Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is going to the U.N. General Assembly Thursday with huge support for his bid to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority from an entity to a non-member state.

The General Assembly will vote on the mesaure that is opposed by the United States and Israel.

About 60 countries are co-sponsoring the resolution, and Mr. Abbas is expected to obtain a required simple majority of the U.N.'s 193 member states. The status would allow Palestinians access to the International Criminal Court, where they could ask the prosecutor to investigate Israel's actions in their territories.

But granting Palestinians the title of “non-member observer state'' falls short of full U.N. membership, something they failed to achieve last year.

On Wednesday, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland announced their intentions to vote in favor of the motion. France announced its support Tuesday. Russia and China have also indicated they will support the Palestinian request.

Several other countries, including Germany, say they will not support the Palestinian bid. The United States says the only road to statehood for the Palestinians is through direct negotiations with Israel.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Special Envoy for Middle East Peace David Hale met Wednesday with President Abbas in New York to repeat Washington's concerns and urged him to reconsider.

“The deputy secretary also reiterated that no one should be under any illusion that this resolution is going to produce the results that the Palestinians claim to seek,”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers Britain would consider embracing the request, but only if the Palestinian Authority could give him some key assurances – including pledges to return to negotiations with Israel and to not pursue its grievances with Israel in international courts.

Several more European countries say they are backing a Palestinian Authority bid to secure a diplomatic upgrade at the United Nations.

Spain, Denmark and Switzerland announced their intentions Wednesday to vote in favor of the motion. France announced its support Tuesday. Russia and China have also indicated they will support the Palestinian request.

If granted, the move would likely assure the Palestinian Authority access to key U.N. agencies, like the International Criminal Court.

Several other countries, including the United States and Germany say they will not support the Palestinian bid. Israel also opposes any unilateral Palestinian actions for statehood.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers Britain would consider embracing the request, but only if the Palestinian Authority could give him some key assurances – including pledges to return to negotiations with Israel and to not pursue its grievances with Israel in international courts.

Australia has said it will abstain.

The Palestinian Authority is virtually assured of winning non-member-state status when the measure goes for a vote in the U.N. General Assembly, likely on Thursday. Two-thirds of U.N. member states have already recognized Palestine as a state.

Representatives from nearly 200 nations have begun two weeks of talks aimed at agreements on how to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Delegates at the U.N. climate change conference in Doha, Qatar will chiefly tackle extending the Kyoto Protocol. The pact, which expires this year, binds developed countries to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels.

Major greenhouse gas emitters like the United States and China are not part of the deal, while Russia, Japan and Canada say they do not want to be part of an extension to the Kyoto agreement. That would leave only about 15 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions covered under a continuation of the pact.

The conference will also include talks on crafting a new global climate deal that would be finalized by 2015 and go into effect in 2020.

The talks come after a U.N. report, released last week, warned of the need for accelerated action in order to keep worldwide temperatures from rising up to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

It said greenhouse gas emissions have risen 20 percent since 2000, and that without any further pledges of action, global temperature rise is likely to reach between 3 and 5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Scientists worldwide overwhelmingly agree that billions of tons of man-made carbon dioxide emissions pumped into the Earth's atmosphere over the last 100 years are largely to blame for global warming.

Sunday marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which was first designated by the UN General Assembly in December of 1999.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement calling on all governments to make good on their pledges to end all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world. He added that it is the perpetrators of violence who should feel disgraced, not the victims.

The UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has announced a new initiative, called COMMIT, which asks governments to make national commitments to come up with new policies to protect women who are victims of violence.

Catherine Ashton, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, says violence against women is arguably the most widespread human rights violations of our time. She pledged the EU's commitment to making the world safe for women.

The United Nations says there are currently 125 countries that have laws penalizing domestic violence. However, 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime and as many as seven out of 10 women are targeted for physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.

The U.N. Committee Against Torture has strongly criticized Russia for failing to investigate widespread allegations of torture and intimidation, and reprisals against human rights activists and journalists.

In a report presented Friday at the committee's 49th session in Geneva, a panel of 10 independent experts said they are seeing very few effective investigations that lead to prosecution of perpetrators of torture in Russia.

The committee called on Russia to take immediate and effective measures to prevent all acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the county and to eliminate the impunity of those allegedly responsible.

The committee also called for the repeal of a new law backed by President Vladimir Putin that expands the definition of treason so broadly that critics say it could be used to call anyone who opposes the government a traitor.

Burma's president has pledged to consider new rights for the stateless Rohingya minority ahead of a landmark visit by U.S. President Barack Obama.

In a letter to the United Nations Friday, Thein Sein condemned what he called “senseless violence” in western Rakhine state between local Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya.

The Burmese leader said he would look into easing the work and travel restrictions placed on the Rohingya to bring the measures up to “accepted international norms.”

The U.N. called Thein Sein's letter “a step in the right direction.”

Many Burmese consider the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, but Bangladesh also does not recognize them as citizens.

U.S. President Barack Obama becomes the first U.S. president to ever visit Burma on Monday.

The White House says Mr. Obama will meet with Thein Sein, opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi and other officials to “encourage Burma's ongoing democratic transition.”

The U.S. has suspended sanctions on Burma and removed an import ban in recognition of Thein Sein's political and economic reforms after half a century of military rule, but Washington still wants him to end ethnic conflict and release all political prisoners.

Some activists have warned that President Obama's trip risks rewarding a government that still has a poor human rights record. Human Rights Watch has called the trip “premature.”

President Obama will also travel to Cambodia and Thailand.

The United Nations' top human rights official has urged China to address the many grievances in Tibetan areas that have led to a growing number of deadly protests.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a statement Friday that social stability in Tibet will never be achieved through heavy security measures and suppression of human rights.

Pillay said she is disturbed by continuing allegations of violence against Tibetans seeking to exercise their fundamental human rights.

She also appealed to Tibetans to refrain from resorting to extreme forms of protest, such as self-immolation and urged religious leaders to use their influence to help stop the loss of human life.

Since February of 2009, at lest 62 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese policies in Tibet. In at least 50 cases, the protesters have died.

The large number of self-immolations has prompted Chinese officials to offer cash rewards to anyone who provides information on people planning to set themselves on fire.

China rejects the charges of religious and cultural repression, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and benefit from Chinese investment in the region.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon joined South Korean rap phenomenon Psy in his trademark “Gangnam Style” dance moves Tuesday at U.N. headquarters.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Ban said he was “a bit jealous” of his countryman, lamenting that Psy's meteoric rise to global popularity means he is no longer “the most famous Korean in the world.”

The usually serious Mr. Ban loosened up and allowed Psy to teach him some of the dance moves popularized by the music video for “Gangnam Style,” which has been viewed more than 530 million times on YouTube.

The U.N. secretary general joked that he thought Psy was so cool that he may be able to help end global warming. The 34-year-old artist, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, returned the praise, saying “now you have the first and second famous Korean in the same building.

The U.N. Security Council says it plans to impose sanctions on the leaders of a Congolese rebel group and others who have violated an arms embargo on the country.

The council also expressed its “deep concern” over reports that the Congolese militia group known as M23 is receiving help from neighboring countries.

U.N. experts have accused both Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the rebellion in Congo's east, a charge both countries deny.

In its statement Friday, the U.N. Security Council stressed the urgency for dialogue between the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbors, especially Rwanda.

The DRC government has struggled to bring order to the east of the country for years. New unrest flared up in April when the army began battling M23.

The militia originated as another rebel group that was integrated into the army in 2009. It takes its name from a peace accord that the rebels say was violated by the government.

Human Rights Watch accuses the rebel group of committing widespread war crimes, including rapes, killings, abductions and recruiting children to work as soldiers.

Fighting between the government and M23 has displaced hundreds of thousands of people.