>> we will defend ourselves using all available means, says syria's foreign minister. this as the u.s. weighs a military strike against the war-torn country saying there's undeniable evidence of a chemical attack. russia says a military strike on syria could have catastrophic consequences. in this edition we look at how soon it might happen and what options the u.s. has. and ash rained down on a key reservoir in california. this as a massive fire is just 20% contained after burning for

more than a week. welcome back to the news room. we start with syria defending its actions. the foreign minister addressed reports a short while ago and said the regime is cooperating with u.n. inspectors trying to determine if there have been chemical attacked in the war-torn country. the u.s. says there is undeniable evidence such attacks has taken place and is weighing a military strike against syria. he says that isn't justified and would serve the interest of al qaeda linked groups and israel. he denied the government tried to get rid of evidence of chemical weapons use. >> some people have said that the syrian armed forces have used chemical weapons. i have denied this in my conversation where mr. considerry and i would like to

repeat that no state in the world would wish to use weapons of mass destruction against its own people. >> now, following that press conference with me a little earlier on. hello again. start off by taking us through the main points syria's foreign minister made. >> it was a categorical denial of all the accusations that western countries and other countries are throwing at the syrian regime. first of all in very deep and great detail he proved according to him how syria has cooperated with the u.n. inspection team, how they have maintained their commitments, how they have protected the team in the areas under their control. and he said therefore that the attack by snipers against the u.n. mission yesterday came from the rebels and not from the syrian military. he also said that the syrian regime respects all of the commitments it has made

concerning the use of chemical weapons again categorical denial saying that no country could possibly use chemical weapons against its own people and challenging the international community who is saying that they have used them by the syrian regime has used them to prove that they have. so he said that the charge of chemical weapons is not specific enough to unleash an attack against syria and he wondered out loud what are the real reason force such an attack? and the conclusion that he came to is that this serves the interests of israel and the interests of jihaddists inside syria. and he rhetorically asked is the united states really proud of helping islamic radicals in syria? so a categorical denial of everything that has been said about the regime in the last several months. he made out the syrian regime to seem like some sort of innocent bye stander or the kid

that everybody is just punching at. >> what did you make of the press conference as a whole? do you think the foreign minister was convincing shifting the blame to the rebels? >> i don't think he was very convincing. but it was certainly a good performance and it was certainly a part of the propaganda war that has now begun. i believe that he is now trying to put the blame for the use of chemical weapons on the rebels and he is ahead of time even before this report comes out disqualifying it. the state department yesterday talked about american intelligence having being almost certain that the syrian regime did use those chemical weapons. so he is trying to get a little bit ahead of the game by saying that those reports are unreliable. one other important point that he made was that the syrian military could not have possibly destroyed evidence of the use of chemical weapons as has been charged because that evidence is in rebel-held

territory. one way of saying of course that the rebels used the chemical weapons, which most of the international community does not believe simply because they don't have the capacity to do so. so overall an attack they say that the best defense is to attack, and this is what the syrian government was doing today. >> thank you very much. indeed. are now, russia says it regrets the decision by washington to suspend talks on an interacts peace conference with syria. the u.s. says that's due to ongoing consultations over ab alleged chemical attack in the country as we've been saying one possible response would be a military strike. russia says that without u.n. approval that would be illegal. joining me now from london, former deputy defense atasha for the u.n. thank you fosh being with us. if the u.s. does decide to intervene militarily in syria, how might it do that?

which weapons might it use? >> well, i think first of all the options are very, very limited so it really comes down to the technological advance that is countries like frankly the u.s. and possibly france and the u.k. have. but primarily the u.s. they would do it by using probably most probably ship-launched tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about a thousand kilometers launched from the eastern mediterranean to pin point targets wnt the territory. but that sounds very simple but in fact it would be incredibly difficult to go to make sure that the strikes are precise and actually on target. and actually hit what is required to be hit, which is possibly the chemical weapons sites or whatever. and secondly, to make sure that there's no clatral damage alongside of it. >> now as you mentioned the u.k. might get involved, too,

and the prime minister's spokesperson said britain may have a strategic need to act quickly. how soon might the strike happen? is it possible to organize such an intervention quickly? >> you have to realize that the forces required to do this are already in place. so as far as the military is concerned, they have the hardware in place. there are ships, a fourth ship has just arrived in the eastern mediterranean. the u.k. will most likely have units there, probably submarines if they were going to use tomahawk cruise missiles and you have to also realize that the defense chiefs are actually meeting concurrently either today or tomorrow in jordan. so there's an awful lot of assets from a military point of view to make sure that if and when the political decision comes they are ready to act. >> now, the syrian foreign minister was speaking earlier on and he was saying that the u.s. isn't interested in a

political and diplomatic solution any more. what would you say to that? >> i think that's developing into the realms of politics for a moment. i think a certain amount of perception amongst the key players that israel is looking off from the sidelines saying we have to do something early ahead of time to make sure that this doesn't spill over into our backyard. so i think there's a certain amount of pressure coming from other sources on the americans at the moment to step up to the plate and to do something. and you felt that just listening to the speech by kerry yesterday that clearly he has been rattled and the fact that he didn't even deem fit to take any questions after his intervention after his press conference, showed that he was under extreme pressure. so i think there's an awful lot going on at the moment and really the pages are unfolding rapidly. >> thank you very much indeed for joining us from london. now, we've been over where the u.s. and u.k. stand on syria.

as for france we should get a better idea of where it stands when the president here in paris later that planned for 5:00 p.m. paris time. we'll bring you those details. in other news, the afghan president has urged pakistan to help arrange peace talks between his government and the taliban. in the past karzai has ichede havens in pakistan. in a rare move he extended his visit in islam bad in a bid to overcome a series of public rounds. >> rebels have resumed peace talks with the colombian government in cuba after a brief pause in reaction to a proposal that any deal be put to a national referendum. the fark had rejected that that led to the peace talks but has now decided to resume discussions anyway.

fire officials say crews battling a massive wildfire burning in and around california's yosemite national park are finally making progress. the blaze that started ten days ago continues to spread and ash is raining down on a main reservoir that supplies san francisco. but the authorities say they don't expect any water or power disruptions. >> the californian sky now invisible behind a wall of smoke. firefighters have been tackling the blaze for ten days now but strong winds drought, and scorched eshts mean their task is monumental. >> this fire within the last 24 hours, has exceeded the size of the 1987 stanislaus complex fire and is now ranked within the top 20 largest fires in california's history. >> at 350 kilometers away, the san francisco bay area is safe from the flames.

but the blaze is getting ever closer to the reservoir and 2.5 million people in the bay area rely on drinking water from this lake. it also supplies hide row electric power to public facilities including fire stations and hospitals. >> one concern is as the months go on, the winters come and the floods move all the ash and loose debris on to the water and the water gets contaminated that's bad. so whatever the firefighters can do to prevent that, we're doing. >> thousands of residents have been ordered to evacuate. the so-called rim fire has scorched the land area the size of chicago. its flames burning in and around yose mite national park home to the world famous giant redwood trees. >> that's it for now. thanks for watching. don't go away.

>> the international papers largely focusing on the u.s. and allies gearing up for military intervention in syria. >> on the front page of the "wall street journal," the u.s. paves the way for a syria response. the guardian meanwhile has a more cynical view if you take a look at this cartoon where you see obama weighing up military action intervention versus nonintervention. and if we take a look, you'll see basically on the scales is a bunch of bodies of dead civilians there. so much more cynical view. now, the independent meanwhile takes a closer look at what kind of form this military intervention would take. the key word is surgical strikes but what does that really mean? you can see a map there that shows the key sites that could be potential targets, mainly military installations, known chemical sites government buildings. then there's a map that shows

how various british, american forces would be deployed. >> and a lot of newspapers would be asking the question as we will, is this going to work if it happens. >> according to foreign policy probably not. they say that one of the key architects of this syria war plan actually doubts that these strikes will work. he's been questioning this policy publicly. he's a former u.s. navy planner that's been responsible for outlining this influential proposal for the strikes and he says too much faith is being put on their effectiveness and little discussion is being made about why their goals of such attack should be. he says this is the low-cost option that's likely to be pointless and, worse, counter productive. >> and also doubtful a that the surgical strikes are going to solve the problem. >> the "washington post" says that obama has really been dragging his feet for two years about whether or not to intervene and in fact the dangerous outcomes that he has

been worried might actually be precipitate bid any u.s. intervention will have actually come out of the absence of any intervention, for instance in syria we see all sorts of groups affiliated to al qaeda and spreading to jordan and iraq. some response is needed to the allegations of chemical attacks but it needs to be part of a larger strategy that doesn't rely solely on military might. now, the independent meanwhile an article by kim san gunpointa says we need to learn our mistakes from iraq and let the inspectors do their job. he says it's important to let this team gather evidence to see who was behind this chemical attack and then act according to the protocol. and if not, any intervention now runs the risk of being associated with the u.s. intervention in iraq in 2003. now, the international tribune is a little more cynical about

what a good job the u.n. inspectors is doing if we take a look at this cartoon. you see two u.n. inspectors looking at two bodies and say if they really were killed by chemical weapons. you can see there behind them piles and piles of bodies with these labels saying killed by assad snipers tanks, artillery machine guns. so basically why would there be any intervention now. >> thanks so much. obviously largely talking about syria today. nadal cruised into the second rounds of the u.s. open as the spaniard brushed aside the u.s. competition. french eighth seed made quick work of michael russell.

last year's finalist novak joke vitch gearing up for another assault following thursday's draw, number one and three is scheduled to meet. murray would have to beat both in ord tanks, artillery machine guns. so basically why would there be any intervention now. >> thanks so much. obviously largely talking about syria today. nadal cruised into the second rounds of the u.s. open as the spaniard brushed aside the u.s. competition. french eighth seed made quick

work of michael russell. last year's finalist novak joke vitch gearing up for another assault following thursday's draw, number one and three is scheduled to meet. murray would have to beat both in order to retain his crown but more interesting enjoying being defending champion for now. >> last year, i didn't really get the chance to he comes into the competition behind joke vitch and the favorite. nadal has reached 11 and 12 possible finals this year. i felt better every week and i took quite a long break after wimbledon so wasn't expecting to play my best tennis straight away but maybe would have liked to have had a couple more matches the last few weeks but it is what it is. i'm here now, prepared well, got here early, played a lot of practice sets. i'm ready to play. >> there's been a lot of fascination about his book. the only place the top seed will be looking to cook up a storm is on the courts. he's confident he can add to his 11 title and erase the memories of last year's defeat. it's one of those periods that especially in the last few weeks where i didn't play my best tennis but it's ok because it's all right to have some

downs in your season and through your your career in order to get up. it's a cycle. it's the way it goes. you can't always be at the top of your game and always performing well. and of course competition is rising and everybody's playing so well. so this is also a golden opportunity for me to bounce back. i haven't done well, haven't played finals in a hard court event since australia and dubai. so this is my most successful surface and this is one of the best tournaments that i've played in the last five, six years, always playing finals in the last few years. so we'll see. i want to get ready. i want to be efficient from the start and strong in my intentions. >> although he's won all three of the previous tour meetings. defending champion serena williams breezes in as she

thrashed ski voneie. thurd seed the last 64 advanced in straight sets. 2006 champion runners up also will be looking to put their place in the competition for the 16th consecutive year on tuesday evening. >> for us it was not an easy game and i believe we had a good performance and that's why maybe it could look easy. but i know i just told you i know it enough that one game, every game is different. and what we will determine our potential tomorrow is how we

prepare mentally and how committed we go into the game. >> he is expected to start while others are injured. veteran american chris horner claimed hiss first victory as he won on monday. 172 kilometer ride. the 41-year-old reeled in a tie in. producing an impressive kick to hold them off at the finish to become the older to win a grand tour stage and take the lead.

>> china tightens its grip on social networkers. ben affleck cast as batman and bat fans are not happy. and celine deon makes her twitter debut. the news has been met with widespread commentary. in china, debating posting a message on line saying businessman and one of the country's most prominent bloggers has been arrested on the charges of soliciting prostitution. he lives in china but is a naturalized american citizen speaks his issues including child advocalt. many wonder if the 60-year-old

has been set up to stifle his online commentary. the chinese authorities are in the midst of stepping up their control over the internet and curbing online waivers that has seen the arrest of several in recent days. the city ran by both communist party chief much publicized trial has just ended. bloggers described online rumors helped expose a chinese official for corruption. showing his array of lux rizz on line. a scandal that led to an official inquiry. it's official. warner brothers has chosen american actor and director ben affleck to take over the role of batman in the upcoming film due to hit in 2015. the news has been met with

widespread reaction on line and it would seem fans of the super hero are far from happy. indeed they couldn't get to social networks fast enough saying ben affleck as batman is a casting error. over 50,000 have openly expressed their opposition in this petition started on the site charninge.org urging them to rethink the decision. some have been abuses with tongue in cheek suggestions for other faces that would have made a better choice. yes, batman fans have been submitting all sorts of wacky suggestions. a cat, pope or meryl streep would do a better job. others are trying to imagine what ben affleck will look like when he slips into the batman costume and posting off beat of the new bruce wane on line.

not the most flattering of gages some have included matt damon as robin. you can check out the panda bears at the research panda breeding in china discover france's crocodile farms or pay attention to the elephants in. adding wild life parks. images are frozen. if you want to see live action then you have to go to the zoos in person or visit their web sites and observe the animals on live web cam feeds. celine deen planses have cause for celebrations she made her twitter debut with her twitter account. she posted two tweets so far in english saying hi to her legions in fans and announcing

her upcoming album. in less than a week she has already drawn over 50,000 followers. american film maker better known on line as devin has released a new video which shows people trying out a human catapolt. inspired by bungi jumping this is something else indeed. check out. ♪