Secretly filmed footage shown by a British TV station shows what the report said was evidence of patients being tortured in a military hospital in the battered Syrian city of Homs.

Images broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday show bandaged patients chained to hospital beds by their ankles, while a whip and electrical cable lie nearby.

The Syrian regime will collapse before the end of the year, Britain's ambassador to Damascus predicted in an interview published Tuesday.

Syria is "like a dam with fissures in it," Simon Collis told The Times newspaper. "The pressure is building up and one quite probable scenario is that, when it breaks, it will do so very quickly.

Western powers greeted Vladimir Putin's presidential election victory with resignation Monday, while leaders in Asia and the Balkans openly congratulated the Russian strongman on his return to the Kremlin.

The European Union's chief diplomat Catherine Ashton said the bloc merely "took note" of the outcome of Sunday's vote while there were assurances from the EU's most powerful members that they wanted to work with Moscow.

Syria is committing a crime by refusing aid for civilians affected by months of conflict, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Saturday, calling for an international response.

"We must defend international values ... while such atrocities continue," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as telling journalists in Istanbul.

Passengers in the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and continental Europe will soon be able to use their mobile phones in the undersea rail link, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The Daily Telegraph said a French technology group had sorted out a way of connecting the tunnel with mobile phone networks.

The Swiss group Nestle said on Friday it was the first company in Britain to remove artificial flavors in all its confectionery products such as Smarties or Rolo.

The company said in a statement that it had replaced artificial colors, flavors and preservatives with natural ingredients in all 79 confectionery products it sells in Britain.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron called Friday for the "criminal" Syrian regime to be held to account.

"One day, no matter how long it takes, there will be a day of reckoning for this dreadful regime," Cameron said as he joined European Union leaders on the second day of a two-day summit.

Eurotunnel, which operates the Channel tunnel between Britain and France, said on Thursday it would reduce train travel times by five minutes to boost traffic ahead of this summer's London Olympic Games.

In a conference call as the company announced its results for 2011, Eurotunnel chief Jacques Gounon said travel time under the Channel will be reduced from 35 to 30 minutes to allow for more daily trains.

Wounded photographer Paul Conroy was taken to Britain's embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut after he was smuggled out of the besieged Syrian city of Homs, Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday.

"I can tell the House that Paul Conroy is now safe," Cameron told parliament. "He has been in our embassy in Beirut in Lebanon, he has been properly looked after and I am sure that soon he will want to come home."

The United States is drawing up a new draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria demanding humanitarian access to protest cities where thousands have been killed, diplomats said Tuesday.

If put to a vote it would be the third time Western nations have tried to get a Security Council resolution on the 11 month old crisis.