weapons rather than what happens with syria and the after bashir assad.it's all around a bit of pessimism when people look at this geneva two and people will tell you they don't really think it will happen. >> reporter: thank you, that is live for us in beirut on brahimi's trip into damascus and he arrived a short while ago. the fighting continues in the country tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed in the last 30 months and lacking money and material to rebuild houses many syrians have now resorted to using mud for temporary shelters and here is more. >> reporter: he is preparing the foundations to his house which he is building himself out of mud. and bashir assad's army caused him to flee to the country side with wife and 7 children in search of refuge and it's deserted and he is putting a roof over their heads. >> translator: our home has been destroyed. we came here with nothing but the children were terrified so we had to flee. >> reporter: but it's not only him building a new home out of mud. in the village the people say the proper buildi

handed over to an official in damascus and he was being held hostage by people fighting against bashir assadre than 20 bush fires are burning out of control through the state of new south wales in australia and feared that hundreds of homes have been destroyed and the fires are concentrated around the state capitol sidney and described as the worst in the state in a decade and lynn has the story. >> reporter: this is what firefighters are up against in the state of south wales and dozens of bush fires are burning out of control, fanned by strong winds and worse by unusually high temperatures. >> the fire activity that is being reported was certainly extreme, certainly we had flames of 20-30 meters. >> reporter: and the outskirts of sidney near the famous blue mountains and the north on the coast. >> this, emergency could go on for quite sometime and hundreds of people who are grieving the loss of property, tragically there has been, it seems, one life lost further north, someone who was defending his house. we grieve for everyone impacted by these fires. >> reporter: so this family, this was

from the friends of syria core group are meeting the syria national coalition and the president bashir assadd no data has been sent for talks at ending the civil war and he indicated he has no intention of quitting saying there is no reason he cannot run for reelection. >> translator: there is no data and there is no factors that help in holding it now if we wanted to succeed. meaning who are the parties participating in geneva? what is the relation of the forces to the syrian people? are they forces representing the syrian people or forces representing the countries that made it? if this force participating conference with dialog wanted to suggest a suggestion later on which basis do we answer it as a country? who does it represent? >> reporter: that is barnaby phillips in london and if there was one key of the meetings, what would that be? >> well, to take as much of the syrian opposition as possible to a conference in jaw knee have n geneva and with their position that is not going to be easy and at the moment one of the biggest groups the syrian national council is saying they don't real

to human rights watch launched an offensive in the governor here and the target the president bashir assad power base and people here are al-white a branch to what assad belongs and they attacked the village and particularly this village and it's a strategic post which they have opposition strongholds like the villages and take control of the area and the opposition fighters could move closer to assad's hometown and bear in on the coastal city. and crucial access to the coast when land roots into syria were controlled by different sections. it was a week's long campaign and what happened specifically on august the 4st that is at issue here and video posted by opposition groups appears to backup what human rights group says happened. opposition fighters going house to house, in some cases shooting civilians as well as shooting at people trying to get away. human rights watched at least 190 people were killed and around 200 people from the area are still being held hostage. >> the hostage takers continue to hold over 200 individuals from the villages based on opposition sources. we are urgin

as secretary kerry also said, this was a real plus for bashir assad's regime they were doing this thiss having the effect of as many predicted helping to shore up the assad regime despite all the rhetoric back in august you said about gassing their own people. melissa: that is certainly dangerous. you know they say the syrians are doing the actual destroying while there are u.n. eerts i guess observing and reporting? >> right. melissa: does that make a difference? >> as the chemical convention unfolds each state that declared a stockpile of weapons destroys its own weapons under supervision under international inspectors. that is what the u.s. is doing and russia doing. and theoretically syria should bear the cost of it. i think that is very unlikely. the odds are we'll hear the obama administration say because of this important step forward, we should bear the cost of destroying the weapons. melissa: right. that is the real question because the show is called money so we're trying to follow the money. who is paying for it now as is happening? >> i don't think they have destroyed that

and that is around the time the next presidential election is scheduled, until then president bashir assadon is needed for this to succeed. >> this is a symbol among the security apparatus and armed forces and mimd militia and par the state and he is the pivot of what they circle around. >> reporter: it's not between two sides and rebel groups have no command, al-qaeda is present and assad is not just relying on the military, he also depends on a decentralized security apparatus along with the progovernmepro government militia. >> i don't think they want the security to disintegrate and they made it very clear they want to preserve the government which includes the military intact. i don't think he will be authorized or i don't think having him in power will be one of his provocatives. i think he will be allowed to complete his term. >> reporter: they want to revive this in switzerland that stalled over what should happen to assad. if it convenes in geneva discussions will not be about regime handing over power, it will be to transitional a governing body to involve members from the opposi

august groups, over 20 according to human rights watch launched this and the target was president bashir assadeople here predominately al-white a branch to islam which assad belongs and fighters attacked a number of al-white villages and in particular this village of barouda and they have strongholds of the village and take control of the area and fighters could move closer to assad's home and bear in on the coastal city of latakia. it was a week's long campaign but it's what happened specifically on august the 4th that is at issue here and video posted by opposition groups appears to backup what human rights watch says happened. opposition fighters going house to house, in some cases shooting civilians as well as shooting at people trying to get away. human rites watch says at least 190 people were killed and around 200 people from the area are still held hostage. the hose tam takers continue to hold 200 individuals from the villages based on opposition sources. we are urging these groups to release the hostages. >> reporter: human rights watch says five groups including al-qaeda linked group

the battle was between supporters of the syrian president bashir assad and those opposed to him.e people have been killed since violence broke out in tripoli on tuesday. french, un forces have launched a join operation against rebels in malai and they are along the river between timbuktoo and they say al-qaeda-linked fighters are to blame. >> reporter: it seems like a larger operation than some of the operations that french forces conducted and this is i believe the first operation involving this mix of forces, french and u.n. forces and forces belonging to the newly-trained malian army batallion and different than we have seen in months. >> reporter: let's go to the weather and a typhoon i hear is plaguing japan. >> we have two storms that are not too far away. the one closest is tropical storm francisco. this one is not actually men to make landfall but have clouds to the north and that is already giving us some very heavy downpours. this is the satellite picture closer and you see the clouds streaming its way across japan and the heaviest rains are in the south. that is where

john kerry is also commending syrian president bashir al assad for destroying chemical weapons and said he deserves credit calling for the weapons to be destroyed. this is a team of inspectors in the car making sure the weapons are dismantled. he said assad is not off the hook idea, but calls the progress a good beginning. we will be watching the supreme court in the coming weeks. the nation's highest court begins its new term today. one case focuses on how much money you can contribute to a political candidate, campaign or action committee in the two-year election cycle. another case could determine who gets into college. that will decide if a state can amend the constitution to prohibit race or sex from being a factor in admission to public colleges. they will take us two cases that deal with rights. one challenges a law that won't allow protesters within 35 feet of abortion clinics. they focus whether a town council can hold a prayer before meetings. despite the government shut down, there is no end in sight. what lawmakers are doing right now. we have our senior political editor. ha

really just the essential words of secretary kerry's recent justification for wanting to attack bashir al-assad's regime in syria. however, i changed the quote a little bit, mr. speaker. whenever he said syria, i inserted iran. and whenever he said chemical weapons, i inserted nuclear weapons, mr. speaker. and if this line -- reasons of the administration chooses -- reasoning of the administration chooses, if they choose to stand behind this, then we simply cannot refute the parallel argument represented to a nukeler iran which poses an exponentially greater threat in terms of our security to the united states of america. secretary kerry asserted that mr. obama, quote, means what he says. but, mr. speaker, if the world truly believed that this president means what he says, the chemical weapons crisis in syria would never have occurred place. irst secretary kerry said of the syrian crisis that north korea and iran were closely watching our actions. however, mr. speaker, the converse is actually far more accurate. syria has been closely watching mr. obama's inaction toward north korea and iran sinc

times" saying there was an article in le monde's -- also a story out of "the new york times" on bashir al- assad. next.jamie is up clarkston, michigan, on our line from those who say fix it. caller: thanks for taking my call. every computer system has glitches in it. i have glitches in my computer. the banks have glitches in their computers. it will be fixed and it is a good health care law. and it is a law, not just a bill. and we are going to benefit in my family from it. my husband and i are on medicare. we have had better medicare since this law went through, and i have had to wait before anything was done about health for backaited a year surgery. so that is nothing new. thank you. georgiais is kathy from , who says delay it. caller: hello? host: you are on. caller: i have been following the health-care law from start to finish, and i am a republican, but i was hoping wouldhe obamacare law roll out a lot better than it did. . am not happy that it did not i am quite flabbergasted how it did roll out. actually, it has made me very sad. it for how long or depending on what? --ler: i think they

these are indeed the essential words of secretary kerry's recent justification for attacking bashir al-assad's regime. however, when he said syria, i inserted iran. and whenever he said chemical weapons, i inserted nuclear weapons. mr. speaker, this is a line of reasoning the administration chooses to stand behind. then we simply cannot refute the parallel argument related to a nuclear iran, which poses an exponentially greater threat, a greater threat to national security of the united states than chemical weapons in syria. secretary asserted that mr. obama, quote, means what he says, but, mr. speaker, if the world truly believed that this president means what he says, the chemical weapons crisis in syria would never have occurred in the first place. secretary kerry said of the crisis in syria that north korea and iran were closely watching our actions. well, i don't disagree with him, mr. speaker. but the converse is actually far more true. syria has been closely watching mr. obama's inaction toward north korea and iran since he became president. and consequently assad felt he could use chem

bashir himself. certainly the syrian national coalition and other opposition groups are saying they would not go to the geneva 2 conference unless the assessing i nation of bashar al-assad was on the table, and not just an after thought to be discussed later. it's also not clear whether a political solution, if, indeed, reached at the geneva 2 conference would be applied on the ground simply because of the fact that many of the rebel factions, some of the more powerful ones on the ground have clearly said that it does not recognize that process, and it would actually consider anyone who joined that process as a traitor. >> egyptian students have stormed the university building damaging equipment and writing anti-government graffiti on the walls. >>> after the demonstration of ousted president mohamed morsi turned violent. >> reporter: this is the moment that hundreds of students tried to raid the administrative offices of the university. for ten days this place has been the focal point for protesters from the anti-coup alliance. on wednesday some managed to break in and set about destroying what they could. some used water hoses to prevent those outside from getting in.

translator: president bashir and destroying the chemical weapons seems to have given him breathing space and john kerry offered cautious words. >> i think it's credit to the assad regime for complying rapidly as they are supposed to. now, we hope that will continue. i'm not going to vouch today for what happens months down the road, but it's a good beginning. and we should welcome a good beginning. >> but it's not yet clear if these good beginnings can translate into a political victory for the president. certainly there are signs of what is going on on the political offensive and appeared on several international networks to push the message that the syrian president is the only man to lead syria out of the crisis. >> he is engaging with countries of interest like turkey and the west and u.s. and parts of europe where he feels there is opposition to the government support of the rebels. >> reporter: allies russia and iran have publically moves with the russian foreign minister saying. >> translator: we hope resolution of the council adopted ten days ago will be fulfilled by all parties as well as the countries which are neighbors of syria. >> reporter: but the

control over bashir's chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatant listen perfidious and designed not only to give mr. obama an opportunity to back down, but also to help assad we asked about the tirade, they played it down, saying their private conversations have been more civil. >> you can bet that king abdullah would not let this commentary get out unless he approved it. >> we work very closely with the king and fassel and others. that's not going to change. >> still the public comments exposed sharp disagreements on virtually every u.s. policy, nuclear talks with iran. and the latest peace efforts between israel and the palestinians. some call the outrage unacceptable, citing the costly investment of american blood and treasure to shared interests in -- to u.s. ships policing the persian gulf, saudi arabia's economic lifeline to the world. >> it's american blood being spilled. where he spent triance and now the saudis are irritated because of the possibility of -- with iran? >> there are those very nervous that if this rift rose, it would damage both countries. >> a hugely important issue. thanks very much, jim. let's get to the other big story, the cont