destruction of syria s chemical arsenal. the government in syria missed a deadline earlier this month for moving all of its nuclear toxic material out of the country. syria has now proposed a new april deadline. now to venezuela with a new round of violent protests in the streets of caracas, security forces using tear gas to disperse student demonstrators in the capital. look, hundreds of protesters demanding the release of fellow students detained during the recent political unrest. our karl penhaul following developments. he s live for us in caracas. what s the latest? reporter: christine, those skirmishes overnight between riot police and students were relatively minor. witnesses say that security forces were firing tear gas, students returned fire with rocks, and that after protesters at the tail end of an antigovernment demonstration had tried to block some streets around the square in eastern caracas. as far as the political
russia. reporter: conservatives insist this is a struggle for power between putin and the west over the fate of the former soviet republics. are you going to go toe to toe and eye to eye with putin? you haven t done so so far. highly unlikely you ll do it now reporter: wall street journal reporting on its front page today, quote, the obama administration has found themselves completely caught off guard by putin, everything from syria to the russian offer of asylum to nsa leaker edward snowden. is there a frustration at the white house that there s a perception that putin is in control of the president on these issues? there s a lot of common ground between the united states and russia that could be staked o out. reporter: it s being reported tonight that syria will miss a u.n. deadline to destroy its chemical arsenal, perhaps another example of consequences. not so much. ed henry live on the north lawn. more on this with the panel. the leader of the opposition in venezu
framework to destroy syria s chemical arsenal. secretary of state john kerry says inspectors have to be on the ground no later than november, and all chemical weapons have to be destroyed by the middle of 2014. president obama issued a statement saying if diplomacy fails the u.s. stands ready to act in syria. and congress was hard at work debating pretty big-ticket issues. yeah, to the threat of a possible government shutdown, it has been a juggling act for lawmakers on capitol hill. and yeah, the debates are expected to heat up. joe johns tells us what we can expect. good morning, joe. we have seen this movie before is how one senator put it, and not too long ago. congress is tied up in knots over federal spending, and obama care and the day of reckoning is
the framework agreed to today. and if diplomacy fails, the united states remains prepared to act. that statement coming from the white house. u.s. secretary of state john kerry, russian foreign minister sergei lavrov say they reached an agreement in the third day of talks in geneva, switzerland. kerry says a key point was agreeing on the size of syria s chemical arsenal. we have reached a shared assessment of the amount and type of chemical weapons possessed by the assad regime, and we are committed to the rapid assumption of control by the international community of those weapons. senior international correspondent matthew chance joins us from geneva. matthew, this agreement sets an ambitious timetable for syria to act. in as early as a week there are demands being placed.
there s never actually been a challenge inspection in the whole history of enforcing this thing on chemical weapons, but there could be one here. we re on new ground here. can the goal in syria be reached? and the obama administration has been saying for the last three weeks, since that alleged gas attack outside damascus, that its main goal, its immediate goal, is to stop any further use of chemical weapons in syria. regardless of the long-term challenges here, is that short-term goal of stopping syria from using chemical weapons, is that short-term goal already achieved? based in part on what happened today? joining us now is ben rhodes. he s a deputy national security adviser for president obama. mr. rhodes, thank you very much for being here tonight. it s nice to have you here. good to be with you, rachel. so a lot of the focus right now, a lot of the commentary on what s happening in this diplomatic push is how hard it s going to be to make sure that syria does this, that they