not a fact the main body of the treaty deal was signed in april by presidents get it and obama has gotten education reports and it's being hailed as a major diplomatic victory that reason with. the vote. on this amount on this resolution are seventy one days twenty six nays two thirds the senate president having voted in the affirmative the resolution of ratification is agreed to. and with this approval russian the us will start the new year with a treaty that has become a symbol of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers i am glad that democrats and republicans came together to approve my top national security priority for this session of congress the new start treaty this is the most significant arms control agreement in nearly two decades and it will make us safer and reduce our nuclear arsenals along with russia. both states have some very significant reductions underway over the next ten years the countries will cut their nuclear arsenals by

a third down to some fifteen hundred fifty deployed warheads on each side the deal also limits the number of delivery vehicles and launchers but even with those cuts both russia and the u.s. will still hold more than ninety percent of the world's nuclear weapons so many agree that the value of the new arms reduction treaty is not just in reductions but i think it's also important to say that the significance of the treaty is much larger than the implications for arms control it really does give a lot of momentum and boost to the broader u.s. russia reset and i think puts obama and medvedev on course to cooperate more closely on a whole host of issues and it may well be that this is seen as a turning point in which the russia u.s. rivalry of the past is finally laid to rest for weeks and months the president of the united states all members of his administration the military all living former secretary of state and of defense were calling for senators not to ruin this reset

opportunity for us who are sure relations and the message did resonate with many senators every senator knows when you're trying to get things done relationships matter and the relationship between the united states and russia has been critical since we fought together in world war two and will be continued will continue to be so this is an on parallelled opportunity to enhance that relationship and to say by signature and by ratification of this treaty that yes the united states of america wants to work with russia despite the huge support the treaty has received on many levels a number of republican senators nearly sabotaged it their actions provoked an avalanche of criticism from the country's top six. already experts who feared that the treaty could become a victim of political games on capitol hill the arguments the trade adversaries

brought up on the hearings ranged from there is no earthly way to do all of this within the time that we have to even more on substantial ones like we don't have to have this treaty if we don't have a nuclear treaty with the u.k. and one we don't have one with france in the final days of debates on start some republican senators trying to rewrite the deal which would have actually killed it you know they wanted to take out the line in the preamble which makes the connection between offensive and defensive weapons start straitjackets the united states' missile defense capabilities but all of those from the military who testified before the senate said the connection between offensive and defensive weapons is obvious they also maintained it's not start that would make the u.s. weaker the treaty itself explicitly says either side can pull out of it if at some point they deem it threatens their national security for russians this new start is

about balance and equality and they will be in it as long as the u.s. respects that balance in russia the outcome of the vote in the u.s. senate has been well come from many in moscow it's a signal that the u.s. and russia can now open a new page of cooperation with the president obama did a really good job under rather difficult conditions if you managed to get this important treatments approved in the senate liquid now security for the next few years will be based on this treaty and in general i can say that it's easy for me to work with president obama on that list because you can really listen to him and he has he's not impeded by stereotypes of with and what is probably the most important thing for the illustration that will he keeps his promise that he should russian lawmakers made it clear they had no objections to the treaty advocates of the treaty see the outcome of the vote not so much as obama's victory but a victory for the whole world which on the one hand is going to have considerably. you were weapons of mass destruction and on the other hand two nuclear superpowers former adversaries actually trusting each other and looking to work in hand to

provide their security get a check on our team washington d.c. . moscow has repeatedly said that it could quit the start treaty if it feels threatened by the u.s. missile defense plan for europe connection remains key for russia and some experts believe the country's lawmakers are keen to stress this again. unilateral suggestions parliament's resolution will follow the line of the preamble of the document and they will stipulate to the fact of the linkage between the offensive and defensive weapons but with nuclear weapons and missile defense system basically and second i think the russian parliament will repeat perhaps more strictly in the context of the russian unilateral statements that was published by the russian foreign ministry or on the date of signing the treaty in prague this russia might pull older might consider pulling out from the new start treaty if it considers if

the development of u.s. missile defense system reaches the level of the russia will interpret as a threat. north korean soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month sept young young was provoked by so was war games it's the first time northern troops have spoken publicly about violence they appeared in a talk show on state television marking can be on else nineteen years as a country's top military commanders have the anniversary of pyongyang warned it would launch one of koli secret nuclear war can so while the south president promised retaliation if attacked last month north korea shelled the south island of if. young pianka killing four people in response to seoul's drills in the area analysts warned more military exercises would risk disturbing the already precariously balanced on the peninsula. the danger is if we have new military exercises at sea because the problem is the land border is very clear the sea border is been arbitrarily and unilaterally established by the south koreans along

the northern limit line which is not recognized even by the united states. the recent shelling of the of the island. was called squanto palm the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider through their waters the dangerous escalation what you hobbes sized korean maneuvers which in disputed waters which led to the north korean response of. the artillery shelling of the island we've now seen massive joint u.s. south korean exercises which clearly are leading to the north koreans upping their . upping their readiness for for future for a future attack or military adventurism i don't think anyone's intending to start if you want a full scale war at this point but the danger with escalation is it gets out of control so we see something we need to we need to be concerned about for the future

what we need to see is some gestures from either side to try and step on a maybe an offer from the north koreans for example could give up their their fuel rods from the young nuclear reactor and try and ship them to the science will be something that might be allow us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. this week the brother of the late polish president killed in a plane crash in russia has claimed the body buried in cracow does not belong to lech kaczynski jaroslaw kaczynski has not yet announced whether he will ask for the remains to be exuma moscow was startled by the comments as the polish side had been involved in all stages of the identification last week warsaw rejected the results of russia's investigation into april's plane crash the report concluded the pilot arrow was among the main causes of the accident that killed all ninety six people on board the jet the polish prime minister has told the findings delivered by russia unacceptable the report hasn't yet been made public aviation expert chris

kate says the russian investigation was sora and no further international inquiry is needed. i think the key issue for the polish side is probably quite a significant amount of criticism of the polish air force and in particular the captain of the aircraft and his copilot operating that aircraft on the day of that tragic accident and i think that's primarily major cause for concern. what we see you see with the draft report that's been passed on to the polish government i've looked at this issue since the accident and examined the cockpit voice recording transcripts and so on and i can't fault any of the conclusions that have been leaked by the the russian authorities i don't believe personally that if we bring an international investigating team into be

equation that the findings will be any different to what they are which seems to be the pressure was brought to bear in some way shape or form on the pilots who copilot of the aircraft to make an attempt to land at an airport where there were no conditions at all to land too much for not enough visibility. a lot of pressure being brought on the pilots conspired to cause that accident. still common are not being heard. she's. hearing impaired people in russia are calling for the or sign language to be officially recognized find out more in a few minutes. and spy a bombshell out of chapman who becomes a government backed role model for russian youngsters. one of moscow's main

airports has ground to hold after i stop electricity cables ruptured diminutive officials say the power is expected to come back on by the end of the day a blackout is affecting wide safety as navigation systems have their own electricity supply but all facilities inside the airport are down making operations impossible the complex is currently working to switch on its backup diesel generators broken cars in the capital or covered with ice after a day's worth of rain froze solid at least five people have been injured by falling trees and parts of the moscow region have also been left without power with over one hundred thousand people affected city authorities are urging people to stay at home. iran will decide next week whether to sever diplomatic relations with the u.k. islamic republics lawmakers voted for tirant to cut all ties after the british

ambassador to the country criticized its human rights record this week iran saw the commons as interference and its internal affairs relations between the two countries have to tear rated to mr ron's claim that british intelligence was involved in the assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientist last month but the london based journalist yvonne ridley says when it comes to basic freedoms you case only record is far from perfect. the politicians in iran of quite angry and outraged at this very undiplomatic. blog which is being produced from the british embassy in tehran and you know you wonder what's coming next when you take the high moral ground criticize one country's human rights you should be pretty blameless yourself and unfortunately britain's own human rights record leaves a lot to be desired if you go on to throw stones at someone else's house you should

make sure that your own is in order first iran has its many supporters under taz it's many to truck to is. everybody lines up to their particular. record breaking billion dollar military deals and high tech link ups are just some of the result of me trying to vegas visit to india this week the russian president also sealed agreements on nuclear power to meet the growing needs of the world's second most populous nation are just current saying was following the leader strip . financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians any columnists will weigh the question to school many conclude that the previous order dominated by the u.s. and europe is being left behind by the new rising giants russia india and china and the deal that struck with president medvedev during the annual summit between russia and india to support this. fortune recently we've done a lot to promote partnership between russia and india but yesterday i spent

a whole day in new delhi and we held talks we prepared and signed a number of documents on cooperation between our countries. yet in india russia is seen as a more friendly it is india's number one supplier offering it cutting edge weaponry such as submarines and supersonic. and now the countries have signed the biggest ever defense contract and he gets history thank you what billions of dollars in total it's a deal to join to develop a fifth generation fighter aircraft costing nearly one million dollars apiece the jets will be able to compete with the american f. twenty two raptor that costs three times as much at present the u.s. is the only country possessing such technology which it is used should even with its fuel since. the new aircraft developed by russia and india would have steps each of us and noble for the ripley. forces energy is another sector the two

countries ago when they sing together russia has agreed to do more stations for india but the atomic plants is already building sult the country will come online next year and will provide much needed energy for india's growing economy i am particularly glad that we are. coming to legume and time cooperation. and gas sector it reflects the complementarity. the strength of the in the russian relationship is is that it was an alternative to. that countries have with the west you know we can all for alternative ways of thinking on on various things whether it's a climate change whether it's on science and technology and space with the financial. missing the rising economies are being seen as the dollar store of the

new world order and as we are into the mix because of the twenty first century both russia and india are embarking on the next release in the strategic partnership god and seeing are really. and you can always find more stories on our website if you dot com here's just a quick look at what's on the line right now. a way to escape we take a look at efforts to rehabilitate again it seems more than one million heroin addicts. and russian prime minister unless you were put into a time off from wrestling with diplomatic issues to just wrestle watch the judo black belt give a master class at a st petersburg school. china says it's taken concrete action to help struggling european economies combat the financial crisis at an economic forum in beijing the country's vice premier praised the e.u.'s efforts to cut down debt in a tobar china said it wouldn't reduce its holdings of european bonds but economist

mark opiate probably says support is not a permanent remedy. this extends china's political influence in europe by making a lot of european states dependent on china to buy to buy their debt but it doesn't get away from the fundamental problem in europe europe has a big big sovereign debt crisis and this sees if you like a patch to try and help the situation until the europeans managed to put together some some proper reforms some proper fundamental structures to help the euro stay together moving forward and to date they've been very much dragging their heels in and patching up greece and ireland rather than coming to the table to put together fundamental reform of how the euro actually operates. u.s. investigators have slammed the paragon and the partner of state for knowingly

allowing shady jet fuel deals for an american air base in the central asian republic of kyrgyzstan the report released on tuesday showed fuel worthy worth nearly two billion dollars was purchased from russia for civilian use allegedly to avoid higher tariffs it was then shipped to the nastier base which is a piece of white help for the u.s. led campaign in afghanistan. of eurasia democracy initiative says the deals were a factor in sparking the unrest that ousted former carries president but even. what the congressional subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs. dealt with in the report was allegations of corrupt dealings between the subsidiaries of the pentagon which were supplying fuel for kyrgyzstan to prosecute the war effort in afghanistan and members of the family of the deposed former president of. key of

the same report stated that these subsidiaries namely the mena corps and red star back in two thousand and nine to reach out to the former president's saw on the scene but has subsequently followed his father in exile and is now in hiding in the u.k. to try to engage in bedore negotiations with the pentagon regarding the future of the base following your stance announcement that it would shut down the base so what we saw in that case was another proof of the fact that the president's family and so on were calling all the shots in the country we must run the place what would eventually happened was the direct result of this relationship we saw what it was. when president bush was ousted was the direct result of the popular anger that was stirred by the complete lack of accountability lack of transparency in the

deals that pentagon was cutting with. their government. let's take a look at some other stories from around the world of violence from ivory coast to presidential election has forced some fourteen thousand people to flee to neighboring liberia at least one hundred seventy people have the killed in clashes so far most of those fleeing are supporters of opposition leader osama tara from the u.n. is recognized as the winner and come to be here along babo is refusing to quit. the form of a willing president carlos saunders perez has died of a heart attack at the age of eighty eight he was in hospital in florida paris nationalize the oil industry and survived two cooler temps but was finally divorced from office he was the first latin american leader to be convicted of corruption and illicit enrichment. a series of earthquakes has rocked the new zealand city of christchurch cutting power and damaging at least twenty buildings glass and masonry

fell from damaged structures but there were no reports of injuries police have cordoned off the central business area and officials are inspecting buildings scientists say the latest shocks are the aftereffects of a massive quake that hit the city in september. and the rocket carrying a communications satellite has exploded just minutes after its launch officials say an error caused it to adopt a steeper angle than intended and break up it's india's second space launch failure this year a similar rocket developed a fold in april. deaf people in russia won their means of communication to be accorded official status sign language is not recognised in the country although it has more than ten million the hearing impaired people are ports on their struggle. actually i think aleksey called hear the song. for her from the family.

yet he sings it with his hand is such. that i thought it. was fate that he tells me he speaks the most beautiful language in the world. and so despite living in the world of silence alex and his fellow performers put on a show full of life and music our. audience appreciates this theatre of deaf actor is an exception in the world mostly hostile to those speaking with their hands. even though language doesn't officially exist all previous attempts to possible

giving official recognition to the russian sign language have failed the problem dates back more than seventy years when sign language was banned from soviet schools in one nine hundred fifty stalin made the situation even worse by calling it not even as solid a language unlike what some might think it's not a primitive way of conveying basic information it's a fully fledged language capable of expressing just about anything more you don't. wish. you. the head of the old russian federation of the deaf believes there are more than ten million hard of hearing people in the country but no interpreters no t.v. channels almost nothing to ease their interaction with the world that. he's one of four children the only deaf one in the family.

this is the first beauty shop for the heart of hearing and has started to protest. i they may not be here but they're not cute and they told king. i.

was all true those who call him all the same people it may be just that the music of the cards is louder but still not enough to be officially recognized. obama party. rushes flame haired former agent of a ta chapman is making a new foray into political life this time as the leader of the ruling united russia party to use movement at a recent meeting chap and made a speech calling on party members to transform the future for the next generation at chapman a shot to fame during a spy scandal between russia and the u.s. in this. or when the f.b.i. uncovered a russian espionage ring she was one of a number of agents deported from the us in a cold war style swap. after recap of our weekly top stories we'll bring you every

port in the u.s. state of alaska at this russian roots that's just a few moments here in our team. it's the secret incursion into the country. it's the invasion by means of.

tradition the language tell you this is the first day beat the beat. and culture. the thing is that the have the danes are still unaware of what's going on in the land still asking my dear it's like. i don't know anything about the alaska they're great. on our cheap.

welcome back here with a look at the week's top stories. between russia. given to the agreement on friday he was approved for. a few days earlier.

more speaking. troops have accused. the. people. of the body buried. in a moment we visit the people of the american state which once used to be part of russia alaska the great deal is up next. once it was a part of russian territory there are still reminders to this day children wearing russian national costumes people having russian names and many orthodox churches are standing here but more than one hundred forty years ago it became the u.s. territory though some americans still don't know of.