Pope to Meet Head of Russian Orthodox Church; Militants Attack U.S. Base in Mali
CURNOW: Welcome back.</s>CURNOW (voice-over): Now look at that. An active volcano in Japan has begun erupting and the images are spectacular. This is Sakurajima volcano in Southern Japan. You can see fountains of hot magma shooting into the sky. About 4,000 people live nearby. The alert level has been raised but no one is being asked to evacuate. And there are no reports of damage or injuries at this point. The volcano has been erupting regularly for more than 60 years.</s>CURNOW: The Vatican says an unprecedented meeting of church leaders will take place next Friday in Cuba. Pope Francis will meet the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Cyril (ph). The heads of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches have never met since they split into Eastern and Western Christianity almost 1,000 years ago. The leaders will sit down together at Havana's airport and sign a joint declaration. Well, CNN contributor Barbie Nadeau joins me now from Russia. And I mean, we can say historic but this meeting really is. Why?</s>BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's very historic, especially given the fact that both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II tried in vain to set up this sort of a meeting. The fact that Pope Francis has been able to do it is really a feather in his cap. He's proving himself to quite the global diplomat. It's also curious that they have chosen to go to Cuba. Obviously logistically it makes sense. The pope is on his way to Mexico next week. As it is, it makes sense logistically but it's also important because it brings Cuba a little bit back into the diplomatic fold as well. And it makes sense on a lot of different levels. The pope is doing what he says he's going to do, which is spread his message, spread peace and no one seems to stop him really -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: And they have many common things to talk about, persecution of Christians around the world. And this is also a common theme with the Kremlin. Is there some symmetry as well in terms of growing relationship between the Kremlin and the Vatican?</s>NADEAU: Well, I think you can really read into that. Of course, they have 1,000 years worth of catching up to do. There are many, many things, I suspect, on that agenda, especially from the side of the Holy See and the side of Pope Francis. We'll know a lot more, I think, as the days get closer but it's interesting. This was a surprise announcement that the Vatican actually was able to produce their press release in Russian, which is not one of their official languages. So you might think they probably had this in their back pocket a couple of days before they made the announcement. They made the announcement before they laid out the final plans of his trip to Mexico, which is going to be seen as a very, very important trip, as well he's giving a mass on the U.S.-Mexican border and things like that. This won't overshadow that trip to Mexico but this is an interesting way to start it -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Indeed. This is a meeting that many popes before, as you said, have been trying to engineer for decades now. What is interesting, then, is do you think we'll see a papal visit to Moscow anytime soon?</s>NADEAU: Well, we understand that something like that is in the works. Of course, this pope has --</s>NADEAU: -- a very long list of places he wants to visit. Going to Moscow has been on that list for quite some time. This very well may be the groundwork for that if he's extended an invitation. I'm sure he won't say no to that -- Robyn.</s>CURNOW: Barbie, thanks so much. Well, to Mali now, where militants stormed a U.N. police base in Timbuktu early Friday. Now they blew their way in with a car bomb, sparking a gun battle. One Malian soldier was killed, along with four suspected jihadis. A spokesman says the fighting is over and the base has been retaken. No word on who was behind the attack. The U.N. established a peacekeeping mission to stabilize Mali in 2013 after fighting between rebels and Islamists. And this just into CNN. Police in Dublin, Ireland, are responding to what they call a serious incident at the Regency Hotel there. Witnesses say gunmen entered the hotel during a boxing weigh-in and started firing. Police haven't confirmed that yet. But we are keeping a close eye on the story. We'll update you if we get any more details. Moving on, investigators looking into an explosion on a Somali airline. They think the cause was a bomb that was inside a laptop computer. That comes after we got word from a source on Wednesday that initial tests on residue from the aircraft revealed a military grade TNT. One passenger was killed after the explosion. And Zimbabwe declared a state of disaster over a severe drought. More than 16,000 cattle have died across the country and now about 2.5 million Zimbabweans are considered food insecure. An El Nino weather pattern has contributed to the drought that is hitting several nations in the region very hard. However, some critics charge President Robert Mugabe's policy set up -- have set up their conditions that made Zimbabwe most vulnerable, including politicizing farm ownership, which some believe has negatively impacted the country's agriculture sector for years. Now this disaster declaration will make it easier for international donors to raise money and send aid more quickly. Still ahead, harsh words at the first one-on-one debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. What's at stake as they head into the next big test of their campaigns.