Senators grilled the Obama administration on Wednesday over its plans to restore order in the terrorist haven of northern Mali as the United Nations met to discuss an African-led intervention.

The Obama administration has cautioned against rushing into military action to reunite the west African country, whose Texas-size northern half has become the world's largest safe haven for militant Islamists following a military coup in March. Mali's neighbors and western countries are worried that militants from all over the region are setting up training camps there, including al Qaeda-affiliated groups linked to the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

“The intervention will take time, and stability cannot be restored to Mali through military action alone,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said in his opening statement to his Senate Foreign Relations African subcommittee's hearing. “The situation in Mali is as much a crisis of governance as it is of security.”

The Obama administration has pressed Mali to hold elections, possibly as early as next spring, to restore democracy and try to meet the demands of rebelling Tuareg nomads in the north and “peel off” some Islamist militants from the more extremist al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. While the country's vast desert expanses provide a safe haven for terrorists, congressional sources estimate there are only 500 to 1,000 “core fighters” in the country – far fewer than in Afghanistan and Pakistan or in Yemen.

“Mali needs now more than ever a strong democratic government to restore its democratic tradition and provide the strong leadership necessary to negotiate a political agreement with northern rebels, reform its security sector, and lead a military intervention in the north to restore and maintain Mali’s territorial integrity,” Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson testified Wednesday.

Fifty-seven percent in a new poll say they'd support a presidential bid by Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned Bashar Assad that President Obama would follow through on threats to punish the Syrian leader if he uses chemical weapons.

“One of the things about President Obama, he is very tough-minded,” said Gates, in an interview aired Wednesday on “CBS This Morning.”  “I think it would be a mistake, particularly on Bashar Assad's part, to underestimate him.”

The Senate voted to pass an amendment to the defense bill that would require a report on military activities that could be used in Syria.

The amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, S. 3254, which funds the U.S. military and its operations, passed on a 92-6 vote.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi fled the presidential palace in Cairo on Tuesday after as many as 10,000 people took to the streets in the worst crisis of his six-month presidency, Reuters reports.

At least 18 people were injured in clashes with security forces near the palace.

The protesters are upset at Morsi's attempt to ram through a new Constitution by referendum on Dec. 15 over the objections of senior judges. Morsi unilaterally declared his decisions immune from judicial review or court orders late last month, prompting the pro-democracy protests and earning a mild rebuke from the Obama administration.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) on Tuesday introduced a resolution calling for the creation of a select committee to investigate the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, and the Obama administration's response.

The resolution calls for combining “all existing investigations into a single and exhaustive review of the event and the subsequent revelations that followed,” Wolf said, similar to the panels established during Watergate and the Iran Contra scandals of the 1970s. It already has 14 co-sponsors.

The panel would be composed of the top Republican and Democrat on the five panels of jurisdiction — Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, Judiciary, Armed Services and Oversight and Government Reform — plus five more Republicans appointed by the Speaker and two Democrats appointed by the minority leader.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed (D-Nev.) said he’d bring up the disability treaty for another vote in the next Congress.

“I plan to bring this treaty up for a vote again in the next Congress,” Reid said in a statement Tuesday, after the Senate rejected the treaty. “Our wounded veterans and millions more around the world deserve better.”

NATO's decision to supply Turkey with a slew of ballistic missile interceptors to defend its shared border with Syria will not result in a no-fly zone within the country, according to a top defense lawmaker. 

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum immediately jumped on Tuesday's defeat of the U.N. disabilities treaty to promote his advocacy group in favor of conservative Republicans.

The former senator from Pennsylvania failed in his primary bid against Mitt Romney last year, but has since tried to reemerge as a conservative kingmaker. He launched his “Patriot Voices” nonprofit in June to get Republicans into office and push them to the right, and joined World Net Daily as a columnist this week.

“We did it,” Santorum tweeted Tuesday. “#CRPD was defeated today. @Patriot_voices will cont to have an impact on important issues. Pls join us.”