Twin suicide attacks ripped through the city of Taji north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 35 people, officials said, after Iraq suffered its deadliest month so far this year in June.

"Thirty-five people were killed and 28 wounded when a car bomb and an improvised bomb exploded simultaneously outside a government office where national identification cards are issued, and the provincial council offices," the official said.

A small French pleasure craft with eight protesters on board left Greek waters overnight and set off for Gaza in an attempt to break an Israeli naval blockade, organizers said Tuesday.

The "Dignite al Karama" is so far the only boat in a planned flotilla organized by pro-Palestinian activists to set sail from Greece, after the authorities there blocked other vessels from taking part in the protest.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is ready to cede power in exchange for security guarantees; an unnamed senior Russian official was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of the Kommersant business daily.

The press report came one day after NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed Libya in Russia with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has blocked plans to hand over to the Palestinians the remains of 84 militants killed since 1967, a statement from his office said early on Tuesday.

Barak's intervention came just hours after the military confirmed the transfer had been recently approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Libyan government on Tuesday denied accusations that it had executed detainees as punishment for their families' failure to join a rally in support of veteran leader Moammar Gadhafi.

"This report is baseless and no newspaper or (other) news agency reported anything of the kind," a statement from the government said, accusing Agence France Presse of "putting its credibility at stake."

A Tunis court on Monday sentenced ousted Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in his absence to 15 years in jail for possession of arms, drugs and archaeological artifacts.

In his second trial, Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia following a popular uprising in January, was also sentenced to a fine of 78,500 dollars.

Syrian security forces killed two anti-regime protesters near Damascus and deployed tanks in a town near Turkey's border, activists said on Monday, as the authorities eyed the recapture of Hama.

More than 20 people were arrested on the outskirts of the flashpoint central city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that angry residents countered by burning tires and hurling stones.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit out at Western governments on Monday for "tearing apart" Sudan while rejecting the demands of separatists on their own soil, his website said.

"Enemies want to tear apart Sudan," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the southeastern port city of Chabahar ahead of south Sudan's proclamation of independence on Saturday.

The head of Libya's rebel council said Monday that there is now no possibility of Moammar Gadhafi being granted internal exile in Libya, following an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest.

In a statement, Mustafa Mohammed Abdel Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, said: "There is absolutely no current or future possibility for Gadhafi to remain in Libya."

Bomb and gun attacks across Iraq on Monday killed at least four people, including two policemen, and wounded 14 others, security officials said.

A car bomb blast outside a hospital in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, killed a policeman and a civilian, said police official Major Nuri al-Jumaili. Eight other people were wounded, five of them policemen.