a loyalty program that requires no loyalty. plus members can win a free night every day only at hotels.com you're watching "around the world." i'm suzanne malveaux. >> i'm michael holmes. thanks for your company today. a busy hour ahead. new information directly from the syrian president bashar al assad saying that he's going to hand over the deadly arsenal of chemical weapons, at least that's what he's saying. >> and he's crediting russia for being the peacemaker in all of this. the syrian dictator made the statements in an interview with a russian television station and says, quote, syria is handing over its chemical weapons under international supervision because of russia. the u.s. threats did not influence the decision.

arwa damon following the developments. arwa, you know, this is assad's way, i suppose, of thanking putin for saving the regime but perhaps making it very clear, u.s. threats did not matter. >> reporter: oh for sure. this is typical bravado coming from president assad. in fact, his entire regime, they cannot afford to appear weak or as if they were forced to cower in front of america's military might, most certainly wanting to continue along this image of being a president who is in power. he was simply doing this because the russians asked him to but not because he was worried or remotely concerned about what a potential u.s. air strike would possibly do to the current control that he has over the areas that the regime does in fact control in syria because we do know there was a lot of concern leading up to the possibility of the u.s. military strike. but of course all of that

changing very dramatically at this stage, michael. >> and tell us about syria's opposition. we understand, from your reporting, that they are still against any proposal that would allow assad to hand over his chemical weapons. what role do they play in all of this? >> reporter: well, here's what's interesting about that about because they're not even really at the negotiating table. it's al assad and his regime, russians and the americans or other western nations that oppose the assad rej dpegime. we heard from the head of the mainstream free syrian army saying they oppose this because they also want to see accountability, thor. operators that carried out the attack, they want them to have to pay for it. of course they are hoping americans would strike assad's military bases. >> all right. arwa damon, live from lebanon. the high stakes effort to get syria's chemical weapons under international control now entering the new critical phase

as the obama administration and the russians start getting down to the details of this plan. >> right now the secretary of state, john kerry, preparing to meet with his russian counterpart and those two men in are in switzerland right now, talks start in the next hour. and they've got a team of experts with them. sort of indicates they're going to get down to the nitty-gritty, specific stuff. >> they're trying to nail down how the chemical weapons will be turned over, when this is going to happen, as well as mechanics of verifying, securing and ultimately destroying the deadly stockpiles. at the white house, president obama he's meeting with his cabinet to further discuss the crisis. he spoke moments ago. >> i am hopeful that the discussions that secretary kerry had with foreign minister lavrov as well as 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 the possibilities are there. >> coming up with a blueprint for the handover of these weapons isn't going to be easy. jim acosta live at the white house. jim, of course there's a lot that goes into this, getting weapons and securing them. there's the state department, there's the pentagon, homeland security, all have to be involved. what do you think the president's trying to achieve with this meeting today? >> reporter: well, i think the president, as you heard there, made some comments basically saying that, hey, secretary of state heading over to geneva to start work on this and the state department and white house managing expectations yesterday when talking about this, michael and suzanne, when they were saying secretary kerry was essentially going over it there to test the seriousness, was the way one spokeswoman put it, of the russian proposal. they're getting started here. there's no time line when these weapons are going to be ultimately destroyed. and all of that is being worked out at the white house.

you heard the president say in the comments and we played fuller remarks earlier today, he's firmly focused on this issue of making sure al assad in the view of this administration, cannot gas innocent people in the future. he made those comments. but the other thing that the president talked about in the remarks that he made publicly before the cabinet meeting he has a very big agenda coming up. he was making comments as well, he's got the budget to deal with, immigration reform, rollout of the affordable care act. moving this issue off to the side at least putting it in the hands of his secretary of state john kerry does give him some flexibility to start working on the other big issues which will be causing headaches for the white house in the week as head. >> officials are saying, look, they're ignoring the snarky nature of putin's op-ed, the tone of in the "new york times." but address this, if you will. this is a strange time we're in when you've got the leader of

russia talking directly to the american people in an op-ed. this is a different era of diplomacy. other folks tweeting and weighing in on this. what do they make of the public relations campaign, this word of words, if you will directly with the american people? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, one thing that the white house is trying to do, i think at this point, is sort of put it to the side, ignore it. the president was asked about the op-ed in the brief few moments when the press was allowed into the cabinet meeting and he ignored the question. jay carney's holding a briefing within an hour, he's going to be asked that question. he's not able to avoid it. there are a couple of items in the column that will rankle people. john boehner, speaker of the house, said he was offended by it, that whole section at the bottom of the op-ed talks about american exceptionalism and how putin takes issue with that, we'll hear what the white house has to say. this is such a sensitive time

for this white house in dealing with the russians, and because the fate of this chemical weapon process with syria is really connected to the russians, at this point it's like don't disturb the exotic bird at this point, let's keep things moving in the right direction. michael and suzanne? >> thank you, jim. i find it really interesting, having covered the white house, this is an obama move. if he wants to go around republicans and opposition, he goes directly to the american people, brings his message to the american people. this in is what putin did, he went around the president and decided to speak directly to the op-ed. >> you'll remember this, back in it was like at the end of the '90s, putin did the same thing. an op-ed in "the new york times" battling chechen terrorists as he was calling them and wrote a piece for "the new york times" back then, too, explaining his reasons for doing so. it not unprecedented but it's highly unusual. >> smart strategy. >> exactly. >> more on the op-ed later in the hour. the world focuses on syria

appears that north korea has possibly restarted a nuclear reactor. >> unbelievable really. could this be a sign that kim jong-un is moving closer to having nuclear weapons? >> then rain causing flash floods in colorado, the racing water trapping one man in his car. the daring rescue, it's amazing. you'll want to see this. you're watching "around the world." ♪ [ jen garner ] what skincare brand is so effective... so trusted... so clinically proven dermatologists recommend it twice as much as any other brand? neutrogena®. recommended by dermatologists 2 times more than any other brand. now that's beautiful. neutrogena®. ♪

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[vo:remember to changew that oil is the it on schedule toy car. keep your car healthy. show your car a little love with an oil change starting at $19.95. breaking news. this is out of the united nations. just getting information here that the u.n. spokesman telling cnn that the u.n. has received a letter from the syrian u.n. mission declaring their intention that to join to the 1993 chemical weapons convention, that would be very significant development. >> showing intent to follow through on what they said they would do, sign on to the convention. but they are going to do that in the next few days. interesting to see where there's follow-up on that. also saying they would follow up with a detailed list of what they have for u.n. inspectors. so things moving quite quickly. but also of course we've heard the russians and syrians say the

u.s. has got to stop threatening action and stop arming the rebels as well. if we start getting conditions coming into things it could muddy the waters a bit. >> a lot of skepticism whether intention, versus reality whether they'll do that as well. >> interesting developments for sure. let's go to colorado now. heavy rain there has caused incredible floods. streets turning into rivers. >> at least three people have been killed as buildings collapsed. i want to show you some of the nail-biting video, just an incredib incredible, dramatic rescue just outside of boulder. all captured live on television. our cnn affiliate kcnc, rescue workers risking their own lives to free this guy trapped inside of his car. >> let's pause and let you watch it play out.

>> spent a half hour in the car. you can see him getting to the shore. a bit unsteady on his feet, not surprisingly. in nearby boulder, colorado, we've got chad meyers here in the weather center. anna, let's start with you. how bad has it been there? >> reporter: it's getting worse, really by the moment, especially as the emergency crews start to really assess this situation. we are live right now in boulder, the city. but the whole county's affected. in fact, this is a statewide disaster at this point. you can see this rushing water coming over one of the roadways here and the large rocks in the

middle of the roadway, debris brought down from several of the tributaries in the hillside behind me. schools and other residents behind me. the worst is in some of the outlying county areas and the mountainous areas where we're learning they've lost homes, cars, bridges, roads. so the access to get to people who need help is very difficult for the emergency rescuers. the national guard is being mobilized to help people here in boulder and across the county as well. >> to chad to talk about the big picture here. was this expected? this is all about flash flooding, getting swept away in the middle, no warning? >> we forecasted this yesterday. there's a lot of tropical moisture over the rocky mountains. storms are not moving. when they start, they just rain for hours because there's no jet stream over the storms to push them away. essex park, 6 inches, boulder,

5 1/2. the wettest boulder 24-hour period of all time since they've been keeping records. back here, boulder in orange and yellow, rainfall estimates 2 to 4 inches and in some spots way above that. in jamestown, at least 10 inches on the radar. i'll show you some of that in a second. a low to the west, high to the east, taking all of this gulf of mexico moisture and pacific moisture and pushing it over the intermountain west and that's what's happened. right now it's still raining. so when ana says it's going to get worse, it is. it's still raining west of boulder. and that water is going to come downhill because that's what this entire area is about, a big hill. it's the front range. it's where the rocky mountains start. when it rains in the mountains, it has to pour off to the east into the plains and that's what's been happening. that's what's happening in boulder now. the rain was west of the town of boulder and it's washing through the town itself. there are the mountains. there was the rain. here comes the water right where

our ana is. >> unbelievable. chad meyers, thank you. high winds, heavy rain slamming parts of thailand. one tornado touched down, this storm slammed into part of a school in -- near the coast. check this out. >> yeah. dramatic stuff. security camera, obviously, capturing the moment of impact there. school officials say at least six students were injured. must have been terrifying for them. emergency services warning people in at least five provinces to expect heavy rain, flash flooding and landslides over the next few days. >> vladimir putin lashing out, calling america a bully. he questions what president obama calls america's exceptionalism in an op-ed piece in the new york times. >> we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run, i believe we should act.

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breaking news development. want to go to moscow where jill dougherty is covering the development here. we understand there was an interview that bashar al assad gave to russian television, russia 24, making some news here. what's the headline, jill? >> reporter: well, i'd say that the first part is, he says he will be handing over documents to the united nations and also to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, he will carry through the processes, give information, et cetera, and sign the agreement, the convention on the prohibition but if you look closely, he also says that these mechanisms will not be carried out unilaterally and that syria will sign these documents but this bilateral process is based,

first of all, on the united states stopping its policy of threatening syria. and to the degree that the russian proposal is accepted. now, that could be a sticking point. again, we are not the people who are negotiating this, but if you remember, president putin was saying just i believe it was yesterday, you can't expect syria to disarm if the united states continues to hold the threat of military action. and this would appear that president assad is saying, we'll do everything, but the united states cannot threaten us. >> jill, it's interesting -- >> reporter: there's another part of the interview coming up. >> yeah, you translated some of this in moscow. that's the other thing. we're starting to see buts coming into this. even more of a sticking point with the u.s. saying they are starting to help out the rebels with lethal weapons, part of the statement refers to that, and

insists on them stopping doing that. >> reporter: yes. in fact, that is very much correct. he -- i can read actually this part, when we see that the united states really wants stability in our region and will stop threatening and striving to attack, and will stop providing weapons to the terrorists, then we consider that we can consider out these necessary processes to the end. they will be put into effect by syria. so again i think if you look at this, it's -- it's not necessarily a legal document, this is the president in an interview with russian tv. but if he is insisting that the united states stop any type of threat of military action, then that would appear to stymie their progress because he says, i'll do this if they stop. so again -- >> also supplying the weapons too.

>> reporter: i'm not geneva. correct, yes, there are several things that could be big buts in that agreement. >> jill, of course, picking apart the op-ed that putin has in the new yooshew york time to. one of the thing his takes exception to president obama in his address talking about american exceptionalism. let's listen to what the president said first. >> we can stop children from being gassed to death and thereby make our own children safer over the long run. i believe we should act. that's what makes america different. that's what makes us exceptional. >> so he responds, putin in the op-ed, saying it's extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional whatever the motivation. we're all different but when we ask for the lord's blessings we must not forget that god created us equal. jill, you've covered the russian president like no other

journalist, quite frankly. give us a sense of what he means by this and who he is. is he being sincere or trying to poke president obama? >> reporter: well, i think on -- this is on the one hand on the other hand and that's very common with president putin. but on the one hand, he's saying, and it's a point that people around the world, many people around the world, would accept, which is the united states is not the most -- is not the decider of everything, other countries have their own views, we're all equal in the sight of god, et cetera. but what the russian -- let's say foreign policy right now does have a strain, a very strong strain, which is their own version of exceptionalism that russia has its own approach, it's own foreign policy, it's own beliefs in its importance in the world and how we do things. and so, it does have, to me,

kind of a strange ring that, you know, russia considers itself kind of different from other countries and here he is saying the united states shouldn't. that's how i'd look at it. >> again, you know, it's interesting, jill, too again you as a student of russia, he makes that comment about god created us equal and sets himself up as a champion of the u.n. system when his country itself has been one of the main vetoers of anything meaningful about syria. when he says god created us equal, his own country facing criticism over the treatment of gays and lesbians and others like that. how is he viewed when he makes these statements in russia? >> reporter: actually, i think a lot of people agree with him. i mean, there are people who, of course, are against the gay law and many other things, the treatment of human rights groups here. but beyond that, that idea that

the united states shouldn't throw its weight around, that it's not better than other countries. that has resonance here and also has resonance in other countries, especially, let's say, developing countries or the brics, brazil, russia, india, et cetera, china, that -- let's say the russian position, the key part of the russian position, is sovereignty, that no other country should force another country to do what it doesn't want. and that means no regime change. so i don't think it's a contradiction when he says, you know, the u.n. is important and they vote against something, that's just their opinion. but they believe the ultimate arbiter is the united nations and not the united states. >> all right. thank you, jill. appreciate it as always, reporting from moscow. >> great to have jill there. >> u.s. lawmakers who have seen vladimir putin's op-ed speaking out as well.

as you can imagine, pushing back strongly. house speaker john boehner spoke to reporters a couple of minutes ago. here's how he weighed in. >> what was your blunt reaction when you read that? >> i was insulted. >> i have to be honest, at dinner, i almost wanted to vomit. the reality is i worry when someone who came up to the kgb tells us what is in our national interests and what is not. and you know, it really raises the questions of how serious this russian proposal is. >> putin was lecturing to the united states -- i called hear reagan turning over in his grave as this is going on. >> the u.s. supplied weapons in the hands of syrian rebels but can we be sure the weapons will not fall into the wrong hands? more on the crisis in syria straight ahead.

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some significant developments coming to us about the situation in syria and their willingness, syrian willingness, to sign on to the convention on chemical weapons and also this other angle of some buts creeping in,ing along as the u.s. doesn't continue arming the rebels, as long as they stop removing the threat of violence. nick paton walsh. >> at the u.n. walk us through the legal process. an application process. but we understand syria initiating the process they will agree under certain conditions to give up chemical weapons. >> reporter: what we've been hearing the past few days the syrians, through russian media or caveats as you heard from bashar al assad in his interview saying how they would join. just in the last 45 minutes the u.n.'s confirmed to us they have received a letter from the syrian mission here to the united nations in which syria says, and there's i presidential decree attached so it comes from

the top, saying they want to join the convention on chemical weapons from 1993. that's a big deal. it's the first legal step of them joining that it would require them to hand over to international control their chemical wellens stockpile. it's an enormous step that they've made and also now the first confirmation from the united nations. this is legit, this is real, this is moving forward. again, a game changer perhaps in many ways. >> what is the next step here this afternoon, now that this process begins? >> reporter: technical experts explain more detail exactly how this works going forward, but it's pretty much immediate once you're agreed to join, you enter a process, there's 180 days in which a time line begins. i should point out as well, this is happening alongside a changing text of a resolution put forward by america, britain and france that would put syria into a position where in 15 days it would have to declare all of

its chemical weapons stockpile. a lot going on here. >> good to see you, nick. nick paton walsh. fast moving indeed. it's the caveats everybody's talking. they're moving towards doing it, that is significant. throw in a couple of buts and it could come to a screeching halt. >> one saying u.s. has to give up its military threats first before they agree to this. >> and not arm the rebels which we've just started to do. we'll talk more about the process of getting rid of chemical weapons were that to happen in syria. i'm beth... and i'm michelle. and we own the paper cottage. it's a stationery and gifts store. anything we purchase for the paper cottage goes on our ink card. so you can manage your business expenses and access them online instantly with the game changing app from ink. we didn't get into business to spend time managing receipts, that's why we have ink. we like being in business because we like being creative, we like interacting with people. so you have time to focus on the things you love.

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welcome back. while the world focuses on syria, guess what? recent satellite images are raising concerns that north korea may have restarted a nuclear reactor it shut down

years ago. >> the north korean government announced earlier this year it planned to restart the facility which was disabled in 20007 as part of a six-party disarmament agreement. one official monitoring the situation on the ground said, without the capability, north korea really has few bargaining chips. >> joining us on the phone, former u.n. ambassador bill richardson, who has a bit of a student on north korea as well. we see the steamed columns rising from a building what happen does that tell you? what did does it mean if they're firing up the reactor? >> it means two things, good and bad. the bad is that they're restarting their nuclear program that i think under president bush we all reach an agreement where they would stop this production at this yongbyon facility that i've been to, and i remember being there when it was stalled. that's the bad news that they're saying, we're moving ahead with

our nuclear program. the good news is that north koreans are very cagey. they know that we detect this. so they may be sending a sign, okay, western world, u.s., south korea, six-party countries, as suzanne mentioned, we're ready to deal. but it's going to cost you more. that's -- they send these signals, fortunately i'm going to use a pun, smoke signals, that are basically putting out two messages. they're very skillful at this. they scare, they up the ante, and then they say, okay, you want to deal with us it's going to cost you more because you don't want us to restart our nuclear program, do you? >> ambassador, on that point, talk about the timing of this. do you think that because the world's attention is now on syria that this is something where they think, well, they'll look the other way and we can move forward on this? i mean, are these two incidents related in any way? >> well, they are related, as

you just mentioned. the north koreans get resentful if somebody takes them off the world stage. and for a while they were at the top of the world stage, but now the situation in egypt and syria especially syria, has literally taken them off of the front pages, even at a time when they've been making moves like small moves on conciliation with south korea, they restarted their telephone talks, their red line, they restarted the facility on the border south, north, facility which employs 50,000 north and south koreans. so they kind of, if they're not at the top of the world stage they do things to get this attention and this is what they're doing. but still we don't know what they're up to. this new, young lead, nobody can figure him out. no one's talked to him at a

policy level. not -- certainly not from the united states, but even from the six-party countries, he's met with the chinese enjoy. but we really don't know who's pulling this guy's strings. he's all over the place in terms of does he want dialogue, does he want -- does he want to continue confrontation? i'm a little concerned that he's not heading in the right direction, especially with this restarting the yongbyon facility is a sign that they're going to go ahead possibly with their nuclear development. >> all right. okay. we'll leave it there. former u.n. ambassador, bill richardson on the line from new mexico. north koreans sending steam signals, as he said. >> doesn't know what they're up to right now. u.s.-supplied weapons in the hands of syrian rebels. account u.s. be sure those weapons will not fall into the wrong hands? more on the crisis in syria straight ahead.

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syrian president bashar al assad says the threat of a strike from the u.s. hat nothing to do with syria's decision to turn over its chemical weapons. he said it was the proposal from russia that led to his decision. >> meanwhile, cnn has learned that weapons provided by the u.s. have begun reaching the syrian rebels, something they've been asking for for months. included on the list, ammunition

and what's being called light weapons, weapons that can be tracked, presumably with serial numbers and the like. this all organized and funded by the cia. >> joining us, david kay, cnn analyst, member of the state department's internal security advisory board -- international. tell us about how this complicates the matter on the ground if you've got now weapons that are being supplied to the rebels, how do you come up with a cease-fire and inspections of chemical weapons sites? >> well, the cease-fire arrangement struck me as always a long reach. when you have a cease-fire that works, both sides are in a position that they think won't change, won't deteriorate with a cease-fire. i don't think that's the case right now, certainly not the case if one, actually both sides, are increasing armament. it does make the inspection process for mar difficult. quite frankly if you read

interview that assad gave today, there is a kicker in there far more serious than the other buts. it is that he seems to presume that the inspection process, international process, will be the process of the cwc, the cwc, chemical weapons convention never designed to be applied to someone who recently used chemical weapons. in fact the very process allows 180 days to take effect for the country, then to produce inventory, which is additional time, and all of the monitors do is go to the country and the country says, here are our weapons, count them, monitors go away they periodically come back to verify the weapons, ones they were shown by the country, were in fact there. the process of destruction is left to the country to develop. that doesn't strike me as what is necessary in a case like this. >> i think destruction is very much on the list of what the world is demanding. if it gets to the point where there is destruction, not just

identification but verification and then destruction presumably that would be done on site, how difficult is that? moving it could be problematic, and again, something you touched on yesterday, the time that this would take. >> well, i don't think moving it is actually a go situation. these weapons started to be produced a little over 25 years ago. some of them are very old. we don't know the condition they're in. my suspicion, having seen chemical weapons stockpiles and other places, you've got leakers, it's hard hazard does. are there quick and dirty ways to destroy them? there are. they're not easy. they're certainly not something we use in our own country. we used it in iraq and it works. that needs discussion. more importantly you need to bring weapons under

international control immediately and be sure you've got all of the weapons. that is what concerns me about assad's statement. it looks like he's trying to wiggle out of that part as well. >> months and months before they even get to that point. david kay, appreciate it. could take years. >> yeah. just the beginning. is the catholic church changing its mind about celibacy? another story we're following. how the vatican says it's up for discussion. >> for priests, not parishioners. they're having a conversation. are they starting a conversation? we'll talk about that. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you

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welcome back to "around the world." two live events we are waiting on, in a few moments questions about syria starting to come up at white house briefing. you see the white house there. we'll bring that to you live as soon as that starts. >> we are waiting for secretary of state john kerry, the all-important meeting he's been having in geneva with his russian counterpart about syria's chemical weapons and developments coming up in the last hour on that issue. we will keep you update on all of it. now to this, the catholic church, is it ready to change its position on requiring priests to remain celibacy? many are shocked about the vatican now open to discussing

this. >> yeah. it's really interesting. a huge thing, of course, if that did come up, a serious discussion, celibacy one of the oldest traditions in the roman catholic church when it comes to priests. so what happened? was the pope second in command maybe signaled a shift in the church's position on celibacy? of course that had everyone sitting up and taking notice. >> including our eric, joining us from washington to analyze all of this. what do we think about this? is this real, is it not? >> yes, it really happened. archbishop, the incoming secretary of state at the vatican, he's a -- he's their ambassador to venezuela, and in an interview in a paper there, he talked about celibacy for priests. the reporter asked him if it was something that could be changed. of course he reiterated the church teaching, yes, celibacy is something that could be changed. the first thousand years of the church's history priests were

married, it changed later on and since that's been a tradition. there's a big difference here, the distinction he's drawing between dogma and church teaching. dogma, jesus says do this in remembrance of me for come moka that's not going to change. but celibacy for priest, is it changing. here in the united states 2012, you had 40 anglican converts. they've been married. of the 40,000 catholic priests in the united states you've got 40 married and certainly have wives. if there's a test balloon for the celibacy case look to that as opposed to this article from the incoming secretary of state. >> that's what i was going to ask you about, too. sort of a trial balloon. put this out there see what the flock thinks of it and what perhaps more hard line people within the church think about

it. his predecessor, off-limits, not going to happen. six months into the job and we're talking about this. >> i will give benedict credit for this, he was the one in 2012 created them to bring anglicans who were married into the fold as catholic priests. he in some sense opened the door. it's a church teaching, something that could be raised. talking to one church official, he said this is about sacraments, not about sex. they don't have enough priests to deliver the sacraments to help people practice the faith. like the uniconn and canada, the are six priests. so there's always this ongoing discussion with the bishops, the cardinals, with the pope, how do we fulfill our obligations, how do we get more people to come? >> widen the pool. thanks so much. do drop in and visit the belief blog. you'll fine that on cnn.com.

more discussion going on. >> it took 1,000 years to change it. it might not be tomorrow. >> this pope, my word, six months in, he's changed everything. and of course he's driving around the vatican now in his own little 300,000 kilometer on the clock car. amazing. >> new kind of pope. prince william making a big announcement, he's leaving the military after 7 1/2 years. why he's shifting his focus to another passion. i had pain in my abdomen... it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life. warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. always go the extra mile.

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welcome back. prince william is switching careers. the future heir to the british throne leaving the armed forces after seven years. did a good job, too. >> quite an eventful year, because he became a dad. just more than a month ago. now britain's royal irforair fo search and air pilot. he'll focus his duties on charities as well. >> max foster joining us london. is it a surprise or not? >> reporter: well, there was an element of surprise. we've been waiting for the announcement for some time, we knew he was leaving, or his tour of duty was end, he could have stayed there. but his journey from london right up to west wales sore of wearing on him a bit. he was committed to being in the military because he likes being in the military, treated as a

normal guy in the military and ultimately head of the armed forces when he becomes king. he's committed to the military. what was a surprise he was leaving the military altogether. there's some sort of confusion about what exactly he is doing next because he -- he isn't going to become a full-time royal, we're told. just a year, a transition year, and he may take up a new sort of job not in the military but in the public service somewhere next year. but for the next year, he's going to be working with his charities, conservation in particular, and with the royal family. i think probably he's going to spend some time with prince george as well, his newborn son. the new apartment is soon ready. they're settling down as a family, outside the military, some people really questioning what that means but it's straightforward, really. he's not quite decide what he's like do in the longer term. >> his heart is close to africa and the charity work that he does. where do you suppose he's going to be involved?

>> well, he is definitely going big on conservation. he's set up a new initiative today with david beckham, bringing together conservation charities. i get the impression he's going to africa next year. i recently interviewed him about his work in africa. that will come out on sunday. but it's one thing that he's really passionate about and he's going to be pushing that. i think over the next year we're going to see a lot more of them because they're going to be doing more work outside the military. and also a lot more travel, i think, probably to africa. we'll wait to see. i think conservation, charity work, supporting the royal family, we'll see a lot more of that, we'll be seeing more of william and kate and possibly george over the next year. >> i think you'll be seeing them this evening, first public outing as a couple since the birth of george, red carpet event. max will head over there, rub shoulders. thanks so much.

>> of course, watch his interview with prince william this sunday 10:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. you're not going to want to miss that one. >> thanks for watching "around the world." >> "cnn newsroom" starts right now. >> see you tomorrow. right now the united states is trying to determine if syria's serious about giving up its chemical weapons. crucial talks and a plan to avoid u.s. military action about to get under way. also, the white house press secretary preparing for some tough questions on the syria crisis and the president's policies. today's white house briefing expected to start within this hour. also right now, emergency crews in colorado are responding to dozens of calls from people trapped by raging floodwaters. you'll see dramatic rescue that played out on live tv a little while ago.