Speaking in a monotone, Abu Mahmoud recalls the four years he spent in Syrian jails, describing torture and appalling living conditions worthy of George Orwell's dystopian vision in his novel "1984."

Freed three months ago in an amnesty Damascus announced in an effort to douse the uprising that has now gripped Syria for nearly a year, the bearded 27-year-old, like many Syrians, refuses to be photographed or give his real name for fear of reprisal.

Syrian forces overran the Baba Amr district of powderkeg Homs on Thursday after rebels retreated, potentially marking a turning point in President Bashar al-Assad's bid to crush an increasingly armed uprising.

As rebel fighters pulled back, the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) warned of a "massacre" in the rebel neighborhood by Syrian forces, while aid agencies said they would urgently try to get there to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded.

A Jordanian military tribunal on Thursday freed on bail an outspoken former member of parliament who is on trial for urging a revolt in the kingdom, a court official said on Thursday.

"The state security court today released Ahmed Abbadi from jail on bail of 10,000 dinars (around $14,000)," the official told Agence France Presse without providing further details.

An American teacher was shot dead on Thursday by one of his students in a murder-suicide at a private Christian school in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, officials said.

The student, 18-year-old Piyar Suroor, killed himself after firing multiple gunshots at Jeremiah Small, a teacher at the Medes School in Kurdistan's second biggest-city of Sulaimaniyah.

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani said Thursday the time had come to "study all options" in seeking a way out of the Syrian crisis.

"We have to study all options to save the Syrian people," Al-Thani said after meeting European Parliament head Martin Schulz.

Two Chinese workers, kidnapped for ransom in Cairo on Thursday in a sign of growing insecurity a year after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, were released after several hours, an embassy official said.

"They are free," embassy spokesperson Lu Jingchun told Agence France Presse, without providing details of how the pair's release had been secured.

The Syrian National Council wants to organize arms deliveries from foreign countries to Syrian rebels through its new military bureau, its chief Burhan Ghalioun said on Thursday.

"We know that some countries have expressed a desire to arm the revolutionaries. The SNC, via its military bureau, wanted to organize this flow to avoid direct arms deliveries from particular countries," he said.

Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers staged protests at several military institutions across the country on Thursday demanding the departure of their chiefs, whom they accuse of corruption.

The demonstrations come just days after Ali Abdullah Saleh formally handed power to his deputy Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi following a year of protest.

Britain has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria because of a growing risk to their safety, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.

British diplomats left Syria on Wednesday and will return to Britain soon, he said in a written statement to parliament.

The U.N.'s Human Rights Council called on Syria Thursday to end all rights abuses and allow aid agencies "free and unimpeded" access to those caught up in the bloodshed.

A resolution adopted by the council condemned the "continued widespread and systematic violations of human rights" and urged the authorities to let humanitarian groups, including U.N. organization, in to deliver vital aid.