North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il on Sunday received a red carpet welcome in the Amur region where he also toured a hydro power station ahead of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Kim on Saturday kicked off a week-long secrecy-wrapped visit to the Russian Far East and Siberia, a rare trip out of a country battling isolation and hunger.

A violent storm lashed Pope Benedict XVI and around one million pilgrims at an open-air service in Madrid, forcing him to cut short his speech and drenching the faithful who had waited for hours in blistering heat.

As the heavens opened during World Youth Day celebrations Saturday night, Benedict's skullcap was swept off and an assistant tried to shelter the 84-year-old pontiff with a large white umbrella.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Saturday that relations with Israel will further deteriorate without an apology over a deadly 2010 flotilla raid.

"There can be no normalization with Israel if Turkey's demands are not met," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying during a visit to South Africa.

A major 7.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there was no immediate tsunami warning issued.

The quake struck at 3:55 am (1655 GMT Saturday) at a depth of 40 kilometers, around 60 kilometers south of Port Vila, the capital of the island nation.

The Cuban government on Saturday rejected a U.S. decision to keep Cuba on its blacklist of countries that allegedly support terrorism and accused Washington of sheltering the "real terrorists."

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the U.S. does not have "the least moral authority or right whatsoever" to judge Cuba, citing the case of a Cuba-born former CIA operative wanted for a string of bombings and residing in Miami.

An Indian army lieutenant and a dozen suspected militants were killed Saturday in a clash along the de facto border that splits Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the army said.

The fighting erupted in the northern Gurez district when a group of "heavily-armed militants tried to infiltrate" Indian Kashmir from the Pakistani zone of the divided Muslim-majority territory, said an Indian army spokesman.

An Indian activist on a hunger strike that sparked a popular campaign against corruption said Saturday that he was feeling physically weak but resolved in his demand that the government adopt his version of a bill setting up an anti-graft watchdog.

Hundreds surrounded Anna Hazare on his fifth day of a fast that began Tuesday in jail after his arrest for planning a protest without police approval. He was released within hours but refused to leave the jailhouse until police eventually granted him permission for a 15-day public fast — a protest he has called a "revolution" and "new freedom struggle."

A total of 35 Afghans were killed and 27 others injured on Saturday when a bus overturned on a highway in southern Afghanistan, officials said.

The smash happened just outside Kandahar city in the Daman district of Kandahar province on the main road connecting it to the capital, Kabul.

North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il on Saturday arrived in his armored train in Russia and plans to meet President Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin said.

During the visit, his first since 2002, Kim is expected to meet with the Kremlin chief for talks in Siberia to discuss North Korea's nuclear program, bilateral economic projects and a worsening food crisis in the isolated state.

A bomb exploded in a mosque in a Pakistani tribal region as hundreds were gathered for prayers Friday, killing at least 40 people and wounding 85 others in the first major attack in the country during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The attack came despite a period of relative calm in Pakistan, which has suffered numerous Taliban-led insurgent attacks in recent years. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Taliban and other Islamist militants have previously attacked mosques.