BBC News with Jerry Smit.

The United States and its Western allies have condemned Syria's decision to hold a presidential election on June 3rd, despite the continuing civil war. Britain's foreign office said the poll was designed to sustain the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. The US State Department dismissed it as a parody of democracy. From Washington, here is Barbara Plett Usher.

The international plan for a political solution calls for a transitional government to run the country until free elections can be held. But the President Bashar al-Assad said recently the conflict had reached a turning point because of military gains against the rebels. Analysts say he wants the election to further demonstrate his grip on power. The announcement comes amid new reports of chemical attacks. The United States says there are indications that a toxic chemical probably chlorine was used on the battlefield this month and it's investigating whether the government was responsible.

The United States and Russia have exchanged mutual accusations regarding the conflict in Ukraine during a phone conversation between the US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. David Willis reports from Washington.

Judging by the contrasting accounts of its contents, a telephone conversation between the US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov simply led to both sides blaming the other. The US are accusing the Russians of dragging their feet over the protests, Russians are accusing the Ukrainian government and its backers, the United States, of failing to curb the activities of nationalists whom Russia blames for instigating the violence there. America is promising further sanctions in the coming days should Russia failed to make good on its Geneva commitments.

The European Security Organization monitoring the withdrawal of pro-Russian forces from government buildings in Ukraine says masked men at checkpoints are making it hard for observers to gain access. A team from the OSCE is in Ukraine to oversee the implementation of the Geneva accord reached last week to ease the crisis. A senior OSCE mediator told reporters he had met the self-appointed mayor of Slavansk to ask whether he could comply with the agreement.

School staff in the Nigerian state of Borno say the number of girls who were abducted from their school a week ago is far higher than the figure released by the government. Will Ross reports from Lagos.

Parents had long argued that the number of teenage girls seized was far higher than the official figure. The head mistress says 230 girls were taken, some managed to escape, and 187 are still missing. Boko Haram Islamist militants are believed to be holding the mostly Christian students in the forests of Borno state. Officials say all efforts are being made try to get the girls out safely, but any military operation using force will be extremely risky and could put the girls in even greater danger.

World News from the BBC.

Officials in Yemen say there has been a heavy and prolonged government air attack at what they say was now an al-Qaeda training camp in southern Yemen. The interior ministry says more than 50 insurgents are thought to have been killed in the attack by jet fighters. In a separated attack on Sunday, eyewitnesses said a drone fired a missile at a vehicle in the same area in Abyan province, killing 3 occupants.

The United Nations has given details of what it says were targeted killings by rebels in South Sudan of hundreds of civilians based on their ethnicity. The UN says the massacres took place when an anti-government forces seized the oil town of Bentiu last week, 200 people sheltering in a mosque are said to have been killed as well as many more in a hospital and a church. The head of the UN mission said he saw piles of bodies dressed in civilian clothes. The rebels denied the claims.

Thousands of runners have taken parts in the Boston Marathon amid tight security 1 year after the bomb attack that killed 3 people. The women's winner Rita Jeptoo of Kenya defended her title, saying she could not enjoy her winning a year ago following the bombings.

Last year I was not happy because there is this problem for bombing and for me, I'm happy because I decided to come here in Boston to run again to support the people in here in Boston and to show we are together.

The men's winner, Meb Keflezighi was the first American male to win the race since 1983.

A memorial ceremony marking the death on Thursday of the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez is being held in Mexico City shortly. Both the presidents of Colombia and Mexico are expected to attend. Gabriel Garcia Marquez first moved to Mexico in 1961 where he wrote his seminal novel "One hundred years of solitude". Residents in his home town in Colombia will hold a symbolic burial ceremony at the same time.

BBC News.

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