well unlike in washington the russian parliament or both chambers of the russian involvement must say yes to these treaty and while the rest of the world is now guessing whether russia will say yes or no to these document russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov was more than optimistic over the what we hope the new treaty will have the support of the state duma we think all necessary prerequisites for that have been met implementing this treaty will contribute to the security of our country and huge national stability that will contribute to nuclear nonproliferation and help our relations with the united states and the rest of the world before the now we have the first results coming from the state duma the lower chambre of the lower house of the russian parliament which said yes to these treaty to the court document in its first meeting in the first voting which took place today three hundred feet to vote three hundred fifty deputies said here steve against fifty eight the plan to cut the arsenals up post the treaty itself well it

seems like a good start for new start in russia there will be two more sessions at the state duma and also the federation council but we expect they will take place after the new year holidays the us senate approved at the education resolution a very controversial document in russia's view which they believe contradicts the preamble of big rayment and these resolutions says in particular that a new new trade a new start should not contain the u.s. anti missile programs development and of course russia will be starting the talk of the document carefully with regard to the u.s. missile defense plans especially close to russia's borders at the moment the u.s. plans to deploy anti sell systems in eastern europe should have been the biggest he returned save the relations between moscow and washington and this is why it took that long to hit the reset button because it was the subject of two final draft resolution adopted by. the u.s.

states that a fully fledged global missile defense system is necessary in this regard i'd like to remind you that the treaty on ambiguously states there is a link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons treaty also says that any party can pull out if an emergency situation occurs and russia definitely believes that the creation of a fully fledged global missile defense system of the u.s. would be such an emergency situation that the republicans main concerns regarding these treaty were that america's defensive capabilities could be a factor and president obama did everything to ensure this will not be the case he committed to a twenty five billion dollars ten year plan to make sure that there are many weapons at work and these of course played a key role that the document was finally ready for. me isn't a political analyst for me instead of strategic assessments republicans did their utmost to try throwing a wrench into the works. well i think it's open secret russian lawmakers have used

that quite different date but so many reservations and the basement which were added to the bag stuff they were evolution of do last moment under the pressure of the republicans and i mean the major reason for the republicans would like to kill everything with obama or his image but also for them these are strategic defense is that it's kind of sacred holy you know and there have been so many efforts to introduce amendments which would i think about police state that the united states' government would proceed with the deployment of these. global a.b.m. system and even though they've been some pins. has made some concessions to the russian side there are some secret protocols where obama agreed not to deploy a b.

and b. or certainly but the president had better says barack obama has well earned his christmas break after his efforts in getting the start treaty ratified by the senate to look at that really well done barack obama he needs to push the star deal through the senate and he did it in very difficult circumstances and this treaty will become the coolest of security and within the coming years it's easy to work with him he keeps his promises of the way he's done a great job and he's now on holiday so i wish him a happy christmas and a good rest. of his comments came during his annual meeting with the heads of russia's main t.v. channels summing up the results of two thousand and ten artie's arena louche go was listening in. this is the third time that. conducted such an interview with the representatives of three main channels touched upon the subject the subject matter is that concerning the foreign policy and he also focused of course largely on the internal policy but to start off with things that concern the foreign policy

he basically talked about some of the main events of the year and one of those unfortunately was a quite. event that of course was the tragic death of the polish president in the plane crash. i was also a place where thousands of polish nationals were killed by the soviet secret police in the one nine hundred forty s. i do have the plane of the polish president to come down in that very location something that is bitterly or wrong make something that the russian president spoke about as well. who every time we receive such unusual we're shocked by the tragedy but this time it was not just people who died it was the polish political elite and in addition to top of. something mystic about this place it was impossible to believe we had a difficult journey together with our relationship used to be very bad you know i think it's become better and easier of course the investigation should be finalized

without politicizing the recruiters and we should listen to. other foreign issues which spoke about. japan for example he was asked a question whether or not he was worried about their relations or with the country following his visit to the coral islands which japan considers to be their territory and the russian president said that he's not worried about that he's certain relations between moscow and tokyo will remain to be top notch because. popular in russia we have to remember that majority of the questions of course the internal issues and one of those is the case of. in fact the verdicts in the right and. just a couple of days the president being a lawyer did speak about the case but from the point of view all the president and a lawyer as well. no government official and this includes the president has the right to state their position on this or any other case until the verdict an acquittal or a guilty verdict has been voiced this is perfectly obvious my general position as

a lawyer is that the legal practice works with what is possible and of course material it is said that he that the public or anybody else for that matter should not to see me feel that cost is a second scapegoat he says that he if if there is any proof if there's any evidence that any other russian businessmen of any caliber has committed a similar crime that we think mr medvedev is ready to see the evidence on his table and to take according measures and of course freedom of speech and democracy were also two major issues was reiterated of touched upon in his interview session he also encouraged the ruling united russia party to be more active instead of just pressing on the laurels and he also spoke out to the leaders of the opposition parties encouraging them to be more active. with the renowned politicians outside the state duma some might call them outstanding some might not but they are well

known public figures like mr name sort of mystical. they're all public figures people might like them or not but they have their own electorate well part of public politics. and of course when it came to the freedom of speech and he did have changed the format a little bit he actually posed a question to the three heads of the russian major t.v. channels asking them if they believed the freedom of speech existed in the country because in his opinion television has not been quite active in covering the events which were interesting to the people and that of course wrapped up the almost two hour long interview session conducted by the russian president earlier today in the next hour or bring you some of. the key points raised during president had better his meeting with russia's main t.v. bosses for the for for the full version you can always click over to our website it's there right now at r.t. dot com and while you're there you can take a look at what else is on. kings of the road i drive for a living the real life by what else russian harley davidson bikers and cossacks

discovered that they have in common. and silent struggles russia's deputy talks to our team in their own language and explains their difficulties in getting heard. during the boom years the united states long championed the cause of capitalism but globalization and outsourcing means experiencing some of the downsides to one american town has an unlikely solution priya sridhar reports from a town that's trying to make money by importing students from china. millinocket mean once a booming mill town now. almost a ghost town the paper mill once a symbol of pride and prosperity in the region now a reminder of

a time that has come and gone and international trade is what basically took the paper industry of the united states down it's not just here in the in the town of no one market it's worldwide chinese. you know and we when we do a deal with them we usually we get the sound of it. today millinocket is a small town of five thousand the closest smaller movie theater is an hour's drive away many of the one spot selling businesses in town now stand empty and abandoned i've been very depressing for a lot of people who have had their hopes and hopes that they would something would come along that would change everything but it hasn't. dr cannot smith is the superintendent of millinocket public schools after watching his town fall apart around him he decided it was time to take matters into his own hands. myths idea is to boost the school's population by charging chinese students twenty seven thousand

dollars to attend his high school for one year and they have some skills that we don't have that we'd love to instill and some of us to this desire to learn and get ahead by getting good education it's a bold idea in a town where most few china as the reason they're mill went bankrupt but smith argues that the competition the might have hurt the town's past can also help to reshape its future but we can't possibly compete with that labor market and you know one point four billion people i think the competition is good for us and we have to learn a lot of jobs here with economy work right now there are two hundred students that attend this high school even though it was built for eight hundred sixty percent of the students here qualify for a state run free lunch because their parents' income is at the poverty level school administrators say that bringing in students from china will not only save the school it will save the town and bring it back to the days when the mill was

booming. but not everyone in this almost exclusively white town is excited about the idea that their school might eventually have just as many chinese kids. as kids from maine some people will have an issue where they're going to be like oh my gosh they're not from here make them go away most students in this high school have never traveled abroad what they know about china they say they've seen on t.v. i think the chinese are going to be total shock i think of like high tech and way more advanced than us that ten times more money in like in a better society and then you look at eisenhower like whore and nothing and those struggling to survive in town are angry that the country they believe took their jobs from them is now the one they're looking to for help preassure either party millinocket maine. coming your way at six thirty pm g.m.t. join us as we travel across american soil to a part that was once very much

a piece of rushing. into the country. it's the invasion by means of. tradition language. this is the first to compete could be. in culture. to think. that the have the dems are still unaware of what's going on in their mind you still asking me what it's like. i don't know anything about. the great. israeli government is up rooting nomadic arab tribes from a desert they've lived in for more than a century the jewish state says the bedouins built their homes without permission but there is deep suspicion that the crackdown on arab villages is to replace them with jewish settlements more from artie's paulus leader of the negev desert. in the

middle of nowhere the remains of all i'm a keep village. for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with the photos of and in a little more than an hour with demolished sixty houses. from a flood no this is my land i have a paper i have a document this is my land i ask this government how do i live and how can i afford to buy the same land elsewhere in israel and i can't what they want me to sell my land i won't. and as long as he and hundreds of others won't the police will continue to raid seven times they've come so far backed up by a government whose official policy states this is their land. but i think the unofficial policy underneath it is that the land should go to the jews not just the big ones on a medic arabs who've lived in the negev desert for more than one hundred years they claim they used to pay taxes during the autumn and period in british mandate but

after israel took over in one thousand nine hundred eight they've been hard placed to prove their ownership of the land they don't have any legal documents proving that this land is theirs they have agreements of buying and selling between themselves but according to the law of the state of israel ownership of land can only be proven by registering the land in a public office israel says it's built alternative cities fill them with all the facilities they could hope for but they keep coming back to the desert. they're not abiding by the law they live inside graveyards with horses donkeys sheep the animals mess all over the graves and make it difficult for us to move them but we have to because they need permission to build on the land and they don't have it. i think that. the government would like to push them into the count troops were they could become simple workers they would like to give the land to the army and jewish settlements who. who

will change the demographic status of the negative just look around here this vast uninhabited desert is home to only seven percent of israel's population several years ago the government launched an ambitious program to the value of six hundred million dollars to try and attract new jewish immigrants and israelis to live here it aims in the next three years to have more than a quarter of a million of them living in the desert but just because the desert is it seemingly not big enough for jew an arab jew male tory has lost his way house and seven houses but he hasn't lost his resolve. we are men of peace we don't use the gun the man who came to destroy our houses are the bad faces of this land we did not fight back when they came but the fight will continue because tomorrow when the sun comes up jima will build again and in a few weeks the israelis will return policy r.t.

in the negev desert israel. russia's about to finalize the purchase of french warships according to president sarkozy it's moscow's first ever large scale military hardware where deal with a nato country the two countries shipbuilding companies will work together to assemble for mistral class helicopter carriers to will be built in france the same as air dockyard in two more will be built in st petersburg in russia the french contractors won the right for the deal in a tender started by moscow in february the vessels will cost russia about two billion euros. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe clashes between the taliban and obscure the afghan border in northwest pakistan have left at least eleven soldiers and twenty four militants dead simultaneous attacks were launched against five checkpoints in the tribal moment a region involving around one hundred fifty taliban combatants the military has launched offensives over the past few months but the insurgents have continued to attack the area is a known taliban and al qaeda stronghold on

a transit point for insurgents crossing between pakistan and afghanistan. the un is officially recognizing ivory coast opposition leader as the country's new president this comes as west africa central bank cut off access to the funds for the incumbent laurent gbagbo he refuses to stand down saying that the election he lost last month was rigged is thought to be forced to quit if you can't pay civil servants and military staff hundred seventy three have died in the end arrests that follow the ballot design to unite the nation which instead threatens to drag the country back into civil war. residuals popular president has batted out reaching the end of his maximum eight year term but lula da silva isn't ruling out a comeback at some point leaving as he does with record group popularity ratings that he puts down to reducing poverty and sustaining economic growth in the meantime he ends over to his chosen successor jill meagher rousseff who won a runoff vote in october she becomes brazil's first female leader.

well tis the season of goodwill but there's a chill in the air in the baltic states and it's because of the origins of the legendary christmas spirits latvia proudly proclaims to be the first to claim it but its neighbors say they're barking up the wrong trees artie's accent of boyko reports. it's a white christmas in a stone in a lot of fluffy snow paralyzed and mulled wine all the ingredients of the proper christmas spirit and instead of gifts there is a pile of historic arguments on that tree the two neighbors on a bit of dispute over who was first to come up with the festive for. let's light up the tree here in riga sasha helps her daughter decorate her fourth christmas tree there and no doubt whose spirits shines the brightest and for the longest time. of course it's very pleasing to think that the first ever christmas tree appeared here

in latvia and we have historic proof to back this claim everybody here knows that it was dressed with flowers and berries here in riga in fifteen ten. but head north and that theory's been cut down to size before somebody. but. before i can believe but. first christmas. this festive precut has reached such a pitch that even santa claus is weighing in on this if. if you ask the finnish people they'll tell you they were the ones to invent a christmas tree so would the norwegians in the germans i think what's important is not who decorated it first or centuries ago but that we all do it nowadays seasonal spirit assigned this symbol of contention for the two feisty neighbors shows just how much they have in common christmas comes once

a year but historians and law trains have many ongoing haggles they also disagree about who is remind them of beautiful cars beer tastes better how many bears this nation is allowed to hand in nearby woods some women say that without this legal disagreements lie would have been too boring so in a way this latest christmas tree controversy is just another way of making christmas i think mary or somebody's got artsy tallinn estonia. stay with us here on our next with a business update. great for the feel we've got. the biggest issues get voice face to face with the news makers.

which brighten if you live from still. don't. welcome to business news i'm sure on a qian russia central bank has decided to leave the refinancing rate at seven point seven five percent per year the news comes despite the fact that inflation has already risen to eight point four percent but the bank of russia said inflation would not exceed last year's total the quite a portfolio of russian small and medium businesses have raised one hundred billion dollars this year russian prime minister vladimir putin says the government will continue to support banks that give loans to the sector. also with. the amount of

credit that russian banks gave to small and medium enterprises in twenty ten that is one trillion rubles previous year. the total amount is now roughly three point two five trillion and we will continue to stimulate our banks to work together with small and medium enterprises and. let's take a look at the markets the u.s. stock markets are closed today the figures are from yesterday the last day of trading before the christmas holiday the two indices were mixed the dow jones industrial average was twelve percent while the nasdaq composite index was down zero point twenty two percent. and in europe markets closed mixed particles credit rating raising fears e.u. members will have to bail out the country's minor wrangled more than five percent the company says turmoil in the ivory coast will hurt fourth quarter productions.

and in russia the my sex closed down on the day by almost half a percent still and with a fourteen straight week of gains the r.t.s. has closed up a point twenty three percent wrapping up a successful trading week trading volumes are light as investors travel away for the holidays. and gas problem has lost over half a percent even after the gas giant said it would not give any discount for russian gas and talk so what how this afternoon preferred shares have also tumbled as investors cashed in on strong gains from past few days bucking the trend is no else nicol point thirty nine percent after tycoon called an extraordinary general meeting to resolve the minor shareholder dispute. and today is one of the busiest shopping days of the year as people hunt last minute holiday gifts for family and friends reports suggest sales are well up on last year medina cochon of a has visited here of the mall one of the biggest malls in europe. such

a snowy day as we're having here now ready lance the holiday spirit. of the snow as to how day here in the center of moscow so is the m mounds of a russian shopper is rushing into the stores to buy last minute presents for their family and friends for the country's biggest holiday but this time the russians plan to celebrate this of the upcoming holiday on the biggest scale as a forty four percent of the population already claimed that they will spend most money for the coming new year on christmas rather than the one we had before while we still felt the consequences of the global financial downturn but still in terms of the priced out of course it ranges from some tondo list to one thousand dollars and as i managed to visit one of the biggest shopping malls in europe i was told that the boss dollar for this season alec twenty got jets like telephones or laptops. and that's all the business news for this hour but you can always find

more stories on our website that's archie dot com slash business stay with us. please i'm discovering. communicating with the wild. test yourself and become free.

see what nature can give you. is he it's. easy to. see. in india all g.'s available in the grand central shirts in limbo and the taj mahal bowling polish president limbo the shoulder pain which results from mono beatrice will. go to go on taj mahal hotel charges some rent hotel

hotel clothes on the meridian alina the judge the hotels church in new delhi who took the most babyhood tones during collection ramona close of the maidens hotel. park close a movie don't read this and shift it was promised but they promise. seven thirty pm in moscow good to have you with us here on our team two zero headlocks russia's approval of the nuclear cuts treaty with america is on hold while lawmakers spend the holidays mulling over conflicting points in the u.s. senate resolution. president medvedev says season's greetings across the atlantic and encourages russia's opposition parties to show some competition as he wraps up here being quizzed by leading t.v. channels. a lot of vienna stone to give each other

a christmas roasting with over who was first to invent the festive decorated tree. up next peter lavelle and his gas discuss what's being called the new exodus christians being forced to leave the holy land cross-talk debate coming your way next. bringing you the latest in science and technology from. the future. to logan and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the new exit is christians leaving.