effect the main body of the treaty the deal was signed in april by president's made better than obama and as our teams got a cheeky on reports it's being hailed as a major diplomatic victory. in the vote. on this american on this resolution or seventy one twenty six nays two thirds of 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 us 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 us 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 russia

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 contin and will continue to be so this is an on parallel 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 after like despite the huge support the treaty has. saved on many levels a number of republican senators nearly sabotaged it their actions provoked an avalanche of criticism from the country's top security experts who feared that the treaty could become a victim of political games on capitol hill the arguments the treaty adversaries

brought up on the hearings ranged from there's no earthly way to do all of this within the time that we have to even more unsubstantial 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 tried to rewrite the deal which would have actually killed it 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 started to step through make the us 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 because of the president obama did a really good job under rather difficult conditions if he managed to get these important. security for the next few years movie based on this treaty and in general i can say that it's easy for me to work with president on that list because you can really listen to them and he does know he's not impeded by stereotypes of wood and what is probably the most important thing to do in the global 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 fewer 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 gonna 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 the connection remains key for russia and some experts believe the country's lawmakers are keen to stress this again unilateral suggestions of the parliament's resolution will follow the line of the preamble of the document and they will stipulate to the facts 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 that russia might school or might consider pulling out from the new start treaty if it considers if the development of u.s.

missile defense system reaches the level that russia will interpret as the threats . i mean later in the program a deep freeze grips in moscow people are to stay home to avoid ice covered roads and almost two hundred thousand are left without electricity what of moscow's main airports is also with. first though north korean soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month said pyongyang was provoked by seoul's war games and it's not the first time or check that it is the first time that the north's troops have spoken publicly about the violence they appeared in a talk show on state television marking enjoying ules one thousand years of the country's top military commander the head of the anniversary pyongyang warned it would launch what it calls a secret nuclear war against seoul while the south president promised retaliation if attacked last month north korea shelled the south's island of young pianka killing four people in response to seoul's drills in the area analysts warn more

military exercises could risk disturbing the already parked areas balance on the peninsula. the danger is if we have new military exercises at sea because the problem is the land borders 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. to palm the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider to be their waters the danger is escalation what you hotties 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 future for

a future attack or military adventurism i don't think anyone's intend. 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 this down a maybe an offer from the north koreans for example to give up their the their fuel rods from the young real nuclear reactor and try and ship them to the science will be something that might be might allow us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. one of moscow's main airports has ground to a halt after i stop electricity cables rupture officials say power is expected to be back on by the end of the day but they'll be no flights told then for more on this we're joined live by our correspondents are referred to the airport i sorry so what are the prospects for everything right now. but they think anyone anywhere.

could see the people leaving trying to travel outside of the day to day. the mood experiencing it completely electricity blackout and all the flights have been stopped the thai big coming in and going out like tell you quite how chaotic situation is that you can see a huge number of people waiting around that you coming in the traffic at a complete standstill people are getting out their cars with the cases that as he says no thanks to be going anywhere the thai big and that's because of substations of the pairing. the cables that supply the electricity to raise it and run as it does have the effect taking out the check outs of the baggage we actually heard that when the flies were landing at the time the. happened they then had to give the luggage back to these passages say that's still being going on they're trying to get an emergency generator up and running but we hearing that there's a good chance that the flights might be busy make this some time yet and as he said

this weather really having this effect of the maven here russia now russia is really used to dealing with the extremely cold weather that will you see dave the past couple of days. raining in that kind of phrase on the ground and that's where we see this incredible knock on effect is affecting everyone and the rest of the region's really been affected by this too i mean just here in the city center walking by the office here it's pretty like an ice rink on the ground out there tell us more about that. he said it really is really treacherous trying to get around to the may even that rain that we've had over the past couple of days. and that's been the face. we've had a hundred thousand people. have been affected now another name is that the tree. and it's nothing coming in and. then just on the ground and it's well we thought that there were a number of instances where people. buy that as they will be very careful.

maybe until that maybe is up a little bit all right archie sorry for us live for us at domodedovo airport thanks for that report. stay with us here on r t still to come not being heard. is. hearing impaired people in russia are calling for a sign language to be officially recognized find out more in human terms. by bombshell and chad and becomes a government backed role model for youngsters. but first at least eight militants have been killed in a counter terror operation in the capital of russia's southern republican dagestan authorities say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group police had cornered the militants in a building under construction in my advise them to surrender but the group opened fire on the officers special forces stormed the site there was no reports of casualties among police or civilians officials say the militants had taken part in

deadly attacks on the republic security services darkest and has been gripped by almost daily violence between the forties and extremist groups. iran will decide next week whether to sever diplomatic relations with the u.k. the islamic republic's lawmakers voted for tehran to cut all ties after the british ambassador to the country criticized its human rights record this week iran saw the comments as interference in its internal affairs relations between the two countries have deteriorated since tehran's claim that british intelligence was involved in the assassination of a top iranian nuclear side in peace last month but london based journalist you have on ridley says when it comes to basic freedoms the u.k.'s record is also far from perfect. the politicians in iran all 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 and it's has its money to trucked is. everybody lines up to that particular. this week the brother of the late polish president who was killed in a plane crash in russia has claimed the body buried in krakow does not belong to lech kaczynski jaroslav kaczynski has not yet announced whether he'll ask for the remains to be zoomed moscow was startled by the comments as the polish side had been involved in all stages of identification last week warsaw rejected the results of russia's investigation into the april plane crash a report concluded pilot error among the main causes of the accident that killed

ninety six people aboard the jet the polish prime minister has called the findings delivered by russia on acceptable their report hasn't been made yet hasn't yet been made public aviation expert chris yates says the russian investigation was thorough and no further international inquiry is needed. and i looked this issue since the accident and examined the the cockpit voice recording transcripts and so on and i can't fault any of the conclusions that have been leaked by the russian authorities i do believe personally that if we bring an international investigating team into be equation that the findings will be any different to what . seems to be the pressure groups that in some way shape or form. the pilots and copilots. to make an attempt to learn and that's an imports where

there were no conditions at all to land too much focus not enough the ability and a lot of pressure being brought on the pilots conspire to cause that accident record breaking billion dollar military deals and high tech link ups are just some of the results of dmitri medvedev his 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 or he's charan singh was along for the trip. financial crisis that shaken the group as politicians and economists well why question to school when he can do that the previous quarter dominated by the u.s. and europe is being left behind by the rising giants russia india china and the heat struck the president medvedev during the annual summit between russia and india. where fortune recently we've done a lot to promote partnership which we know russia and india but yesterday i spent

a whole day 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 french it is india's number one. offering in cutting edge weaponry such as supper beings and money. and now the countries have signed the biggest defense contract and he gets history thank you billions of dollars and talking it's a deal to join to develop a fifth generation fighter aircraft costing nearly one billion dollars apiece the jets will be able to compete with the american if you do that costs three times as much at present the u.s. is the only country in such technology which is used even with. the new aircraft developed by russia and india would have steps each and noble for the ripley. forces energy is another sector the two countries are the basic together

russia has agreed to build more nuclear power stations for india but the atomic plants is already building the country will come online next year and will provide much needed energy for india's growing economy i am particularly glad that we're. coming collective human time cooperation. and got checked it reflects the complementarity. the strength of the interaction and relationship is is that it off. to the relationships that countries have with the west you know we can all fall on a day of ways of thinking on one various things whether it's climate change whether it's on science and technology it's on space with the financial appeals will be been witnessing the rising economies are being seen as the dollar store of the new

world order and as we enter the next decade of the twenty first century both russia and india are embarking on the next phase in the strategic partnership god and seeing. or you can always find more stories on our website r.t. dot com here's a quick look at what's online right now. a way to escape we take a look at efforts to rehabilitate afghanistan's more than a million parallel. and russian prime minister vladimir putin takes time off from wrestling with the issues to watch the judo blackbelt of a master class in st petersburg. and. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe violence following ivory coast disputed presidential election has forced some fourteen thousand people to flee to neighboring liberia at least one hundred seventy people have been killed in clashes so far most of those fleeing are supporters of the opposition leader of the sinai ouattara whom the u.n.

has recognized as the winner incumbent leader of iraq bob dole is refusing to quit . the series of earthquakes has rocked the new zealand city of christchurch cutting power and damaging at least twenty buildings glass and masonry fell from damage structures but there were no reports of injuries police cordoned off central business areas and officials are inspecting the buildings scientists say the latest shocks are the after effects of a massive quake that hit this city back in september. former venezuelan president carlos has died of a heart attack at age eighty eight he was in a hospital in florida present nationalize the oil industry has survived two coup attempts but was finally forced from power that he was the first live in american leader convicted of corruption and illicit enrichment. unmanned indian rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded only minutes after launch officials say an error caused them to adopt a steeper angle that intended and it broke up its india's second space launch

failure this year a similar rocket developed a fault in a plot. that. deaf people in russia want their means of communication to be accorded official status sign language is not recognised in the country although it has more than ten million hearing impaired people are pushed over reports on their silence struggle. with. this letter. he tells me he speaks the most beautiful language in the world.

and so despite living in the world of silence aleksey and his fellow performers put on a show full of life and music. the audience appreciates this theatre of deaf actors is an exception in the world mostly cost to those speaking with their hands. even the language doesn't officially exist all previous attempts to possible giving official recognition to the russian side 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 plan which 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. these. very few of libya. will be. 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's john is one of four children the only deaf one in the fallow i. was this is the first beauty shop for the heart of hearing and has self interpreter.

but. true those who call. the beaches. but still enough to be officially.

are. russia's flame haired former agent chapman is making a new foray into political life this time as the leader of the ruling united russia party as youth movement at a recent meeting chapman made a speech calling on party members to transform the future of the next generation shot to fame during a spy scandal between russia and the u.s. in the summer when the f.b.i. uncovered a russian espionage ring she was one of a number of agents deported from the u.s. in a cold war style swap. charlie will be exploring some of siberia's natural wonders but i'll be back with the headlines in a couple of minutes stay with.

the nature and discovery. communicate with the wind and. test yourself and become free. see what nature can give you.

that are killing innocent kids allies are the base of course and that's never a. mom a song from the skull spoke to me i think you are but every day. before i was fired from her memory. so much so that a long time in the series trying to tell. i was afraid. i was ashamed that i had been. i was ashamed that i hadn't a clue. why. do

i thing. that i was a good soldier. and i think i'm just a good. video . and. in the. photo.

you can see. the sun. riviera. cintra hotel mccown. three thirty pm in. both countries the lower house of parliament votes to give initial approval to the agreement friday after. the. tensions high in the korean peninsula pyongyang threatens a sacred nuclear war of souls carries out wallboard games speaking on state t.v.

the north troops accuse the south of provoking them into attacking yongpyong island last month. warsaw questions russia's findings on april's plane crash that killed before more polish president and ninety five other elite leaders rather claims the body buried in krakow doesn't belong to lech kaczynski experts say moscow it conducted a thorough investigation. up next we unearth some of the hidden treasures of russia's vast expanses as we travel to a unique nature reserve in siberia that's coming your way next. siberia is largest city and a major industrial center. a unique nature reserve called the closing of. the pillars can be found only four kilometers away from the city here thousands of rocky cliffs lie scattered in the siberian tiger people and sentries.