MySQL Server Administration - Mastering phpMyAdmin 2.11 for Effective MySQL Management - page 288

Server Variables
The Variables sub-page displays various settings of the MySQL server, which can be
defined in, say, the my.cnf MySQL configuration file. These values can't be changed
from within phpMyAdmin:
Server Processes
The Processes sub-page is available to superusers and normal users. A normal user
would see only the processes belonging to him or her, whereas a superuser sees all
the processes.
This page lists all active processes on the server, and a Kill link that allows us to
terminate a specific process.