JERUSALEM (AP) — Pope Francis delivered a powerful boost of support to the Palestinians during a Holy Land pilgrimage Sunday, repeatedly backing their statehood aspirations, praying solemnly at Israel's controversial separation barrier and calling the stalemate in peace efforts "unacceptable."

In an unscripted move, Francis arranged a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian presidents at the Vatican next month. The meeting, while largely symbolic, shows how the pope has sought to transform his immensely popular appeal into a moral force for peace.

On the second day of a three-day swing through the region, the pope arrived in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christianity, before heading to Israel for the final leg of his visit.

While Francis mingled warmly with his Israeli hosts, his trip to Bethlehem included the day's most powerful images as he expressed sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinians.

"I am with you," he told a group of Palestinian children at a stop in Bethlehem's Deheishe refugee camp. He also held a private lunch with five Palestinian families who say they have been harmed by Israeli policies.

Even the pope's arrival in Bethlehem — by helicopter straight from Jordan — carried important symbolic significance. Past papal visits to the West Bank have come through Israel, which captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.

Raw: Pope Lands in Bethlehem, Holds Sunday MassPlay Video

Palestinian officials hailed Francis' decision to refer to the "state of Palestine." In its official program, the Vatican referred to President Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the "state of Palestine," and his Bethlehem office as the "presidential palace." He pointedly called Abbas a "man of peace."

Jubilant Palestinians cheered Francis as he arrived in Bethlehem's Manger Square, shouting "Viva al-Baba!" or "Long live the pope!" Giant Palestinian flags in red, white, green and black and the Vatican's yellow-and-white flags decorated the square, which is home to the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition says Jesus was born.

"Coming to Bethlehem and flying to Bethlehem from Jordan shows solidarity with the Palestinian people, which is wonderful. We need that," said Samar Sakkakin, a 52-year-old Palestinian-American from Canton, Michigan.

In November 2012, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly recognized a "state of Palestine" in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war — as a non-member observer. The recognition still has little meaning on the ground, with Israel remaining in full control of east Jerusalem, which it annexed in 1967, and the West Bank.

However, it has enabled the Palestinians to start seeking membership in U.N. agencies and accede to international conventions in a further upgrade of their status. Israel objects to the Palestinian campaign, saying it is an attempt to bypass negotiations.

View gallery

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Pope Francis hug each other as Francis arrives at the …

Francis' arrival came weeks after the latest round of U.S.-backed peace talks collapsed. During nine months of negotiations, little — if any — progress was made, and there are no signs of talks resuming anytime soon.

Standing alongside Abbas at a welcome ceremony, Francis declared: "The time has come to put an end to this situation, which has become increasingly unacceptable."

He said both sides needed to make sacrifices to create two states, with internationally recognized borders, based on mutual security and rights for everyone. He urged both sides to refrain from any actions that would derail peace.

In his remarks, Abbas voiced his concerns about the recent breakdown in peace efforts and lamented the difficult conditions facing the Palestinians.

Abbas said he would welcome papal intervention. "We welcome any initiative from you to make peace a reality in the Holy Land," Abbas said.

View gallery

Pope Francis prays at Israel's separation barrier on his way to a mass in Manger Square next to …

After the meeting, the pope's open-roof vehicle stopped at a section of the West Bank separation barrier, which encircles Bethlehem on three sides. Israel says the structure is a security measure. The Palestinians say it has gobbled up their land and stifled their economy.

Francis stood up, put a hand on the wall, bowed his head and said a short prayer alongside a section on which "Free Palestine" is scribbled in graffiti.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis had made a "personal decision" to stop by the wall. He said the barrier was a symbol of the conflict and it was appropriate for Francis to pray for peace there.

"This wall is a sign of division, that something is not functioning right," Lombardi told a news conference in Jerusalem. Francis' prayer there "signifies for me his desire for peace, for a world without walls," Lombardi said.

In another unscripted move, Francis issued a surprise joint invitation for Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres to come to the Vatican to pray for peace together. "I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer," he said.

View gallery

Pope Francis, right, talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres, during an official arrival ceremony …

The offices of the Israeli and Palestinian presidents quickly confirmed their acceptance, with the Palestinians saying the meeting would take place June 6.

The invitation — and the acceptances — were unexpected given Francis' insistence that his three-day visit was a "strictly religious" pilgrimage to commemorate a Catholic-Orthodox anniversary. Lombardi said the pope had discussed the idea with his advisers in the run-up to the visit as a way to give a concrete push to peace efforts.

"It was not a reflection that was made in an hour," Lombardi said. "It was a reflection that accompanied the preparations of the trip."

Peres, a 90-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, holds a largely ceremonial position, and the Vatican meeting will be largely symbolic. But he nonetheless risks upsetting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the move.

Netanyahu has expressed anger with politicians that have reached out to Abbas at a time when the Palestinian leader is reconciling with the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza. Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group. Netanyahu's office declined comment.

View gallery

Pope Francis waves upon his arrival at the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Sunday, May 25, 2014. Pope …

Isaac Herzog, Israel's opposition leader, said the pope, a close friend of Israel, had sent a clear message to Netanyahu through the invitation. Speaking on Channel 2 TV, Herzog said the pope was essentially saying, "Do something. It can't go on like this."

Francis flew to Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was warmly greeted by an honor guard. With trumpets blaring, the country's top officials lined up to shake his hand as he walked a red carpet.

Francis deplored Saturday's deadly shooting at Brussels' Jewish Museum as a "criminal act of anti-Semitic hatred." Two Israelis were among the dead.

He also condemned the Holocaust as the "enduring symbol of the depths to which human evil can sink." Francis is to visit Israel's national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, on Monday.

But the pope also lamented the dire state of Mideast peace efforts, saying the holy city of Jerusalem "remains deeply troubled."

View gallery

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Pope Francis inspect an honor guard as Francis arrive …

He called for a "just and lasting solution" so that Israelis and Palestinians may live in peace. He said Israel deserves peace and security "within internationally recognized borders," while the Palestinians have a "right to live with dignity and with freedom of movement" in their own homeland.

In the run-up to Francis' arrival, Israel experienced a string of vandalism attacks on churches and Vatican properties, presumably by Jewish extremists.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli police arrested 26 Israeli hard-liners protesting outside a contested holy site revered by Catholics as the site of Jesus' Last Supper and by devout Jews as the burial site of the biblical King David.

Israeli extremists have spread rumors in recent weeks that Israel plans on turning the site over to Vatican control.

Francis made no mention of these incidents, but expressed hope that "this blessed land may be one which has no place for those who, by exploiting and absolutizing the value of their own religious tradition, prove intolerant and violent towards those of others."

In the spiritual highlight of his visit, the pope late Sunday went to Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, to pray with the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Their meeting marked the 50th anniversary of a similar meeting between their predecessors that ended a 900-year rift.

___

Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Bethlehem and Nicole Winfield and Ariel David in Jerusalem contributed to this story.

DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - Scores of armed pro-Russian separatists gathered for several hours outside the gated home of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, in the eastern city of Donetsk on Sunday as Ukrainians voted for a new president.

Coal and steel billionaire Akhmetov, whose factories and mines employ about 300,000 people, denounced the rebels last week, accusing them of "genocide", and urged people to vote on Sunday despite intimidation and threats from the separatists.

The rebels have prevented voting in parts of Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine where they have declared "people's republics" outside Kiev's control. No polling stations opened in Donetsk, a city of a million people.

The 47-year-old Akhmetov, who also owns Ukraine's most successful soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk, was in the capital Kiev when about 200-300 separatists and supporters advanced on his residence, a spokesman said.

"Mr. Akhmetov is today in Kiev. He had intended to return to Donetsk to vote but as you can see from what is happening there and on the streets this has not been possible," said Jock Mendoza-Wilson at Akhmetov's company, System Capital Management.

Some of the men were masked and were aggressive towards journalists as they gathered by the high walls of Akhmetov's suburban residence, which is protected by armed security guards.

But after several hours tempers calmed and most people left.

A leader of one group of about 30 heavily armed fighters, Alexander Timofeyev, said they had come only to keep order after a crowd of demonstrators had gathered to confront Akhmetov.

Alexander Boroday, one of the leaders of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" said negotiations had begun with Akhmetov and a picket would be maintained outside his residence until there had been a "positive result".

He did not say what demands they were making on the multi-billionaire but earlier separatist representatives said they were insisting he make tax payments into the Donetsk People's Republic's budget, Interfax news agency said.

(Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki, Gabriela Baczynska and Lina Kushch; Writing by Richard Balmforth and Alastair Macdonald)

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau speaks at an unknown location in this still image taken from an undated video released by Nigerian Islamist rebel group Boko Haram. REUTERS/Boko Haram handout via Reuters TV

By Lanre Ola and Joe Penney

MAIDUGURI Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected Islamist Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground in a pattern of violence that has become almost a daily occurrence, according to police and witnesses.

All three attacks happened on Thursday in remote parts of Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's increasingly bloody struggle for an Islamic kingdom in religiously mixed Nigeria.

One took place right next to Chibok, by the Cameroon border, from where more than 200 school girls were abducted last month.

The most deadly was in the town of Kerenua, near the Niger border. Scores of militants opened fire on residents, killing 20 of them, and burned houses, a police source said.

Since the girls' abduction on April 14, at least 450 civilians have been killed by the group, according to a Reuters count.

A spate of bombings across north and central Nigeria has killed hundreds, including two in the capital Abuja and one in the central city of Jos on Tuesday that killed 118 people.

In a sign Jos could be targeted again, a suicide bombing on Saturday that was meant to target an open air viewing of a football match in the central Nigerian city of Jos killed three people before reaching its target, a witness told Reuters. [ID:nL6N0OA152] The bomber approached Jos Viewing Centre while people were watching Real Madrid play Atletico Madrid, but failed to get there before his car exploded, Mohammed ****tu, a local journalist at the scene said.

The source said some phone signals to the militants had been tracked to Niger itself, suggesting they may have been directed from there. Dozens had been wounded by bullets, he said.

Another attack occurred in a small village of Kubur Viu, a few kilometres away from Chibok, resident Simeon Yhana said.

The police source concurred with the attack and toll.

"They killed five people. This place is right next to Chibok. The military is supposed to be protecting this area but we fear these people (Boko Haram) are coming back," Yhana said.

Militants shot dead three other people during an attack on the village of Kimba, the police source said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was in South Africa on Saturday, his office said, to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across the continent with African heads of state.

Nigeria and its neighbours say Boko Haram - which has killed thousands during its five-year-old insurgency in Africa's top oil producer - now threatens the security of the whole region.

The insurgents initially attacked mostly security forces and government officials after they launched their uprising in northeast Borno state's capital Maiduguri in 2009. When Jonathan ordered an offensive a year ago to flush them out, civilians formed vigilante groups to help out - making them targets too.

Nigeria accepted help from the United States, Britain, France and China last week and around 80 U.S. troops were arriving in Chad to start a mission to try to free the girls, who remain in captivity.

BANGKOK (AP) — The leader of Thailand's military junta was officially endorsed by the king Monday and warned protesters, the media and the nation's political rivals to avoid inciting division because the country could face a return "to the old days."

Dressed in a crisp white military uniform, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha spoke at a news conference just after King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed him to run the country in a royal command that called for "reconciliation among the people" and was concerned about increasingly violent confrontations between the ousted government and dispersed demonstrators who had called repeatedly for the army to intervene.

Prayuth also justified the putsch that was declared last Thursday, saying he had to restore order after seven months of violent confrontations and political turmoil between the now-ousted government and demonstrators who had called repeatedly for the army to intervene.

"The most important thing right now is to keep peace and order in the country," Prayuth said. "When the conflict intensified, and there was the threat of violence, we had to act."

In sporadic violence since last November, 28 people have been killed and more than 800 injured in grenade attacks, gun fights and drive-by shootings.

"I am not here to argue with anyone. Our intentions are pure, and we will remain transparent ... everyone needs to help me," Prayuth said, before adding, "do not criticize, do not start problems. It's no use."

View gallery

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 20, 2014 file photo, Thai Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha greets back …

Since last week, the military has sought to limit the protests by detaining figures who might play leadership roles. The junta has defended the detentions of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, most of the deposed government's Cabinet, and dozens of politicians and activists.

It also has ordered dozens of outspoken activists, academics and journalists to report to military authorities. More than 200 — the majority considered opponents of the new regime — have been officially summoned so far in lists broadcast on radio and TV.

The fate of Yingluck, who surrendered herself Friday, and many others remains unclear. Some detainees have been released, and the military has said it expects to free most after about a week.

Prayuth said the media must "control your message. Anyone who posts on Facebook that incites, I consider that against the peace of the country"

"Do you really want to go back to the old days? Right now there are people coming out to protest. Do your really want to go back?" he asked. "If so, I will have to enforce the law."

___

Associated Press writer Kay Johnson contributed to this report.