African leaders will seek United Nations backing for military intervention in northern Mali, which for more than two months has been controlled by armed rebels and Islamic militants. The move comes amid citizen uprisings in the north as well as reported clashes among the armed groups themselves.

After weeks of meetings about how to deal with the takeover of northern Mali by armed groups, the military option is looking increasingly likely.

The United Nations says its unarmed monitors in Syria were shot at and blocked from investigating the site of a newly reported mass killing, fueling more international condemnation of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the U.N. General Assembly Thursday that international observers were denied access to the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir in central Hama province and "were shot at with small arms" while trying to get there.

Kenyan military and police are at risk of losing United States government funding. A bill in the U.S. Senate Foreign Appropriations Committee says Kenya's history of human rights abuse is alarming and must be addressed.

After hearing allegations of human rights abuses by Kenyan soldiers, U.S. lawmakers are seeking to end funding for the East African country's military and police, and also have asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ensure that no training, equipment or any other assistance is provided for Kenyan defense forces and police who are alleged to have violated human rights.

Online petitioners are calling for China to investigate what they call the "suspicious death" of a prominent dissident jailed for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

Li Wangyang' s family found him dead on Wednesday in his hospital room in Hunan province, apparently hanged by a bandage around his neck.

Police said Li committed suicide. But his family disputes that claim, saying Li was optimistic and had never expressed suicidal tendencies during the more than two decades he was in prison.

Burmese state media have offered rare praise of longtime democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, in an editorial that would have been unthinkable just months ago under the reforming country's strict censorship laws.

In an article entitled, "To the leaders who are the hope of Myanmar," the New Light of Myanmar said Tuesday that the future of the country "depends completely" on the cooperation of Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein.

Chinese state media warned Tuesday, that Washington's planned military shift towards the Asia-Pacific threatens to create rifts between the two countries and may upset regional stability.

The warnings come days after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta outlined a plan to transfer the majority of U.S. warships to the region by the end of the decade as part of the Obama administration's "strategic re-balance" toward Asia.

German police have arrested a murder suspect dubbed the "Canadian Psycho" by the media for allegedly dismembering his homosexual lover and mailing body parts to Canadian politicians.

Witnesses say Luka Rocco Magnotta simply said, "You got me," when police arrested him Monday after someone recognized him in a Berlin Internet cafe. Interpol had issued a "red notice" for him, its highest alert.

Canadian authorities say Magnotta fled Montreal for France last week and took a bus to Berlin.

When a hurricane is bearing down on the area, it is not exactly the ideal time for people to start figuring out what to do to stay safe.

People need to be prepared and have a plan before disaster strikes, according to Army Ready, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security and Fort Rucker Information Operations Center officials.

"This area will usually have warning before a hurricane makes landfall," said Willie Worsham, Fort Rucker duty battle captain, adding that the IOC tracks potential storms when they leave the coast of Africa heading west to Fort Rucker.

Nigerian officials say the bombing of a church in Bauchi State has killed 15 people and wounded 42.

The chairman of the state emergency operations team, Muhammad Inuwa Bello, says a suicide bomber attacked the Living Faith Church outside the state capital Sunday morning, but the agency cannot yet comment on who it thinks was responsible.

Witnesses say the church collapsed after the blast, trapping worshipers, killing civilians and security personnel, and leaving others with gruesome injuries.