>> this is al jazeera i'm richelle carey. these are some of the stories we're following. >> we have agreed to destroy all chemical weapons. >> break through in geneva. an arms deal on syria and plans for possible action. take a look at these live pictures out of colorado where a massive rescue effort is underway after the worst flooding in decades entire towns have been cut off more than 200 people are unaccounted for. >> what hurts me the most is all this has to be rebuilt. after everything that's happened and now this. i'm wondering if it's really actually meant to be. >> the daunting task of moving on and starting over again. along the jersey shores, seaside

boardwalk. >> after weeks of threats and three days of talks secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart sergei lavrov have reached a deal on syria's chemical weapons. in a statement he cloms the progress. if the assad regime fails to comply, the sanctions could cut in. allows for punitive action but the u.s. acknowledges they are not seeking military authorization from the u.n. which russia says it would vee to you. weapons inspectors will be dps entire chemical weapons arsenal to be secured or destroyed by the middle of 2014. for more we are joined by phil litner who is in geneva.

phil this is the beginning of a very long process while they seem to arrive at this fairly quickly, implementation is something completely different. we have to still dissect what this means, what the implications of this agreement are. >> well, yeah, richelle. i mean as you say, this is just the beginning of a very long process. this is not the end. it may have been three days and after a couple of weeks of crisis but we are now looking at a lengthy process of trying to secure a large stock people, perhaps the world's largest stockpile of chemical weapons, inside a country that's in the midst of a bloody civil war so you know how do we achieve that? that's been one of the issues that's been discussed here and both sides of the equation here, the russians and the americans say there is a -- there is a way to do it. it will be fraught with dangers. it will not be easy to do put it is possible. there remains a number of discrepancies between the two sides but in the agreement today

they focused on what they have in common. not what remains separating them. they've kind of left that by the way side and have discussed the need to secure those chemical weapons. and furthermore there's been discussions about the need to restart a peace process in syria to end this very dangerous civil war which threaten to bleed beyond its borders and indeed already has with the refugee problem and creates instability regionally. both the dignitaries, secretary of state john kerry and minister lavrov agree on more than they disagree on. a cautious optimism this will be a turning point in the middle east that may ultimately lead to a peace. richelle. >> phil, there seems to be a little bit more clarity now about where the u.s. still

stands with the possibility of military strikes. it seems that pursuing that option through the u.n. does not seem likely but it does not appear that the idea of military strikes are completely off the table. >> yeah, well, we have heard just in the last few moments here a statement from the pentagon stating they don't plan on changing their posture in the eastern mediterranean. it was the pentagon's position that only through the threat of a u.s. strike that assad came to the negotiation table. and as far as u.s. secretary of state is concerned, he still stands strong, on the continued need for a possible u.s. strike or at least the threat of it. >> the world will now expect the assad regime to live up to its public commitments. and as i said at the outset of these negotiations, there can be

no games, no room for avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the assad regime. >> secretary of state and foreign minister lavrov have used the part of the u.n. chapter, the u.n. charter under chapter 7, which does state clearly, that if the member states of the u.n. security council detect or suspect a possible threat to peace, or in response to an act of aggression that it will authorize the use of military force. but having said that, that will require actually going to the council and presenting a resolution that will need to be voted on. and the russians retain their veto power. richelle. >> phil thank you for explaining all of this to us.

we appreciate it. with the agreement on syria's chemical weapons in place, will the targeted strike still be needed? jean meserve joins us from washington on that particular angle. literally, in the past few minutes the pentagon making it clear where the u.s. position still stood with relation to military action. >> right. both the penalty gone and the president actually as you just heard mentioned the pentagon has issued a statement saying that u.s. forces remain in position and saying that it believes that force was -- the threat of force is what helped drive this diplomatic solution in geneva is but we also know do have the statement from the president in which he applauds the progress that has been made but says the assad regime must carry through with this. let me quote one line. he says if diplomacy fails, the united states remains prepared to act. as you heard earlier the u.s.

has said under this framework agreement it could go back to the united nations security council and request to take punitive action if there is military acts, russia would continue to veto that but for national security reasons the u.s. would be authorized to act on its own without u.n. authorization. hopefully in the background rather than the foreground with the announcement of this framework agreement. >> jean we know some of the opposition in syrian is not too in favor of this, we think it is stall tactics and there are others who would say the same. is this a plan that has teeth that can work or is it a process to give breathing room? >> the process does have breathing room. we are back to the force of

military action. experts on chemical weapons and their disposition and or syria and they are pointing out, there are certainly some big obstacles that have to be left over, because syria is a country in the middle of a civil war and it's unclear how much buy in the assad regime will give this framework. there are unknowns at this point in time, and we'll have to see what plays out in the weeks and months to come. >> jean, thank you so much. floodwaters continual to rush through colorado -- floodwaters continue to rush through crold. the national guard is evacuating people by ground and air. 172 people are unaccounted for. jim hurley joins us live in longmont colorado. those numbers are startling jim. sometimes people and families

just get separated when dealing with what is right behind you. >> yeah, exactly richelle. take a look at this. this is the river here, longmont colorado this river runs right through this city so this city is virtually cut off, you can't get from one side of town to the other side of town. this is usually a trickle but it is a raging river as it flows from the rocky mountains to the plains of colorado. over the past hours we've had incredible images from towns like james town and lyons colorado without access whatsoever, from the floodwaters coming in wednesday and thursday. raining for literally some four days straight. boulder, colorado getting 14 inches of rain in just a short period of time. county sheriff says he expects

to find more people missing later, and the numbers are changing every hour as we speak. the sheriff also said it is totally impossible to get into these towns so they are using a fleet of helicopters from the national guard to fly over the area to try to get into the towns had a have been cut off. it isn't just the fact of the water on the roads, it is the fact that all of the roads into the canyons have been cut off, wiped out, completely washed out. taking a look at the river again this towng in longmont -- town in longmont cut in half. 6500 homes cut off and the forecast in the next 24 hours calls for more rain to come, possibly one to three inches more to comb overnight and as you can imagine that is a real worry for people here in colorado today. >> what we are talking about is some people have been perhaps in shelters for up to four days. other people that have perhaps been in their homes without

electricity for up to four days and they could be there, a while longer before someone is able to get to them. >> yeah, and that's why they have the helicopters here richelle but you can only have so many hypotheticals in the air. those people are being used, the town of lyons, virtually cut off, they were in the evacuation center that lost all of its power. those people in the town of lyons hardest hit, have been brought to a church in longmont. many children were getting on the school buses, once if national guard put them on buses, tears in their eyes as they were able to get to the place of shelter, they are so grateful to the national guard. >> thank you so much, jim. the question obviously when can they possibly get a break. they desperately need this

break. our meteorologist has an answer. >> some dryer air going to be pushing in from the west. right now i want folks to understand this is of historic proportion. we are dealing with a lot of moisture pushing in from the south, continuing to trickle in. mostly cloudy overcast skies but tonight that's when the real threat comes. a lot of this moisture the heating of the day, we are going osee showers pushing intoing boulder. take this expwhoo account? boulder receives one to two inches of rain typically. in the last few days alone they have received 15 inches of rain, of monument at proportion and very concerning. today we could see one othree inches of rain additionally, as jim said. people rebuilding again after a massive fire along the

seaside boardwalk. >> how the community plans to carry on and the latest on the investigation.

>> investigators are sifting through the charred debris trying to find what caused thursday's boardwalk fire at the jersey shore. dozens of buildings burned to the ground at seaside park and seaside heights. >> as firefighters hose down smoldering embers people who live and work here looked out over the devastation and said,

not again. michelle jackson was lucky. her restaurant survived the flames. >> it's been a long road since sandy. and we've been down, a lot. our percentages are definitely down. and we were just starting to see things pick up and start looking promising and i started feeling better about how things were going and not so you know, that feeling of doom. and now this happened so all that feeling that we've had before kind of just came back. >> the new jersey shore was just getting back on its feet after hurricane sandy when a fire ripped through iconic boardwalk that runs through seaside park and seaside heights. four blocks destroyed. dozens of businesses burned. >> what hurts me the most is all this has to be rebuilt. and people that want to really come back, and make something of this place. and right now, they don't know what to think. after everything that's

happened, and now this. i'm wondering if it's really actually meant to be. >> firefighters put up a desperate effort to stop the flames from spreading. >> our strategy was to do what we could, protect as many exposures as we possibly could and work on a containment plan. that's what this was. our first containment plan failed because of the volume of fire. our second containment plan worked. >> that second plan was a fire break. behind me here is where firefighters made a trench cut to stop the blaze in its tracks. you can see the effectiveness of their strategy. these shops are completely burned. but if we take a look over here, these stores are perfectly intact. just repairing the boardwalk could cost over $1 million. that doesn't include the businesses that burned. >> i'm lucky to be here. but the rest of the board walk's gone now. so that's not very lucky .

>> after sandy the mantra's been jersey strong. after this happened, the community will have the find the strength to rebuild. seaside heights, new jersey. a five day stand off in philippines may be lessening. the leader of the group has agreed odiscuss a cease fire. the vice president of the philippines is headed to begin talks. nearly 200 civilians have been held hostage by the rebels. 22 have died and 24,000 were forced to flee their homes since the standoff began. in mexico city the government mass put an end to a month long demonstration from the teachers. adam raney has more.

>> the beginning of a month long protest. thousands of right police cleared the -- riot please clerd the square. in the lead up to the confrontation, many wielding makeshift weapons have said they will stand their ground. >> we will not let them take the plaza away from us. the plaza is ours, it belongs to the peach. >> but the police gave the teachers ultimatum. leave peacefully or be removed by force. we spoke to one of the leaders of the movement before the police swept in. >> we're in civil disobedience, the unjust laws, that didn't take into account the opinions of the teachers or the pairns. >> the clock was -- parents. >> the clock was running out for the teachers. the government is promised celebrations would take place. the teachers mainly from four southern states had descended on

the capital to block enrique pena nieto's reforms. when the law was finally enacted they promised to have it repealed. they were particularly opposed to teacher evaluations, the first step to privatization. the teachers need to do a better job to educate mexican children. the push didn't end at the zokolo. thousands of riot police deployed across the capital to try to get them out . despite the weeks of protests police had been hesitant to use force to dislodge the teachers. mexico has a history of massacres at protests from the 1960s and 70s. the operation could be a win win for both the teachers and the government. the teachers can say they didn't back down and the police showed

restrained. have to determine whether they will return to the classes or keep up their fight against the government. adam raney, al jazeera ooches mexic, mexicocity. >> we have two tropical storms threatening mexico right now. as a matter of fact, ingeary right now in the southwestern portion of the gulf mexico and then tropical storm manuel. both of these storms were stationary, but we expect them to be upgraded to a hurricane tomorrow nightly. the main threat in addition to gusty winds and rip currents is going to be torrential downpours. we are looking at 12 to 25 inches of rain, take a look at this. a lot of images out of colorado but take a look at what's going on in mexico. heavy rain, heavy downpours made travel really impossible across

portions of the city of tampico, heavy rain today and tomorrow in addition to gusty winds. the map we continue to see flood warnings being issued across southern portions of texas. flood warning along the eastern gulf coast of texas. damage winds later on in the weekend, flooding downpours, three six inches of rain, brownsville to corpus christi. portions of the united states, deep trough in the jetstream. you certainly can feel how cool it is across the region. 55° in new york city and by the end of the day climbing to a high of 70. i'll send it back to you richelle. thank you, at issue, sir couplcircumcision.

ahead on al jazeera.

>> welcome back i'm richelle ri. herrichelle carey. john kerry and foreign minister

sergei lavrov announced a deal to, military strike seems to be off the table for now. investigators are sifted through the charred debris trying to find out what caused thursday's boardwalk fire at the jersey shore. dozens of buildings burned to the ground in seaside park and seaside heights. the area was devastated by hurricane sandy last year. more than 170 people are unaccounted for in colorado, four are dead. more heavy rain is expected in the forecast today. a greyhound bus drove off the interstate in ohio, this morning, thrur hurt, some -- 34 were hurt. 51 passengers on the bus which was headed to detroit. the accident happened near cincinnati. there's no immediate reports on the cause of the crash.

circumcision was considered a routine procedure but has become controversial. the number of circumcisions have dropped more than 10% and nearly 25% often the west coast. tracy grant has more from san francisco. >> lloyd schofield has become a leader for the fight against circumcision. >> it is completely unethical. as a model of the medical professional is do no harm. this is a harmful procedure. >> a judge later decided to strike schofield's initiative from the ballot ruling a city cannot regulate medical procedures and citing religious freedom protections because for jews and muslims, circumcision

is considered a religious right. bill from local government from banning circumcision. >> we had a lot of biased politicians or religious leaders who were against our initiative so we did not even get a chance to take this to the people. i'm sure we would have been quite successful. >> opposition to what was once thought of as a routine procedure, removal of the foreskin of a baby, is growing. some call it genital mutilation. others say no matter how traditional they're not see if it's necessary. >> i didn't really see any medical purpose for it. and i watched a dvd and read a little bit about it and just decided like there's no need to do that. it's kind of an old tradition. >> most recent statistics show that over the last 30 years, circumcisions have decreased nationwide by six percentage points. when his son was born physicians

said do you want to have him circumcised? >> when they asked i almost didn't know the word. and then obviously we didn't do it because we didn't know anything about it. >> the american academy of pediatrics says circumcision lowers the risk of urinary tract infections. about. >> we don't push that on families. that is something they desire we can arrange for that but it is not something we're mandating for all male boys. >> faruz said her muslim faith played a part in the decision. >> i don't think it's going to ruin the child, i don't think it's going to ruin his adulthood as a male. >> making this decision has increasingly become an interactive process between doctors and ishts pa.

california is one where medicaid doesn't cover the cost of circumcisions. more and more states are stating they won't cefer them unless it's a medical necessity. tracy grant, al jazeera, san francisco. >> that is it for us on al jazeera, i'll leave you with pictures of what people are doog dealing with in colorado. we know at least four people are confirmed dead, nearly 200 unaccounted for. but emergency management officials are quick to say they do not expect the number is that high. just a lot of people not able to communicate. no cell phone service or the phone is out at their home but there are rest accuse underway, elevations underway. the historic flooding in colorado throughout the day, keep it here on al jazeera, i'm

richelle carey. thank you so much for watching. inside story is next. >> a horrible crime, a sentence of death. and the world comes to grips with the problem every nation knows. rape and violence towards women. you're watching "inside story" from washington. >> hello, i'm libby casey. it often takes a horrible crime followed by graphic headlines to draw attention to a problem that has been right before our eyes all along. such is the case in india why a violent sexual attack made a nation come to its feet and stream, no more. but a flash of anger or regret is not enough to end sexual violence against women. we'll unwrap the reasons behind this global problem highlighted in a new united nations study. we begin with adjustment day in new delhi. >> four men in india were sentenced to death today after a new delhi court found them guilty of raping a 23-year-old student last december. >> today not just one person, but the whole country is happy that the accused who committed such a horrendous crime with our daughter has finally been punished. >> reporter: the victim was on her way home after going to the movies with a male friend when five men and a juvenile lured them on a bus and repeatedly raped and tortured her. the woman died from internal injuries two days later. the case brought outrage in the plight of women where rapes of women go largely unnoticed and uniparous cuted. the youngest attacker was sentenced to prison, and the oldest attackerring hung himse himself. >> the death sentence has been welcomed across here, and you can see celebration and relief on the part of the average indian who has come here to find what the verdict what, what the sentence was, and react to it. a mantling me this is the sentence that he believes that everyone who commits rape in india should receive. that's a far-fetched statement, but it is certainlth