BBC News with Marion Marshall.
There has been heavy fighting in Syria for control of the ancient Christian town of Maaloula despite reports that government forces had retaken it from Islamist rebels. Jeremy Bowen has been in Maaloula whose residents still speak Aramaic, the language spoken at the time of Jesus Christ.
They planted a Syrian flag on the round above but the fight is still going on. For the rest of the villagers have been a hard one. They say they came in about 7 this morning, it's going for 5 in the afternoon, now it's still going on. In the short time I've been here, I've seen a fair number of wounded being brought back in pickups. So it's going on here in quite a big way they’re fighting hard and while the Syrian army and the national defenses in pretty well-armed and well-organized. They are facing clearly some pretty formidable adversary too, up to now after 10 hours of fighting are still in Maaloula.
Ambassadors from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are to meet later today in New York to discuss Syria's chemical weapons. Russian media say Moscow has already given the United States, its plans for placing Syria's chemical arsenal under international control. The American Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to discuss the details in Geneva on Thursday.
A car bomb explosion near a Shiah mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has killed at least 30 people and wounded many others. The bomb went off as worshippers were leaving the mosque in Kasra in northern Baghdad after evening prayers.