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Britain has withdrawn its diplomatic staff from Syria because of a growing risk to their safety, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.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

The Syrian foreign ministry said on Thursday that it was willing to discuss a date for a visit by the U.N. humanitarian chief, saying the timing she had originally requested was "not suitable.”

U.N. undersecretary general Valerie Amos had "requested to come to Syria at a time that was not suitable for us. We are willing to continue discussions with her about a time suitable for both sides," the ministry said in a statement carried by state television.

Kuwait's parliament adopted on Thursday a non-binding resolution calling on the government to arm the Syrian opposition and to sever diplomatic ties with Damascus.

The vote came following an emergency session to debate developments in Syria, where thousands of people have been killed in a bloody crackdown by the regime of President Bashar Assad on pro-democracy protests.

Human Rights Watch sharply criticized Iraq on Thursday for using "repressive means" to muzzle peaceful protests last week to mark the anniversary of nationwide anti-government rallies.

The New York-based watchdog said activists were threatened with violence and arrest in the build-up to the anniversary protests last month, and said security forces used various means to prevent demonstrators from attending rallies in Baghdad.