At least 25,000 people died in the uprising against Libya's strongman Moammar Gadhafi and 50,000 more were wounded, the country's interim leader told a U.N. summit Tuesday.

National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil thanked the international community for their help in the months-long Libyan revolution, and while he told the summit that Gadhafi's regime members would face justice, he vowed that they would get "a fair trial."

The African Union has officially recognized Libya's National Transitional Council as the country's legitimate leadership, the group's chairman said Tuesday.

The announcement was transmitted by the office of South African President Jacob Zuma, six days after he hosted a meeting of the AU's special panel on Libya in Pretoria.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed a "new chapter" for Libya Tuesday as the victorious rebels' red, black and green flag was hoisted at the United Nations ahead of its annual General Assembly.

Fugitive strongman Moammar Gadhafi issued an audio message dismissing the new government as a "charade" that would not outlive the NATO air and naval support that brought it to power.

Gunfire and shelling rocked Sanaa for the third straight day on Tuesday as the toll from the worst outbreak of violence in Yemen's capital in months spiraled to 60 dead with hundreds wounded.

The violence has hampered attempts by regional and international mediators to clinch a power transfer deal between political rivals, with the opposition saying it will not negotiate "while blood is flowing in Sanaa."

British Foreign Minister William Hague said the European Union was withholding its position on a looming Palestinian bid for U.N. membership in a bid to force a return to peace talks with Israel.

Ahead of talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in New York on Tuesday, Hague said the 27 EU nations were staying silent on how they would vote on Friday "in order to exert as much pressure on both sides to return to negotiations."

Coordinated bombings against provincial government offices in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi killed at least three people on Tuesday, while shootings in the capital left three policemen dead.

Three explosions -- a car bomb followed by two suicide attacks -- just minutes apart in Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of Baghdad, struck against Anbar provincial offices in the center of the city Tuesday afternoon.

Fugitive strongman Moammar Gadhafi denounced Libya's new leadership as a "charade" backed by NATO air strikes which will not last forever, in an audio message aired on television Tuesday.

The remarks came ahead of the first talks between US President Barack Obama and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council (NTC) -- now recognized as Libya's legitimate leaders.

Two civilians were killed on Tuesday when Syrian security forces opened fire during a raid targeting anti-regime protesters in the central flashpoint city of Homs, rights activists said.

"Two civilians were killed in the Baba Amr neighborhood. Other residents were seriously hurt in Homs, where gunfire was heard from Monday night in many neighborhoods," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without giving further details.

Kuwaiti opposition groups called a rally for Wednesday to press for the government's resignation over an alleged corruption scandal involving a number of MPs and possibly former ministers.

The rally, called by Islamist, liberal and nationalist groups who altogether have more than 20 MPs in the 50-seat parliament, will kick start a campaign to expose those who paid and received the money and for what purposes.

The United States is increasingly convinced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be overthrown and is preparing for a possibly violent aftermath, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said Washington is quietly working with Turkey to plan for a post-Assad future that could see Syria's various ethnic groups battle for control of the country, potentially destabilizing neighboring states.