Meb Keflezighi won the 2014 Boston Marathon Monday before thousands of cheering spectators on hand in a show of defiance to last year's twin bombings near the finish line that killed three spectators and injured more than 260 others.
Keflezighi is the first American to win the legendary race since Greg Meyer in 1983. Pumping his fist in exhilaration, the Eritrean-born Keflezighi crossed the finish line Monday in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 37 seconds. In this 118th edition of the race, he beat runner-up Wilson Chebet of Kenya by 11 seconds.
Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won the women's race for the third time, with a record-breaking time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 57 seconds. Ethiopian Buzunesh Deba finished second, just over a minute later.
This year's race included an expanded field of runners - 36,000, to include about 6,000 from last year who were not allowed to cross the finish line because of the bombings.
US Investigating Possible Chemical Attack in Syria
U.S. officials say they have indications that toxic chemicals were used in a rebel area of Syria this month.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that the alleged attack in the western village of Kafr Zita involved an industrial chemical that was probably chlorine.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is working with the United Nations to rid Syria of its declared stockpile of such weapons. The OPCW said this week that 80 % of those chemicals have been removed from the country or destroyed.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that chlorine was not on the list of chemicals that Syria declared last year when it agreed to destroy the arms under international pressure.
Washington and its allies say Mr. Assad's forces unleashed sarin gas last year, killing hundreds of civilians. The Syrian government said it was the opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons.
