The decision by Egypt's military to only partially scrap a decades-old emergency law is "an invitation to continued abuse" and the stifling of freedoms, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

Military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi on Tuesday announced the lifting of the hated emergency law, except in cases of "thuggery", to coincide with the anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year.

Bahraini police dispersed anti-government protesters who blocked roads in several villages, an official statement said on Wednesday, as tensions in the Shiite-majority Gulf kingdom continue to rise.

Public Security Chief Major General Tariq al-Hassan said "vandals blocked roads" and threw petrol bombs during Tuesday night clashes, according to a statement published on the official BNA news agency website.

Al-Qaida gunmen have withdrawn completely from the central Yemen town of Rada, which they overran nine days ago, tribal sources and witnesses said on Wednesday.

"They have left the town," located 130 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Sanaa, one tribal source said hours after a senior military official said there had been mediation to convince them to withdraw.

NATO is not considering any involvement in Syria or Iran, the alliance's top commander in Europe said on Tuesday, after Russian claims that such plans were afoot.

"In terms of Syria, I can tell you from a NATO perspective, we are not conducting any planning, we are not doing any detailed analysis, we are simply monitoring the situation," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told a panel discussion in Berlin.

European and Arab nations want a U.N. Security Council vote next week on a resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on protests and hinting at sanctions, diplomats said Tuesday.

Britain, France, Germany and Arab nations are working on the resolution which could face Russian opposition because of a call on all states to follow Arab League sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad.

Britain, France and the United States on Tuesday condemned Russia's arms sales to Syria which they said was fueling President Bashar al-Assad's deadly crackdown on protests.

Britain's U.N. ambassador Mark Lyall-Grant called the Russian weapons sales "irresponsible," at a Security Council debate on the Middle East.

Al-Qaida fighters agreed on Tuesday to withdraw from the central Yemeni city of Rada, which they seized a week ago, a military source said.

"Tribal mediation carried out by Sheikh Hashed Fadhl al-Qawsi succeeded, after three days of talks, to convince the armed al-Qaida men to leave Rada," a senior official told Agence France Presse.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Tuesday, causing no damage or injuries, an Israeli police spokesman said.

"One rocket was fired earlier this morning from Gaza and landed in an open area in the Eshkol region," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.

Blogger Michael Nabil, who was jailed last year for insulting Egypt's armed forces, was released on Tuesday, his brother said.

Marc Nabil posted a picture on Twitter of his brother on his release from prison.

Security has tightened in Damascus, the city that until now had been spared the worst of the daily bloodshed that has marked the pro-democracy revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Politics, city residents said, is now firmly part of the lives of those who until now functioned almost normally despite ten months of protests and crackdown that the United Nations says has killed 5,400 people.