5.42pm BST

Here's a summary of the main events today:

Syria

• Syrian rebels say they captured an air defence base with a cache of missiles outside Damascus. Videos posted on the internet purport to show a government helicopter being shot down in the same area.

• The central city of Homs has been subjected to its most severe bombardment in five months, the BBC reports citing activists. Aircraft and artillery targeted the neighbourhood of Khaldiya, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

• A UN security council statement has condemned Syria's mortar attack in Turkey, urged restraint, but on Russia's insistence, removed a reference to the incident being a "threat to international peace and security." A second statement has condemned the bombings in Aleppo that reportedly killed 48 people earlier this week.

• The Syrian regime has ordered its military to stay 10km away from the Turkish border, according to Turkish news website.

• Rebels have again threatened to execute Iran hostages in a bid to stop government shelling, according to an update from Ausama Monajed a leading member of the opposition Syrian National Council. Video from the al-Baraa brigade gave the Syrian regime a 48-hour deadline to end the shelling and release all detainees before they execute 45 Iranians who were captured in Damascus in August.

• Human Rights Watch has called for the release of a prominent human rights lawyer who was abducted on Tuesday while driving to his office. Khalil Maatouk, executive director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, and his friend Mohamed Zaza, haven't been seen since then.

Jordan

• Thousands of people have gathered in the capital Amman for a pro-reform rally. The demonstration signalled the failure of King Abdullah's attempt to quell public anger ahead of the rally by dissolving parliament.

Iran

• Iran will defeat an enemy "conspiracy" against its foreign currency and gold markets, an adviser to the country's supreme leader said on Friday, following violent protests that closed Tehran's grand bazaar. "Iran is overcoming the psychological war and conspiracy that the enemy has brought to the currency and gold market and this war is constantly fluctuating," Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, an adviser, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying.

Libya

• Tension continues around Bani Walid in Libya, with reports of a militia attack overnight. The Libyan army is reported to be poised to attack the town.

Morocco

• Morocco has withdrawn accreditation from a journalist working for the French news agency, AFP, after he wrote an article linking the palace to a political party competing in by-elections.