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.

Scientists in the United States have tested a vaccine on monkeys that appears to be effective in preventing the equivalent of HIV. Research published in the journal Nature suggested that about half of the vaccinated monkeys were able to clear infection. The researchers have now created a form of vaccine that could be tested on humans.

It's hoped within the next two years. Rebecca Morella reports.

The researchers looked an aggressive form of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus that up to 100 times more deadly than HIV while infected monkeys usually die within two years, the scientists have developed the vaccine that can stop the virus from taking hold. After inoculating rhesus macaque monkeys, the US team then exposed them to SIV, they found that at first the infection began to establish and spread. But then the immune system spurred into action searching out and destroying all signs of the virus.

A group of 160 Somali religious scholars has issued a religious edict or fatwa against the Islamist group al-Shabab which controls much of the country. At a meeting on religious extremism held in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the scholars said al-Shabab had no place in Islam partly because of its use of violence. A BBC correspondent in the city says that it's the first senior religious figures have issued such a statement.

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An aid worker for the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Central African Republic says bodies still laid to the streets of the town of Bouca after fighting earlier this week. The aid worker told the BBC that hundreds of properties have been burnt down leaving many families without shelter.

President Sebastian Pinera of Chile has called for national reconciliation on the 40th anniversary of the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Mr. Pinera said that the current generation of Chileans had no right to pass the hatreds of the past down to their children and grandchildren. However, the daughter of the late-deposed president Salvador Allende said she did not believe

in force to reconciliations.

Hundreds of thousands of people in northeastern Spain demanding independence for Catalonia have joined hands to form a human chain across the region. Many Catalans complained that the region which has its own language and its wealthy as many parts of Spain in effect subsidizes the government in Madrid. Tom Burridge reports.

This was another strong show of popular support in Catalonia for the idea of a vote on independence from Spain. A human chain stretched from Catalonia's border with France in the north along motorways and through villages and the Catalan capital of Barcelona eventually reaching the regional border with Valencia in the south. The Catalan President Artur Mas says he wants a referendum on independence next year but conceded that the Spanish government is unlikely to change its position, Madrid is strongly opposed.

Celebrations have taken place in the Afghan capital Kabul after the national football team won its first international trophy. Fans took to the streets to wave Afghan flags and fire guns into the air to mark the team's 2-0 victory over India in the final of the South Asian Football Federation Championship in Kathmandu.

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