The first American loss of life has been confirmed in Florida and President Obama has warned people to continue taking precautions.

I just wanna emphasize to everybody that this is still a really dangerous hurricane, that the potential for storm surge, flooding, loss of life and severe property damage continues to exist, and people continue to need to follow the instructions of their local officials over the course of next 24, 48, 72 hours.

Our correspondent Lora Bicker is in the storm on Florida’s eastern coast.

Structurally, most of them are still intact. Some of them have had fallen trees on them or debris. However, most people here, everything has survived intact. The roads have been… are in a terrible state in some places. But I think things start to get back to normal after they’ve been behind closed doors for the last 24 hours. In this area, this is where Mathew’s eye came closest to the Florida coast. The winds pounded all night. You could hear the trees cracking and debris flying past the window. This part of Florida has been very lucky. Further north of here, what I’m hearing in Jacksonville is that parts of that area are being flooded by those coastal surges, that they’ve been mourning about for days now. And we are seeing Jacksonville where people are struggling to deal with those flood waters. But they can’t… the hurricane has now been downgraded to a category two. It is heading towards Georgia, south and north Carolina.

Lora Bicker reporting from the wind and rain in Florida.

Now Russia is facing more international calls to stop the bloodshed in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The American Secretary of State John Kerry said Moscow’s actions in support of the Syrian government demanded a war crime investigation.

Those who commit these would and should be held accountable for these actions. They are beyond the accidental now, way beyond, years beyond the accidental. And this is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives.

Those who commit these would and should be held accountable for these actions. They are beyond the accidental now, way beyond, years beyond the accidental. And this is a targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives.

In another development, Russia’s new parliament has approved an agreement that will allow the Russian military to stay in Syria indefinitely. I asked our Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg what we should make of that.

It’s no surprise that the Duma decided to ratify this agreement.