♪ hello this is al jazeera america, i'm richelle carey. these are some of the stories we're following. president obama meeting with his cabinet. assad puts conditions on giving up his country's chemical weapons. collapsed roads and hundreds of people evacuated as deadly floods hit colorado. we have new information coming out of syria. president assad, reportedly said

that damascus will not fulfill the proposed initiative unless threats to bomb his country are stopped. that is the very latest from that interview. the question of what to do about syria has now shifted to switzerland. secretary of state john kerry arrived in geneva this morning. their aim is to work out details of a plan to have syria surrender its chemical weapons. so the plan, right, phil, is to see if this plan is workable. but if they even come to an agreement then there is the logistics to execute the plan. how much can they accomplish in this short period of time. >> yeah, it's a lot on the menu. not only do they have to figure

out whether this is something that all sides will sign on to, but then they have to figure out how to simply lay out the plan if it can be done logistically and scientifically. sa there are members on both delegations who have been brought in to answer those questions. but there will be some sort of resolution that all parties can agree to? and that's still a big if, because the russians are saying that they do not support a resolution in which a use of military force would be already authorized if it's shown that syria doesn't comply with getting rid of his chemical weapons. the kremlin is unlikely to agree to that. but the west is insisting on another -- a bunch of other provise sos that kremlin is

unlikely to go for. >> as i just reported bashar assad is setting his own list of what he will and won't do while these talks are going on in geneva. it's an extremely complicated formula, with a lot of different players and a lot of different moving parts. >> yeah, no, absolutely. richelle, and that interview with assad is no doubt going to displease leaders in the west. he said a number of different thicks in that interview with the russian news agency, not least of which is his timetable and expectations. he said he would release data a month after signing an agreement. that is just not going to do woe the western powers. we have heard from all of the major player's cap tolls, washington, london, and paris today all saying this needs to

be quick, verifiable, and reliable. we heard those words time and time again. so that is just not going to work. but most disturbingly assad said it is the russian diplomacy that is bringing this to the table not the threat of air strikes. >> oh, wow. thank you so much. president obama met with his cabinet this morning. randall what did the president have to say about the work that secretary kerry is doing right now? >> he said nothing about putin's op-ed. what he did say about kerry's mission to geneva is that he's hopeful it will work. >> i am hopeful that discussions

that secretary kerry has with foreign minister lavrov as well as some of the other players in this, can yield a concrete result, and i know that he is going to be working very hard over the next several days to see what possibilities are there. >> and the president was also talking about domestic issues, other issues that the nation faces, including the debt ceiling limit, and his administrative agenda on the beginning of obamacare. >> managing some of the budget debates that are going to be taking place over the next several weeks. we'll be talk about the rollout of the affordable care act, where we have seen tremendous progress over the last several months and are confident that starting at the beginning of next month, people will be able to start signing up for health

care in many cases for the first time, and we're going to spend some time talking about issues like comprehensive immigration reform that are still of enormous importance. >> house speaker john boehner is holding a us in conference this hour on capitol hill. he saying he and the republican-lead house are making it their business to dismantel -- or repeal, dismantel and defund obamacare. so president obama continues to face a possible domestic crisis here at home. >> he definitely is trying to refocus on his agenda for sure. randall thank you. as the president in washington waits to determine their next move regarding syria, hundreds of thousands of refugees continue to pack into makeshift camps.

>> reporter: a few miles from syria, anjar lebanon is in a beautiful part of the valley. but many of the people who cross the boarder to get here are living in desperation. >> the sadness is so deep. i just pray to god. we are fed up. >> reporter: he was a taxi driver in damascus. he says the syrian regime had him arrested twice. and threated his wife and five children, seven months ago they left. today they live in this makeshift city, there is no electricity here, food, water , and clothing are scarce. there are many other places like this year lebanon's border with syria. they are fleeing the country just on the border because of the war. deplorable conditions here.

this was 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 says the children were so scared that all they did was cry all day long. >> translator: i never imagined i would ever be in this situation. because i built a new house. all of the money we saved we built the house. immaterial was a beautiful house, and we had to leave and come. so i don't know what will happen to us. >> reporter: lebanese relief workers are trying to help the refugees here. but she worries without more help from the international community, there is little hope for these families to survive in these conditions, and a return to syria seems years away. >> some people come they have nothing to wear, no money to spending, nothing to eat. they have some -- some people

come with very sick children. others come with other biological bases. it's very bad. it's as bad as a war can get. >> reporter: this week there was an announce of aid to be released to the refugees in lebanon. but more money will be needed to feed and care for the people, and lebanon is hoping for more international assistance, lebanon knows it cannot keep pace with the amount of people, and there are growing worries that the demands of the refugee influx will soon effect the economy and the stability of the country itself. egypt is extending its nationwide state of emergency for two more months. the government announced the extension today. the state of emergency started

back in august after hundreds of people were killed in clashes. boulder county has been hit hard by heavy rains for several days. there has also been reports of mud and rock slides. take a look a look at this man trapped in his car. let's go live now to the hardest hit area, boulder county, colorado. tamara banks joins us live. tamara what is that behind you, my goodness? >> oh, wow is exactly the world richelle. these are deadly waters. three people have been confirmed dead so far. two in boulder county, one in colorado springs. boulder county is getting the target of it all, but this rain is impacting all the way north to fort collins and south to colorado springs. this is south boulder creek, and

it is flooding over its banks as you can see. and this creek feeds into boulder creek which runs right into boulder. this is causing havoc all throughout the area. it is too dangerous to order people to evacuate. you can take a look at some incredible video that we shot earlier of an emergency rescue. three vehicles were going over a roadway, and the road collapsed and fell into the water. three vehicles with all of the occupants inside. emergency crews were able to get to the folks and get them out all right. these folks in this rescue are fine. but the sheriff tells us that these floodings could be historic. >> we know that we have lost lives. we anticipate that as the day goes on that we may find that we have lost others. this has been a devastating storm, particularly in the mountains.

the areas in the foothills, particularly the towns of jamestown, lions, and the lower canyons have all suffered tremendous amount of damage. we have lost roads. we have lost bridges. we have lost homes, cars, and we are just now beginning to try to assess the scope of the damage. >> reporter: students at the university of colorado, boulder, as well as faculty have been evacuated early, early this morning, but now evacuations are being temporarily placed on hold, and people are being asked to seek higher ground. american red cross is on their way, and the national guard will be here as soon as they are able to fly to provide blankets and cots.

>> joining us now is the public information announcer at the larimer county sheriff's office on the phone from fort collins. my first question is what is your most immediate concern right now? >> well, at this point, we have just announced we're going to be evacuating the big thompson canyon, which is the highway 34 area. and we just this morning sent out an emergency notification to 598 contacts in that area to be prepared for evacuation if necessary. we're told the weather will continue to deteriorate throughout the day, and will get worse this afternoon. we felt that we have a window of opportunity to get people out, so we're just in the process of beginning to get in the position to do the evacuation.

we have shelters set up in lions, estes park, and loveland. >> do you anticipate having to evacuate other areas? >> at this point in time it does not look like it, but we sent out emergency notifications to 400 contacts in the big elk meadow, and other areas. we had a dam that broke this morning, so we were notifying people of that. there are three additional dams which also could break. but so far they are holding, and at this point we're concentrating on the big thompson canyon area. >> thank you so much, and best of luck as you try to manage this dangerous situation. the flash flooding as a

result of torrential rainfall. several inches fell within a matter of hours last night. >> the weather pattern is not changing much unfortunately. here is the situation. area of low-pressure over the southwest, and we get this southeast wind which goes up and then turns to the southeast across colorado. you have the mountain range in the middle of colorado, so the wind goes up, squeezes all of the moisture out, and you get rain over the area. and that is the situation and will continue to be that way for the next 24 hours. there is the southeast wind, and this is very heavy rain, and you see this area is not moving. so this is just north of denver right over boulder. flash flood watches continue. you see it just stops here with this front, and then is the

entire state of colorado dealing with very heavy rains. >> we'll keep an eye on that. thank you so much. coming up immigrants buying houses for their families and pumping up home prices. and tablets one of these most cent additions to the tech wars now set to surpress its predecessor.

welcome back. state lawmakers in missouri are trying to make federal gun laws illegal in the state. the vote last night was to override a governor's veto.

and had the bill passed it would have made it illegal for federal agents to make arrests in missouri. owning a home has been harder and harder to achieve in recent years. >> reporter: this man wanted a piece of the american dream, but couldn't afford it. >> i used to rent just like everybody else, and as my family was growing, i needed a bigger place to live. >> reporter: originally from ecuador he immigrated to the united states in the early '90s, this summer, the 41-year-old father of two and his life finally bought a two-bedroom home, but it was struggle. since the housing crisis unfolded the path to homeownership has become more difficult. victor found help from the

resurrection project, they assist immigrants to become home owners. >> this is creating a demand in communities where previously because of the foreclosure crisis were on a decline. >> reporter: immigrant homeownership has been sustaining communities across the nation. >> the impact oil -- of immigration has added tens of thousands of dollars to the value of homes owned. >> reporter: homeownership has pumped some $3.7 trillion in the u.s. housing market. in the chicago area, since 1970, while 900,000 residents moved out, 600,000 immigrants moved in. >> try to imagine chicago with 600,000 of its residents gone.

the city would have a lot more problems and a lot more neighborhoods experiencing this urban dee kay like in detroit. >> reporter: for victor, finding a house that fit his budget was key to finally creating a better life for his family. >> this is a dream comb true. owning a home, it is part of the american dream, and i'm glad that now i have a home. >> reporter: a foundation for his family, and a life well lived. thousands of fish floating to the surface. the mystery of what is killing them in honolulu, sample substance found in the pantry. millions of americans undertake the effort to fix the fallout.

♪ syrian president rashard assad says turning over his chemical weapons is conditional. he said the u.s. has to stop it's threats or he won't go over

along with the handover plan. secretary of state john kerry is meeting with russian's foreign minister for talks. president obama says he is hopeful the talks will have a positive result. he president also said he wants to focus on domestic issues, including health care, immigration and the budget. in colorado heavy rains sparked flash flooding. between 4 and 7 inches of infell in a three-hour period last night. another sign the housing crisis may finally be behind us? foreclosure initiatives last month were the fewest in almost eight years. about 56,000 homes entered the foreclosure process in august, down 44% from a year ago. the head of the securities and

exchange commission is meeting with the chief of the u.s. stock indexes today to talk about how to protect the market from glitches. the flash freeze paralyzed the industry on august 2nd. they only arrived on the market three years ago, but already sales of tablet computers are predicted to top those of laptops and pcs this year. worldwide demand will surpass traditional computers. the group anticipates total sales of all smart devices, smartphones and all of that, will ex seed 2 billion in 2015. del is going private. they voted today for a $25 billion buyout lead by the founder michael del.

karl ikan says the company is worth more than the price offered. this is one of the things we're watching on the satellite. there is this band of rain, and the flooding that rain continues in colorado, not much changes there, unfortunately looking at more rounds of flooding across the southwest. cooler air moving towards chicago, washington up to 80, still a warm day in new york but not as hot as yesterday. the trend is for those numbers to go down for the next few days. the front is pushing south through chicago now. seeing very comfortable weather across the northern plains, and that will be all spreading east.

the temperatures clearly dropping as you head north from chicago to minneapolis, a big 10 degree temperature drop. the cooler air is moving south. you are still warm across the southeast with showers and storms possible, and that does include the northeast. showers and storms are likely. and that line continues to move east, so watch for strong showers and storms followed by cooler temperatures. 88 today, close to 90, still muggy out there. and then barely climbs down to the 60s on saturday, and warms back up sunday and monday. the southwest, unfortunately this area of low-pressure still spinning and that just funnels the moisture up through colorado and the southeast and the front range getting dumped on with rain. that could lead to more flooding

today across the entire range from denver north and south. we'll monitor that throughout the day today. >> dave, thank you so much. the brazilian government want answers about alaba alabama -- aledged interstate spying on its country. brazil has documents from snowden showing spying. the white house says the report distort the nsa's activities, but will act on brazil's concerns. president obama is set to meet with the brazilian leader next month. pastor jones is under arrest. he said he was going to one

quran for each person that was killed in the 9/11 terror attack. molasses, more than 233,000 gallons of ma lassest oozed from a leeky pipe and it is killing fish. it is enough to fill seven rail cars or one-third of an olympic-sized swimming pool. men receiving testosterone treatments may also needest estrogen treatments as well.

that's it for us. we are back at the top of the hour with the day's news.