>> good morning. this is aljazeera america. i am richelle carey. secretary of state john kerry in geneva for high level talks on the crisis in syria. will the u.s. and russia be able to reach a deal for removing chemicals from the war torn nations? a power play from putin, warning against a military strike in syria. >> flash flooding forces thousands in colorado to flee. >> hundreds held host acknowledge, thousands forced to flee, armed muslim rebels and

government rebels face off in intense fighting. >> russian penalty putin sounding off on syria. mr. putin cautioned the u.s. against military strikes, saying he felt compelled to speak directly to the american people about the dangers of intervention saying it could undermine multi-lateral efforts to resolve the iranian problem and destabilize the middle east, throwing the entire system of international law and order out of balance. that's a quote. his message was delivered hours before secretary of state john kerry and russia's foreign 15ster are set to meet in geneva. the two are talking about the plan for russia to destroy syria's chemical weapons.

the u.n. report is set to be reds next week, but the key question of who deployed them is not addressed. let's begin in switzerland with phil. good to see you, secretary of state john kerry is expected to meet with his russian counterpart this afternoon. what are we expecting to come from this meeting? >> >> well, richelle, we're expecting them to talk on a number of different issues. the position of the two officials is very wide. you know, the russians are reluctant to see any claws and any u.n. security council resolution that would call for military action if the syrians are shown not to comply with get ingrid of their chemical weapons. washington and the west, in particular, the french are

offering another resolution, say that that is an absolute necessity, because otherwise, damascus just won't adhere to any kind of resolution. that's first and foremost on the table. there are a number of different issues between the kremlin and white house that need to be bridged, and it's going to be a difficult task to try and achieve some sort of consensus, so that a single unified resolution can be brought to the u.n. instead of a russian-backed and western-backed. ry chill. >> it is a heavy lift for sure. >> russian leadership issued a video, in a video that rejected the proposal, how might has affect the talk? >> well, that's probably not going to help things here. the russians see the rebels as actually the problem, and the russians are still saying that it's entirely possible that it's the opposition who used the

weapons on the attacks, which sparked this crisis. they say that those rebels are by and large al-qaeda-supporting terrorists and they still support the assad regime. the syrian opposition chiming in here right before the russians and the americans are supposed to sit down might actually complicate matters. >> ok, we'll be talking to you throughout the this morning. >> russian president putin is making his case on syria in the new york times. he urged the u.s. to seek diplomacy instead of military action. we report. >> russia's president feels compelled to speak directly to the american people about the dangers of military interventio. on wednesday, h wrote the potential strike by the united states against syria will result in more innocent victims, a strike would increase violee

and unleash a new wave of terrorism. his warning comes after president obama said military must remain an option. >> it's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed and any agreement must verify that the assad regime keeps its commitments. this has the potential of removing chemical weapons without force. >> some say it pins a lot of responsibility on russia. >> you'll notice that he did not lay down any specific conditions for the resolution. he didn't say what would constitute success or failure. he's trying to leave himself some flexibility and secretary kerry for diplomacy. >> this gives us the opportunity to put to the test assad and his russian friends. if they prove themselves to be duplicitous, that will be a

stronger argument for president obama to act on his own or receive more support from congress and the american people. >> put tune said any efforts to preserve what he calls law and order must take place through the u.n. security council: >> setting the tone for what could prove a long and difficult diplomatic dance. aljazeera. >> the russians are stressing that force should not be used in order to get syria to turn over its chemical weapons. barnaby phillips is in moscow. >> the russian foreign minister is on his way to geneva. we know what his stance will be, that the syrian government must reveal its chemical weapons and they must be destroyed. he will argue that this process should not be backed up by the threat of force. russian is that believes that is

potentially counter productive, that it is in the syrian's government best interest to comply with this process. meanwhile, the russian president vladamir putin has made a direct appeal to the american people in the new york sometimes, warning against military action against syria, saying this would destabilize an already dangerous part of the world that would have consequences for example with the iranian nuclear issue, with talks between israel and palestine. he's pointing to what he believes is a pattern of unwise american intervention characterized by brute force, in iraq, in libya, with ill thought through missions and dangerous consequences. he wants the americans to avoid this in the case of syria. >> a vote on congress is on while president obama allows for the possibility of a diplomatic solution. we are in washington.

how is the white house reacting to this op ed from russian president vladamir putin. >> i really would like to have been the fly on the wail when white house officials first saw that op ed. of course, we don't know what their private thoughts are, but publicly, what they're saying is that putin has apparently bought in to the need to disarm syria's chemical weapons and set up international monitoring that will lead to the destruction of those weapons. the white house obviously i obvt praising his comment, but saying that this is indicated that putin is much more involved. the white house that pointed out that in the past 72 hours, we've had a couple of major developments they are tributing to president obama's approach to this crisis, notwithstanding all the criticism he's been taking for the start-stop, some people would say a little bit busy organized strategy. the white house is saying that syria now admits that it has

chemical weapons, that russia is stepping in to talk about a diplomatic solution, and while it has blocked action at the u.n., now russia is at least saying that it wants to see a u.n. resolution to this crisis. the white house is seeing those steps. putin's involvement as being a positive. >> with congress standing down, things being at a stand still there when it comes to the president's request of authorization for use of force, what's actually going on in terms of formal deliberations on that matter? >> formal deliberations are at a stand still. we have behind the scenes negotiation to revise the resolution authorizing use of force. in the house, there has been no resolution at all. congress is dealing with other important issues, the nation is facing a possible shutdown october 1 unless congress takes

some kind of action. usually, that takes the form of a continuing resolution, but there are forces in congress trying to use that continuing resolution to prevent a government shut down to try to put the brakes on obamacare on the affordable care act, so while the world and the nation has been focused on syria domestically, there's some very important actions that congress is facing and we will be hearing a lot more about in the coming days. >> a lot on congress's plate and the president's plate, as well. >> emergency evacuations are underway in colorado. torrential rain caused flash flooding that left one dead. james town reports that multiple homes have collapsed. there have been reports of mud and rock slides. in boulder, almost all the city roads have been cut off because of flooding.

>> it's a disaster. if that retaining wall comes down, which we're told that it might, we're in trouble. >> the university of colorado at boulder is right in the thick of the floods. students say that they have been receiving text alerts from the school on the conditions. >> now also, joining us on the phone is public information officer with the boulder office of emergency management. thank you for joining us this morning. i know that you've got so much going on. are there any evacuations underway right now? >> well, currently, we still have those same evacuations we've had through the evening. james town has a mandatory evacuation. there have been evacuations in lyons. seventy people in boulder had to evacuate, but for now, the only mandatory evacuation is for

jamestown. >> what made the situation so urgent so quickly? how did this all play out? >> i think a lot of it is geography. most of boulder county sits in the mountains, so towns are in the mountains, like jamestown, lyons and smaller towns. the rain hits in the mountains and runs down our creeks and overflows in the cities and towns. we also had a big fire about three years ago, the four-mile fire. the burn scars caused issues when we have hard and fast rains like this. the water just ran right into town. >> what do you anticipate for the rest of the day. how do people that need help get in touch with you? >> we do have a call center open to they can call the public call center line. we will be running operations here at the center all day again. we have shut down a lot of the

town, boulder university, the city offices are closed. we are telling people to shelter in place. let search and rescue get through. if they need assistance, they can call the emergency lines and we'll try to get out to them. there is debris and water on the roads. it's been a transportation issue. >> if you don't have to go anywhere, don't go anywhere, so that emergency workers don't have to come and get to you. gabrielle, thank you so much and do keep us posted on how things are going there. >> our meteorologist has more on the situation in colorado. nicole, are they going to get a break? >> not looking like it. let's take a look. this is a patch work quilt of different watches and warnings, all the different areas of green you see. it's not just colorado. we've been looking at this in especially parts of new mexico

have had some of the heaviest areas of rain, as well. she was talking about the geography. another thing to look at is sometimes when that water comes down the mountains, it can move rock, so you have rock slides on the road, as well. for a person, it only takes six inches of water to knock you off your feet. two feet to move a vehicle. so dangerous situation, as we put this into motion, you see this circular low pressure area, helping to funnel the moisture into the region. we are looking at several more inches of rain in some places, persistently 1-2. if you end up under one of those patches where the showers keep going over the area, that's when it condition really build up and build the flooding situation. >> through the great lakes, stormy weather yesterday. most of the severe weather records were from wind.

new york northward, we're going to see that chance for particularly wind, maybe some areas of hail, but the good side is that finally, we'll get temperature relief. already on the backside of this, it's getting more comfortable. toronto is 74. we saw numbers near 90 degrees, washing don d.c. 92 today. as we continue off the next couple of days, showers and storms for new york for example, later in the day, it's a better chance and especially overnight seeing that. then as we get toward the weekend, look at this, we go into the 70's, which i think people are going to find much more comfortable than the oppressive heat and humidity. where the front has gone through in the midwest, temperatures from the 1980's and 1990s to places like farring today. >> let's go to the flooding happening in colorado.

aljazeera is in denver. the flooding is called extremely serious. what's going on now? >> it's been raining for about three days now, and now that rain has turned into massive flooding. it's a very dangerous situation. much of the streets in boulder are completely impassible and a number of homes in boulder county have been destroyed, literally swept away by the rain waters. one person has been confirmed dead in james town. this is just outside of boulder. the national weather service issued a flash flood emergency for the entire county, and northwest jefferson county. there have been some emergency y evacuation orders issued. there have been a number of homes destroyed in the jamestown area. the university of boulder, university of colorado at boulder is going to be closed

today due to the flooding. more evacuations continue. i can also tell you that in the suburbs of rest minister and just outside of denver, dive teams have been sent in to try to help wherever they can. this is truly a very dangerous situation right now. it is dark still here in boulder and denver metro area. people are going to be starting to wake up early and not be able to see how deep those flood holes are. yes, a very dangerous situation here in denver and boulder. >> do keep us posted throughout the day. >> a major gun law debate shot down in the show-me state, an update on the plan to nullify federal gun laws in missouri. >> pastor terry jones is accused

and put into cuffs for the way he honored victims of the 9/11 attacks.

>> in the philippines. the stand off between government forces and separate its demanding independence is in its fourth day. we have more from the capitol. >> it's been four days since fighting broke out between the philippine government and moral national liberation front fighters. there seems to be no sign that these clashes are going to slow down. in southern philippines, the city remained on lockdown. over 100 civilians remain hostage. over the last few hours, we've seen hundreds of soldiers move in, government forces and we've spoken to u.n. observers who said this is increasingly a humanitarian concern. the philippine government is putting the number at those forced to leave their homes at 14,000. observers say families are still trapped between the fighting, unable to get out.

they say there are several bodies that have been decomposing since fighting broke out monday morning. there was a peace agreement with the philippine government in 1996, but that was never fully implemented. now they are prosing peace talks between the fill gene government and liberation front. they said these talks are not inclusive and do not represent the needs of the people. we've spoken to government earlier, who said they are looking at a peatful solution to solve the crisis. on the ground, the military have said they are making sure that these fighters, commanders will be held responsible for the assaults they have conducted in the city. right now, there seems to be a disconnect between central government, there's no clear strategy on how they intend to solve this crisis. >> pass tore terry jones is under arrest, planning to burn thousands of korans.

jones says that he was going to burn one book for each of the victims of the september 11 attacks. jones first made national headlines in 2010 when he threatened to burn a koran on the 9/11 anniversary in new york city. >> chicago has approved a multi-million dollar settlement for two cases of police torture that happened two decades ago. a man was brutalized to obtain confessions. >> the price for more than two decades behind bars in chicago? an apology and $12.5 million. that's the amount the city council agreed to pay two men after police allegedly beat and tortured them into confessing in four murders. the city later declared them innocent. >> we do not kid ourselves that the fight is over or that the city has somehow become a kinder and gentler one. i don't think that's the case. >> mayor rahm emanuel called the scandal a dark chapter on the

history of the city of chicago and gave a long awaited apology, saying i'm sorry this happened. let us all now move on. the man accused was john burge, now serving for and a half years in prison. it has cost the city ate $5 million. he oversaw the unit accused of torturing and beating black men into false confession. in some cases, they were nearly suffocated with plastic bags, in others, cattle prods used on their genitals. matthew kitchen said: >> the struggle is not by no means over. there is still men in jail who were tortured into giving false confessions. they need to have new hearings in court. >> the torture case might not be

over. one defense attorney has called for a $20 million fund for all the victims still awaiting justice. aljazeera, chicago. >> at&t has yanked an ad that you saw on 9/11. it was a tribute, they say. well the telecom giant posted this photo of the 9/11 tribute lights to its twitter account. many people accused the company of seeing a september 11 anniversary for product placement. at&t with drew the photo and apologized. >> boston airport officials are apologizing also for conducting an ill-timed fire drill. the exercise drew criticism on line because they did it yesterday, the overs of 9/11. airport officials said it did not interfere with operations. >> charged with making threats,

a 29-year-old nigerian born military veteran quit his job. after he resigned, he allegedly made calls to the airport, telling officials to evacuate terminals. he was arrested shortly afterwards, charged with making false threats and making threats affecting interstate commerce. he posted on a website, promise attacks more devastating than those on 9/11. >> so you think syria's chemical weapons could take years. the challenges the world faces if the search for and destroying those weapons goes forward. >> high tech hurricane hunting, what nasa is doing hunting monster storms. >> why these apple fans are willing to wait for a new phone. >> good morning, coming up later in sports, reports of the legal benefits emerge just days before one of the biggest college football games of the year.

>> welcome back. these are our top stories at this hour. in colorado, heavy rains started flash flooding. at least one person is dead and homes have been evacuated. between four and seven inches of rain fell last night. >> secretary of state john kerry in geneva preparing for diplomatic talks to figure out a way for syria to turn over it's chemical weapons stockpile. >> vladamir putin warned against u.s. strikes in syria in a new york times on that sed, writing action would increase violation and unleash a new wave of

terrorism. >> the process of collecting syria's chemical weapons could take years. it has been done before. >> somewhere in the war ravaged landscape of syria sits a large supply of chemical weapons. the u.s. does not know where all the stockpiles are. that's the first problem. >> the question is how do you verify something that has never been in the public domain or intelligence sources? extremely difficult. chemical weapons can be disguised. unless you have a team on the ground verifying, this is going to take a long period of time. >> another issue is the violence. u.s. inspectors had the car shot at during the last inspection. it's not sure they will be safe. it's possible the weapons are in areas the government is not in

control of. >> it was a long process. our instructions from the security council were to destroy, remove or render harmless iraq's weapons of mass destruction, including chemical. in my final report to the security council, i said we've done it. >> libya is a different example. international inspector said they had gotten rid of all their chemical weapons only to find after the fall of muammar gaddafi they haven't. >> this is a process that will take a certain amount of time, but it needs to be credible. it needs to be verifiable, and we will work with our allies and partners to test whether or not that can be achieved. >> the one thing the obama administration has avoided saying is how much time they're willing to give the idea of diplomacy. we should have a much better

idea after the meeting in geneva of a possible u.s. time frame. >> now president obama aggressively pushed for military strikes on syria to change course following an unexpected proposal from the russians. now he is making his case for more diplomacy. in a very short period of time. the president went from wanting military action to now being open for diplomacy. how effective can he be going forward. >> what's interesting with the president's decision is that number one, he's circumvented a confrontation with the more than public. on two occasions, he talked about coming out of iraq and afghanistan. the voters of this country took him at his word. this would be a war, if you could call it that, that he would own by himself.

he could not blame the bush administration on this. so in a way, he sort of took himself out of contention with the american people in a direct confrontation about having to make his case number one. number two, what's also very interesting is that even though a lot of members of congress were ready to support him, i also think they avoided basically having to go to their constituents in 2014 and try to explain this and explain how they had to get on the president's bandwagon. it's very tough to do for republicans that are in contested races. for the president right now, he sort of avoided a lot of political pit falls within the united states. what is interesting i think is the relationship that he now has with russia and china and how difficult i think that is going forward. >> this op ed had quitter abuzz last night from russian president vladamir putin. how does that complicate things going forward particularly for

the president on the world stage. >> russia seems to have put him in a box. russia and putin and assad have been long time allies. this is putin giving assad a lifeline. it's put putin on the world stage in this form of chief diplomat. >> it does seem that way, sort of remarkable. >> and taken the wind from behind the president. i also think that that happened previously with the u.k.'s rejection of military use in parliament. it's something that they have not done in 150 years, denied the prime minister of using military force. i think the world is not prepared to go into syria now. the president tried to make that case to congress and was winning a little bit, but putin took the wind from his sails. that's a position i don't think the white house wanted to be in. >> military action still is not completely off the table.

suppose a few weeks down the road, this is not working and the president says this is what i wanted to do, what is what i knew we would have to come back to. will he have an easier time getting support from congress, a harder time, or do you think he will just go forward. >> i think we saw the rolling out of the strategy previously, trying to show the videotape, show the direct evidence. i think he has to continue to do that, but has to let the adjustment inspectors do their job. if he's going to use military force, he's got to take the inspectors out before using force, which means the inspection cannot continue. if you want to use military force one have to make the case, but you can't make the case if you're going to take the people helping you build the case out of the region. he's caught in a very tricky place. having said that, i do think that he's going to have to continue the drum beat just a bit, but it does lose steam after time. if everybody else in the world

is trying to find a diplomatic solution answered he's still talking military force. >> we appreciate you coming in this morning. thank you very much. >> hundreds of thousands of refugees from syria are packed into makeshift camps near the syrian-lebanese border. we have one story of desperate refugees from lebanon. >> a few miles from syria, anjar, lob no one is in a beautiful part of the valley. many of the people who crossed the border to get here are living in desperation. >> the sadness is so deep, i just pry to god, we are fed up. >> this man was a taxi driver in damascus, saying the syrian regime had him arrested twice and threatened his wife and children. seven months ago, they left. today, they live in this makeshift tent city along with dozens of other families. there is no electricity here,

food, water and clothing is scarce. health services virtually non-exitest. there are many places like this with the border with syria. >> these small children are from damascus, fleeing the country on the border because of the war. deplorable conditions here. this is a hole that was dug so that all of the people here can have a toilet to go in. >> after months of heavy bombing and fire fights, this woman and her husband left the suburbs of damascus. she said that the children were so scared, all they did was cry all day long. >> i never imagined i would ever be in this situation, because i have built a new house, all the money we saved, we built the house. it was very new, very beautiful house we had to leave and come. i don't know what will happen to us. >> they are trying to help the refugees here by distributing

supplies and donations. she worries that without more international help, there is little hope for these families to survive in these conditions and as the war rages on, a return to syria seems years away. >> some people come, they have nothing to wear, no place to go, no money to spend, nothing to eat. some people come with very sick children. others come with very bad psychological cases. it's at bad as a war can get. >> the immediate release of $58 million released for humanitarian aid will help children. more money will be needed, and lob no one is hoping for more international assistance with hundreds of thousands more refugees expected, lebanese government knows it cannot keep pace. there are growing worries that

the demands of the in flux will soon affect the economy and stability of the country itself. robertry, aljazeera, lebanon. >> facebook founder mark zuckerberg said the government blew it. >> it's our government's job to protect us and our freedoms and protect the economy and companies. i think that they did a bad job of balancing those things here. frankly, i think that the government blew it. >> facebook and yahoo filed a lawsuit against the n.s.a. the company ares asking for permission to release information about government user data requests. microsoft and google filed a similar lawsuit in june after coming under scrutiny for their cooperation with the agency. yahoo received over 12,000 data

requests from the government, facebook 11,000 and google 8500 requests. facebook says the majority of inquiries are related to crime such as robberies and kidnappings. >> the brazilian government wants information about n.s.a. spying on its country. brazil said documents from the edward snowed den said the president's emails were intercepted and hacked into the computers of the oil companies. the white house said the reports decides tort the n.s.a.'s activities but will act on the concerns. >> die hard apple fans in japan began camping out at the flagship store wednesday waiting for the new iphone. they have a very, very long wait ahead of them, because the latest version will not be out until september 20. apple will sell two new models.

wall street not that impressed. apple stock fell 5% over the concerns that the 5c. is too expensive. >> nasa is using drones over the atlantic ocean to study hurricanes and storms, eventually saving lives by improving forecasts that predict hurricane strength. nasa launched one of the drones on wednesday. >> hurricane humberto continues to churn the atlantic, but a new threat could be drawing. >> we are starting to get more activity out there and a couple areas of interest. as we look across the broad view of the atlantic, you were mentioning humberto. you can see this way off in the distance. this has taken the turn to the north. we are not going to see any problems there. as you continue off, we are going to watch that over the next couple days. we call this fish storms, they bother the fish and pretty much no one else.

gabrielle well off to the atlantic. it has if i am initialed to the impression and will be downgraded before too long. the area we're watching that could develop is this, it's been moving over the yucatan. as this pulls back out into the bay, it is possible we were talking about the drones, but my colleagues with air force reserves could possibly be flying into this to investigate that area. you look to see whether that is a low level situation. we are going to see that we definitely have a cold front searching through the midsection of the country. with that, it's been easy to pick out that swirl in the southwest, that low level area or that area of pressure, that low circulation, if you know he will go in that moisture. we'll talk more about that in the next half hour. it is causing other concerns. the front going through has been good news for the midwest where we've had temperatures

10-20 degrees above average. it has settled them down to more normal and comfortable ranges. 72 in minneapolis today. as the front has moved in to the northeast, it has caused more problems. we have more reports of the area refiring, especially new york potential biggest threat is the wind. it will also cool things down. we have more comfortable temperatures, cleveland at 76. tomorrow, those temperatures are definitely going to be more in the 70's as we start the weekend. coming up, we'll talk more about that flooding, very tragic scenes as we head to colorado. >> let's talk sports now with michael eaves on this thursday morning. the hits keep coming for ncaa. >> they're not good hits. this is all off the field stuff.

it seems college football scandals have been a bigger topic than actual football games. sports illustrated has a five part investigative report on improprieties at oklahoma state involving cash payments to flares, as well as academic fraud. allegations that the school and coaches have denied. then comes a report from yahoo sports that to some agent were using an alabama player to funnel money to five different schools, including offensive lineman d.j. fluker. johnny manziel has been punished for signing hundreds of autographs which ended up on ebay. >> to the nfl, the jets quarterback suffered a torn labrum in his slowing shoulder during new york's final preseason game.

even if sanchez skips surgery and opts for rehab, he is still likely done for the season. his career with the jets could be over, the team could safe a $2 million roster bonus and $9 million in salary if they cut him in the off-season. >> yankees shortstop derek jeter is back on the 15 day disabled list after he reinjured his surgy radar sunkel. he missed the first 91 games after breaking his ankle last year. he returned to the d.l. twice. he said he fully intends to return next year, but he does turn 40 in june. >> meanwhile, the yankees still in position for a possible playoff spot. they entered the game against the orioles two games back.

con know hit a homer leading off the ninth inning. alex rodriguez and curtis granderson also had solo shots. new york has hit eight home runs and winning two of the first three games of this four-game set that concludes thursday night. >> the kansas city royals haven't been to the playoffs in 28 years but could be the central la story of this major league season. they entered wednesday trailing by three and moved closer by beating cleveland 6-2. a homer on the first pitch, shields dominated after a shaky first inning for the royals who have won 13-18. >> the red sox are running away with the a.l. east, making it hard for the teams battling for a wildcard spot. a pinch-hit grand slam in the 10th inning wednesday night gave the red sox a 7-3 win over the rays. carp is 5-17 with 2 home runs and nine r.b.i.'s.

a pinch-hitter this year. red sox now own a season high nine and a half game advantage over tampa in the division race. the wildcard standings right now, you see the yankees have now moved past baltimore and cleveland, getting closer to tampa with that win last night. kansas city went 26-18 over a stretch of 44 games in 44 days to climb within two games of the final playoff spot. that's why they could be the central la story. a lot of baseball still to be played. it could get even more entertaining. >> i'm still back on you staying derek jeter is almost 40. if he's getting older, are we getting older? >> he is getting older as an athlete. it's much harder to play. >> much harder, especially at the level he has. >> what's at stake in california if prisoners walk free. >> breaking down barriers with the run for political office,

why this man's candidacy is making history. ç]

>> welcome back. in missouri, a back and forth battle over gun control. the governor vetoed a bill that would have outlawed federal gun laws in the state, calling it unconstitutional. >> this vote was about as close as you can get. lawmakers got the 109 votes to override the governor's veto, but before the is that the, came up one vote short. has means the governor's veto stands. if it had been passed, it would have nullified federal gun laws in the state of missouri. some call it the most gun friendly piece of legislation ever to be considered and passed originally by a state legislator. it has been vetoed. critics said the bill was unconstitutional and dangerous, set i go up penalties for federal law officers trying to

enforce federal gun laws. the law will stay as-is. we'll see what happens next. some proponents of the law say they were happy to have overwhelming support for the bill. they believe that sends a message to the federal government about the immediate need to preserve second amendment rights. >> missouri lawmakers claim the bill was not only constitutional but essential to protect the lights of gun owners. >> california lawmakers have agreed to reduce the prison population. the state was ordered to cut the population. if the judges extend the deadline, money will be used to pay for rehabilitation programs. >> also in california, a controversial mortgage plan could use eminent domain to buy

private mortgages from banks. residents with underwater mortgages would be able to refinance at lower rates. >> the fashion world has taken over london this week. one group is trying to look away from the dazzle to the less glamorous side of the fashion business. more reports from beyond the catalog. >> the british economy has taken a turn for the better, but still cheap, busy posable clothes are popular for millions. that is the heart of the problem for the people who make them. a disaster placed pressure on the retailers. eighty western companies signed up to health and safety rules to protect workers against things like fire, yet others didn't. new pay rates for something preaching a living wage for garment workers still haven't been set. this bangladesh union leader thinks that that's a thin outcome after the deaths of more than a thousand people.

>> they are not interested to make progress for the workers. they simply think about their profit. >> just as mean-spirited in the view of campaigners is the refusal by several household name multi-national chains to offer any compensation at all to people killed and made destitute by the building collapse. >> they are making huge profit at the expense of the workers. when something like this happens which is avoidable, the companies won't pay the compensation, which is disgraceful. >> which makes london fashion week a time to remind pupil of the relationship between glamour and poverty. >> what we've seen over the last 10-15 years is window dressing from the european high street, where on the website, we might say one thing, but actually impacts the designers, the

buyers, the merchandising teams are doing quite a different thing with their design chains. >> most of the work is being done quietly by people who recognize they are unlikely to get shoppers to protest. a petition signed by a million people calling for more dignity for garment workers tells its own story but hasn't been enough yet to force change. >> the bangladesh government marketing association says only a quarter of the country's 2500 factories have been inspected. . >> 233 gallons of molasses spilled from a pipe. it is killing fish in the area, because they are having trouble breathing, the sugary substance leaked from a pipe. it's enough to fill seven rail

cars, or one third of an olympic sized swimming pool. >> another campaign bus in another german city for another candidate. it's elected time. this can't date is one of a kinds. he's black. he holds a doctorate in chemistry and was beaten up for his skin color several years ago. in this german city, race. >> runs higher than elsewhere. that is not stopping him. >> total openness in our society is in infant stage. we are a developing country in this reward. political parties haven't identified the potential image.

they could really enrich the political process. >> nationwide, only 4% of the candidates running for parliament are of immigrant background, but 20% of the population is of immigrant stock. the proportion of minority reputation is far below that in the parliament of france or great britain, for example. part of the problem is a german law. >> another part of the problem is the way germans with old traditional family roots see immigrants. >> they have difficulties with the name, and i think it will take some time to have a more normal situation that people don't ask, like does she speak german, is she able to understand everything that's going on there. it's still not normal. >> he is high up on a party list and has a good chance of getting

elected. he said he doesn't want to be a court city or m.p. told to specialize in immigration issues, because well, he's an immigrant. he just wants to be a member of parliament like any other german who wants to be, tries and wins. >> at the end of our first hour, here's what we're following. secretary of state john kerry has arrived in geneva to discuss the russian proposal to remove chemical weapons from syria. vladamir putin has an op ed published in the new york times saying potential strikes by the united states against syria will result in more in vent victims. >> rebels in the philippines have attacked a second town. exchange of gunfire was heard late into the evening. >> as the new yorkies make a late run, they will now have to do it without their captain. the latest, coming up later in sports. >> we still have flood concerns

through the four corners region, plus more rain this morning will cause problems. we'll have the latest on where we're going to see the flooding through the day. >> thanks, nicole. aljazeera continues in just two minutes. for news updates around the world, go to our website, aljazeera.com. thank you so much for your time. do keep it here.

>> good morning. i'm stephanie sy. in colorado, deadly flooding overnight, torrential rains hammering the state, sparking flash floods and forcing thousands to evacuate. south carolina jay cutler is in geneva for two days of high level talks on the syrian cries. will the u.s. and russia be able to reach a deal? >> just hours before the talks, a power play from russian president vladamir putin, warninging against u.s. strikes on syria, saying it would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.