Syrian troops killed at least 22 people in a crackdown they launched in the flashpoint central city of Hama on Tuesday, a human rights group said.

"At least 22 people were killed in Hama and more than 80 wounded some of them seriously," Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

Amnesty International on Wednesday accused the Syrian regime of committing crimes against humanity during a deadly crackdown over a pro-democracy protest in a border town.

The London-based rights group urged the United Nations to take action over the assault by the security forces and army on Tall Kalakh in May, amid the protests against President Bashar Assad's rule that have swept the country.

The United States on Tuesday called on Syria to withdraw its forces from the flashpoint city of Hama at the hub of an anti-regime revolt, where residents have mobilized to keep out troops.

"We urge the government of Syria to immediately halt its intimidation and arrest campaign, to pull its security forces back from Hama and other cities, and to allow Syrians to express their opinions freely so that a genuine transition to democracy can take place," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Australia's military conspired with U.S. guards to deny the Red Cross access to prisoners held at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail, including a high-value detainee, said documents published Tuesday.

Its officials also misled the public on the legality of interrogations, before prisoner abuse was exposed in photographs that shocked the world in May 2004, a year after the U.S.-led invasion, a Sydney-based legal lobby group said.

Yemeni authorities arrested the head of a Shiite opposition party, Hassan Zaid, at Sanaa airport on Tuesday as he was headed for the Saudi city of Jeddah, his son said.

"My father was detained," Mohammed Hassan Zaid told Agence France Presse. "He was travelling to Jeddah when he was detained and not allowed to leave."

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."