>> the international friends of syria meeting gets underway today in london, but the obstacles to peace talks are many, including a fractured opposition and a defiant syrian president because he sees no reason not to run again. firefighters in australia deliberately merge two major blazes, the latest attempts to control the fires against worrying weather conditions that are getting worse. rights groups are pushing the u.s. to end the secrecy on drone attacks, and the report of civilian casualties. you are watching "france 24."

bashar assad has dealt a new blow to international efforts for peace. speaking on television yesterday, the syrian president said the time was still not right for the talks and even alluded to running again for president. getting him out of power is one of the key points in the peace negotiations. despite those comments from the syrian president foreign ministers from 11 countries are meeting in london with the syrian opposition coalition. that friends of syria meeting is being hosted by british foreign secretary william hague, who says reuniting the opposition will get challenge. >> there are different views different opposition groups. the national coalition, the president of the national coalition, he has said that he is committed to the un security council to end the geneva process the geneva talks, but there are different views within his supporters, among his

supporters. so we want the moderate opposition in syria to know we are behind them and going to geneva, and we will continue to help them in many ways, and of course to persuade them that this is the only way in the end to solve this tragic and bloody conflict in syria. >> international affairs editor douglas herbert told us more about the challenges facing the friends of syria. >> it is a grouping right of 11 coronations, western arab nations, including qatar the united arab nations. we have covered them in paris tunisia, istanbul. they have been meeting everywhere in the past few years. in the beginning there was a pretense where they were speaking to a so-called united opposition that was marching at least in their own words in lockstep towards a brighter future for syria, a future without bashar assad in it. that has become aggressively

more difficult, or that vision is more out of whack with reality these days. john kerry is going to a meeting trying to face an opposition that within itself is divided on whether or not to attend this conference. the opposition groups that will be there in london -- the syrian national coalition -- that is the umbrella group will stop within that group you have a faction called the syrian national council that has made it clear that it opposes any peace conference, any way, shape, or form, of any regime if bashar al-assad will participate in it. they say it would be a joke to allow a man who has been brutally murdering his own people to sit at a table and talk about peace. what sort of a conference will that be? don kerry has to get those people onside and he does not have much time right now. the u.s. is trying to unify what is left of the unified opposition, get them to geneva before it is too late, because he insists there is no military

solution, only a political and diplomatic solution. he has to convince others to share that vision. >> at his douglas herbert, our international affairs editor. wildfires in australia are still burning through the west near sydney, at least a dozen raging out-of-control. firefighters are trying to manage the flames, but with the weather forecasts riveting high wind and heat, officials of fear more houses will be lost. >> fighting fire with fire. 1100 firefighters worked through the night into tuesday. authorities were optimistic about their tactics. >> the latest projections indicate we have made a significant inroad into how far over the next 24 and 48 hours. none of us know how far they are going to run yet but we know that together we have done

everything we can to limit how far those fires run. >> vegetation was burned that would otherwise act as further fuel for the blazes. they merged two major fires into a single one that would be easier to control. the fear was that if they merged uncontrolled they would form a dangerous mega-fire. 60 separate fires have wiped out 200 homes since thursday. hundreds of residents have fled to evacuation centers like this one. >> unfortunately i have lost my whole house. there was nobody in there. i managed to get my wife out, so all our family is safe. >> the fires followed the warmest september on record in the state. >> the bush is unbelievably dry here. we have not had an injured brain in about four months. >> everyone is saying -- we have

not had one inch of rain in about four months. >> everyone is saying this is september, what is january going to be like? >> amnesty international is calling on the u.s. to investigate reports of civilians killed and wounded by caa jones strikes in packet -- by cia drone strikes in pakistan. victims of the attacks including a 68-year-old grandmother, hit while farming with her grandchildren. amnesty has slammed the u.s. about a lack of transparency on its drone campaign. more on the reaction from pakistan to the drone strikes. >> even after 2014, there will still be drone attacks because the situation will not change in north waziristan where most of the drone attacks occur. the population, the pakistani population has different feelings about that because when

you are in karachi you can announce drone attacks, but for the local people living in the tribal areas the -- it is much more nuanced. of course we should cut down drone attacks, because it is kind of a black hole and nobody knows what is happening. we need independent information about that because nobody can go there. the local people are really living in fear. with a survey that says they are ok with drone attacks, how can that be reliable at all? the people who say it is accurate, of course civilians are killed, but it is accurate, nobody told us about the shells fired by the pakistani army, and people say it is worse. it is not all black and white it is just gray in between.

>> a very stern francois hollande took on barack obama over new spy allegations. in a tense residential phone call, the french president expressed deep disapproval over reports that the u.s. had monitored 70 million phone calls and messages secretly in under a month. >> it is -- it has made for some tense conversations between the u.s. and french president and members of their cabinets. the latest allegations about u.s. surveillance published in french newspaper "le monde" have been known for a while. the journalist who broke the nsa spy story, glenn greenwald said there have been documents for some time. thanks to information leaked by edward snowden. the latest revelation, that the nsa collected more than 70 million french telephone records

in the space of a month. >> parts involving france and the spying of french cities by the nsa. it shows that this spying is absolutely massive over the months, and some french companies have been under surveillance by the nsa. >> over the summer, snowden's leaked documents show the nsa was spying on several french embassies and the french mission at the united nations. in july, the president threatened -- >> we had already reacted strongly, but we need to go further. these kinds of pranksters between partners that violate privacy are totally unacceptable. >> while politicians profess outrage, the government walks a

fine line. as also reported in "le monde," france also runs its own vast surveillance organization collecting personal data, much like the nsa's prism program. you are watching "france 24." >> time for the international press review. i am joined in the studio -- slow, lots of focus -- flo, a lot of focus on the little girl found in a camp in greece. >> they have been ordered to jail over that abduction. she is on the front page of the

international -- this striking photo that has been circulating around a lot on front pages today, her name is maria. they call her the mystery child found in that roma encampment. a closer look at what is called greece's fake roma child today. they're trying to figure out if she is part of the benefits camp or part of a larger child trafficking ring. the couple had 14 other children with them at the time, many of whom bore no resemblance to them, and also of fake birth certificates. according to this article, they received 2500 euros a month in child benefits, so they wonder if this is some sort of benefits scam. also the searches on to find this girl's parents, and the greek police have asked interpol for help. greek authorities have gone to

interpol. the center where she is being kept, they have received 8000 calls in the first 48 hours. a lot of efforts to find her parents there. >> the roma couple has denied any wrongdoing. they said the mother gave the girl to them because she could not take care of them. let's move on to severe pollution in china, getting a lot of attention in the paper. >> there are striking photos in the press today. let's look at the front page of "the wall street journal," and here you can see two photos taken in -- they're calling this the super smog air-pocalypse. the disappearing city, talking about carbon. carbon is currently clocked at 1000, the highest reading that most air pollution instruments can measure, and that is 40

times what the world health organization deems safe. schools were closed on monday and they are calling it as smog day. a lot of buses did not circulate because of the visibility on the roads. >> schools are still closed today. chinese authorities are of course rushing to find methods to curb this issue. >> that's right, looking at the proposed change to a law that would be easier to sue polluters. basically 13 environmental agencies would become qualified to sue polluters. this sounds like good news, but unfortunately it means smaller local environmental agencies would not be qualified. "china daily" says it could be an issue. china is looking at the long- term effect because even though the government appears to be serious about cleaning the air regulations are slow to be put

in place, and it does not seem like china will change its demand on coal in the short term and changed to cleaner sources of energy. according to "time," the smog may be here to stay for a while. >> western and arab backers in london are also getting attention. >> the independent wonders if with friends like these they can agree on a united front. as the rival factions sit down, it seems unlikely that things will move forward. but the fact that the talks take place is a good sign. >> let's look at something now in "the daily beast here go it -- "the daily beast." it appears google is -- >> to put it in context remember that google has been

accused of helping the u.s. ash the nsa spy on internet users. this is a glowing article about google. basically they tried to help internet users in oppressive countries like iran and china have more online freedom. internet users say in china and syria can swap online identities with someone in the west. google users a browser extension that uses a proxy to do this. they swapped online identities. they call it a social networking tool. so let's look at what it is -- it lets people in the west to use google behind the censorship wall. >> flo, thank you very much.

>> in football, the world cup playoffs, the european qualifying section was made on monday with france facing two- leg tie. it will have home advantage in the second leg. >> i don't know if it is the best draw we could have got. it could have been worse, that is true. we could have drawn countries like portugal, croatia, or greece, who know how to play in international levels. when you take that into account ukraine's have less experience and are not as well known. the pic of next month's matchups will see portugal face sweden.

the coach is eric cameron. >> it is not a matter of being a trade but learning to respect opponents. physically very strong. they have some tall players and they also have one of the best players in the world in a behemoth which -- in ibrahim ovic. but they are also very good. >> you have four good teams, and whatever team you got in the draw is going to be a tough challenge. or to go, for me, -- portugal for me, is a really good team. the players on the highest level, they are a world class team. you saw in europe they were close to going to the finals and

lost to spain in penalty kicks. >> romania take on greece, and iceland faces croatia. the first takes place on november 15 with return matches taking place four days later. must wait a few more days before finding out if he is to be punished by the federation. french federation president said it was clear that the manchester united player had made a mistake, but he refused to be drawn on a potential punishment. >> i am in switzerland now, so i will not talk about the players. we are going to meet them in the coming days and it is a case we will sort out together. debord was french captain -- luis fernandez were among his

targets in an explosive tv interview broadcast on sunday. in the european champions league, they have been hoping to take on their opponent in the perfect start. john as what many consider the group of -- action thinker is expecting this evening's match in london to be -- >> they have a desire to play that may result in a positive attitude and they have produced as well many good players recently. we know that they are quality, and it makes it always open games because they do not hide, we do not hide, so it should be an exciting game tomorrow. >> he hopes his squad can

deliver him the perfect earth they present by being the team who lost -- who beats their opponent in the final. roger federer has cruised into the second round of the swiss indoors after beating a frenchman. once a ball boy at his home, fedor has won the tournament five times. -- fedor wererer has won the tournament five times. two serves were enough to give him a 6-4, 6-2 win. >> today french users react to nsa surveillance allegations.

a photographer highlighting the problem of street harassment. and a man sells a rubik's cube -- solves a rubik's cube suspended in the air. according to a report published in "le monde" monday, the nsa has intercepted over 70 million e-mails, telephone conversations, and tax messages -- and text messages between 2012 and 2013. many like this twitter user, are simply outraged by the nsa's massive surveillance of private communications within france. people want the french government to deliver a firm response urging president hollande to address the u.s. while a lot of web users are condemning the u.s. intelligence services, others are saying the french authority is concerned

about the level of spying taking place. "it is nothing more than a communication ploy." the revelations of -- inspiring online comedians who have been posting sarcastic and ironic messages for the nsa. some are asking the agency to help them find lost e-mails. others are asking for copies of recorded telephone conversations. this collection of shots by photographer hannah price was published in "the morning news" last week. she asks men who cap call her to

take their photo and posts them online. she has received a lot of praise from women who have experienced street harassment for themselves, and men have described this type of behavior as show paul -- as shameful. some have been more critical. she says that she does not like how putting a face on street harassers humanizes him. it may encourage more catcalling and approaching women on the street. the person who wrote this points out that the vast majority of the men featured are black, and the collection stigmatizes a particular community. she does not think the criticism is justified. she explained that street harassment is a societal problem and is no way more prevalent in

one community than another. kenyon web users have been posting under -- for a 16-year- old girl who was jang -- gang raped back in june. web users are criticizing authorities for failing to charge the perpetrators for the barbaric attack but demanded the immediate arrest and prosecution of the rapist. she suffered horrific and numerous injuries. >> from november 11, and google plus will start incorporating users names and profile pickss. it is seen as an infringement on their privacy. many will opt out, but some have

replaced their photo with the google ceo. why sit down comfortably and solve a rubik's cube when you could do it suspended in the air. as is what you skydive or james wilson set out to do, become the first person to solve the puzzle in a freefall wind tunnel.