iran to supply the Islamic republic with the raw materials needed to develop a nuclear weapon.

Malians voted Sunday in a presidential election run-off expected to usher in a new dawn of peace and stability in the conflict-scarred nation, but heavy downpours hampered early turnout.

An electorate of almost seven million was urged to choose between former premier Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and ex-finance minister Soumaila Cisse to lead Mali's recovery following a military coup that ignited an Islamist insurgency and a French-led military intervention.

The end of Ramadan has left authorities at the Guantanamo Bay military jail preparing for an uptick in unrest at the controversial prison, U.S. officials say.

The annual Muslim fast is traditionally regarded as an unofficial truce at Guantanamo, where some inmates have been held for around a decade without trial.

A Chinese poultry worker was confirmed as having contracted the deadly H7N9 bird flu virus, health officials said, the first case in the southern Guangdong province.

The 51-year-old woman is in a critical condition after she was admitted to hospital on August 3 following signs of a fever, the Guangdong Provincial Health Department said on Saturday.