Humanitarian agencies are warning of the many risks to civilians presented by a likely military offensive against al-Qaida-linked extremists in control of northern Mali since April. Their call came as the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a phased, African-led military deployment to Mali next year.

Four hundred twelve thousand people have fled their homes in northern Mali since the start of the year as fighting morphed from a Tuareg separatist rebellion in January to an occupation by al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants beginning in April.

Authorities in Kenya say at least 39 people - 30 villagers and nine attackers - have been killed in fresh clashes between two rival ethnic groups in the southeastern Tana River region.

The violence started in the early morning hours Friday when members of the Pokomo community, armed with guns and spears, attacked Orma residents in the village of Kipao.

Kenya Red Cross spokesperson Nelly Muluka says disaster response teams have been deployed to the area.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have fired more missiles inside Syria, a move Rasmussen calls an act of a "desperate regime approaching collapse."

Earlier this month, the U.S. and NATO said Assad's forces had fired Scud missiles at rebels near the northern city of Aleppo in what was believed to be the first use of the weapons against insurgents. Syrian officials denied the charge.

​​Military analysts say Scuds are short-range missiles with a range of 500 to 800 kilometers.

A rebel alliance in the Central African Republic has taken control of another town in Central African Republic.

The rebel coalition known as Seleka captured the town of Batangafo on Thursday, 300 kilometers north of the capital, Bangui. It is the seventh town that rebel fighters have seized in the past week.

The rebels say their fast-moving offensive is aimed at ousting President Francois Bozize. On Wednesday the United Nations Security Council condemned the attacks, saying the fighting is a threat to civilians and C.A.R. stability.

Syria's recent use of Scud missiles against rebel-held areas has alarmed the West and escalated fears that the Syrian government is inflicting a new stage of terror on its citizens.

“It certainly is by definition an escalation because it’s a potent weapon that hadn’t been used before," said Greg Thielmann, a chemical weapons expert with the Arms Control Association, a private research firm.

The United Nations and the African Union plan to seek increased funding early next year to implement a strategy to combat the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, which continues to carry out attacks in Central Africa.

Abou Moussa, head of the U.N. Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), told the Security Council Tuesday that peace and security in the region have improved. But he says violence by armed groups such as the LRA continues, as his office tries to follow the multi-step strategy approved by the council in June.

Officials of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and representatives from other international organizations are to meet this week to discuss ways to deal with political instability and drug trafficking in Guinea Bissau.

ECOWAS political director Abdel-Fatau Musah says he is hopeful the meeting will be able to find a solution to the crisis in the West African nation.

Guinea Bissau has suffered from increasing political instability and has become a trans-shipment point for South American cocaine headed to markets in Europe.

Reports of fierce fighting between Burma's army and Kachin rebels has raised concerns, both domestically and internationally, about the fragile peace process and national reconciliation. The United States Ambassador to Burma has for the first time visited northern Kachin state to assess the situation.

Burma exile media reports the military last week used Russian-made helicopter gunships and heavy artillery to pound Kachin rebel positions near the border with China.

Pakistani officials say unidentified gunmen have killed six workers involved in United Nations-backed polio vaccination efforts in two different cities.

Police say four female workers were killed in a series of coordinated attacks in the port city of Karachi Tuesday, a day after a male volunteer working on the joint local government-World Health Organization project was shot dead in the city. Another woman working in the eradication efforts was shot dead Tuesday in the northwestern city of Peshawar.