We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here's a summary of where things stand:

• The United States estimates "that 100 to 150 people have died from detected chemical weapons attacks in Syria to date." "The Assad regime should know that its actions have led us to increase the scope and scale of assistance that we provide to the opposition, including direct support" to the rebel military leadership, a White House statement warned. It was unclear what the US intends to do – read our interview with Jane's analyst Charles Lister here.

• The White House said President Obama will talk with G8 leaders at next week's summit to try to gather support for an expanded western role in Syria that could put pressure on President Bashar Assad and Russia to accept political negotiations. However a no-fly zone would be an "open-ended" commitment and as such is not in the national interest, security spokesman Ben Rhodes said. US and European officials were to meet with Free Syrian Army leaders in Turkey on Friday.

• The Syrian government challenged the American finding, calling it corrupt. The Russians also cast doubt on the US finding of chemical weapons, pointing out that the US has cried wolf on WMDs in the Middle East before. Britain and France said the findings squared with their own conclusions, however. The EU and UN called for a political solution to the Syrian conflict, with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warning that adding arms to the conflict would "not be helpful."

• The Guardian's Martin Chulov and Mona Mahmood reported that rebels are preparing for a new battle for Aleppo in the north, following the capture of Qusair on the Lebanese border by regime forces backed by Hezbollah.

• A UN resolution condemned war abuses in Syria, called on foreign fighters to stay away and asked for more aid for neighboring countries struggling to accommodate an estimated 1.6m refugees from the conflict so far.

• Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said the group would continue to fight in the Syrian conflict and shoulder the consequences. He was at pains to portray Hezbollah as an independent actor in the conflict, fighting in accordance with its traditional mission of "resistance," with no overriding allegiance in this case to the Syrian regime or to sectarian affiliations. Not everyone was convinced.