american lawmakers the state duma the lower house of russia's parliament voted in favor of the treaty is likely to ratify it after the new year holidays the agreement will face further review then before the final vote stop will slash the deployed russian and american nuclear arsenals by a third once mighty fine by both sides it was actually signed by the two presidents in april but the u.s. senate only approved the deal on wednesday after months of heated debate he's got a teaching can's been following the process. the vote. on this on this resolution are seventy one days twenty six nays two thirds of the senate president having voted the affirmative the resolution of ratification is agreed to . and with this approval russian the u.s. will start the new year with a treaty that has become a symbol of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers i'm 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 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 despite the huge

support the treaty had 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 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 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 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 welcomed 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 and he managed to get this important treatments approved in the senate as 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 that because he can really listen to you and he used them he's not impeded by stereotypes and what is probably the most important thing for a politician that will he keeps his promises 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 tools nuclear superpowers for me adversaries actually trusting each other and looking to work in hand to provide their security get a check on our team washington d.c. . leftwing british m.p. jeremy corbett told us the new start treaty clears the path for a new system of international nuclear arms control it's such a huge step and it's one that was predicted to end in failure and so the fact that president obama and president medvedev come to the agreement and got it through both of their parliamentary systems is a huge step forward and that's got to be a spur so surely the next thing is for all nations to agree not to renew their nuclear weapon systems because most are preparing some kind of upgrade or some kind of renewal and then move on to a nuclear weapons convention that can include all nations in the world including

those that are not signatories to nuclear nonproliferation treaty particularly israel india pakistan north korea. that was there from british m.p. jeremy corbin in north korea soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month of spoken publicly about the attack they said the act was in retaliation to seoul holding live fire military exercises in disputed waters for south koreans were killed in the shelling of a border island over a month ago since then souls' been holding more military drills provoking star warnings from the north pyongyang's military chief says the country will launch an retaliatory nuclear strike if the south keeps firing on the border it is the worst tension on the peninsula since the war sixty years ago an expert on korea glyn ford says a new war is unlikely but will remain a possibility as long as the south keep testing the north patience. 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. was called squanto palm the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider through their waters the dangerous escalation what you hardy's south 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 and that's obviously 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 their fuel rods from the yongbyon nuclear reactor and try and ship them to the scientists will be something that might be might allow us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. korea expert lean forward speaking to us on the way in the program diplomatic fallout find out why angry iran is considering breaking off all ties with the united kingdom. and details of allegations against american military officials in afghanistan who are reportedly preparing to take the war over the border. the aftermath of freezing rains causing major delays in disruption of airports across russia one of the worst affected is moscow's done with it every airport where there's been a power cut earlier today some flights were canceled others were diverted to nearby airports that

a small number of domestic flights are now taking off of furthur as the latest. substations the power. cables that run the. double whammy of the weather as well really affecting the traffic coming in today. cause. they were getting the information that they were going to be going anywhere. none of the. running of. the planes. taking off. and it's not. affected by the. number of people in the most.

affected by the. story. of the bad weather putting. one. credibly. we've had a number of incidents people have been injured in another. thing nothing and . everyone. suspected militants have been killed. in the capital of russian republic of dagestan to say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group. ready to be planted front of the sea. the building where the violence broke out this morning. we're just a couple of meters away from the building were a group of militants has been blocked today in the center of. the counter-terrorist

operation has started early in the morning when the militants wolfie used to surrender and opened fire the residents of the houses nearby were evacuated and the whole area has been blocked by the police then the special task force told the fled where the militants were hiding as far as we know by now several militants have been killed and yet to be identified and as the russian enter terrorists kmita says this group could be behind the killings of the police officers in the region and launching a series of terror attacks there is also information that the head of the high school a terribly was among the militants and that he was eliminated this is yet to be confirmed by the officials dug a stun has been a very troublesome region this year with many terror attacks launched by the militants trains do you rail the whole situation in the region is very troublesome . coming up on r.t. breaking the silence millions of death people voice that it was because of means of

communication is still not fully recognized by should find out why in just a couple of minutes time. this week the brother of the late polish president claimed the body buried in krakow does not belong to lech kaczynski get a star kaczynski also the former prime minister says he's not yet decided whether to have the remains exude poland has rejected moscow's report into the april plane crash that killed lech kaczynski in ninety five others the investigation said the pilot error was to blame it's still not clear whether warsaw is contesting that current polish prime minister donald tusk says the findings into the accident in southwest russia are on except to pull over one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation the floor aviation expert crissy aide says the russian investigation seemed thora and no further international inquiry is needed. i think the key is to you 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'll see you soon 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 transcript so on and i can't fault any of the conclusions that have been leaked by the russian authorities i don't believe personally that if we bring an international investigating team into the equation that the findings will be any differ. 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

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 and a lot of pressure being brought on the pilots conspired to cause the accident. but it's there of aviation expert chris yates talking to r.t. the signing of a record breaking billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of dimitri rivera's visit to india this week the russian president also promised to build nuclear power stations to be the growing needs of the world's second most populous nation are these current seeing has more of the leaders trip. financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians any colonists will why question to school many can do 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 gives his street 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 to 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 for forces energy is another sector two countries ago when they sing together russia has agreed to do more stations for india to do atomic plants it's already building the south of 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 in time corp. and gas sector it reflects the complementarity. the strength of the indoor russian relationship is is that it often is an alternative to the relationships that countries have with the west you know

we can all for alternative ways of thinking on various things whether it's a climate change whether it's on science and technology it's on space with the financial up he will be been witnessing the rising economies are being seen as the corner 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 r.t. . for all my as well as all of the stories as have a log on to our website r.t. dot com was more deaths from the stories that i no longer want will be just on from the telly or on the television side of our operation. c dot com escaping reality we take a look at afghanistan's efforts to rehabilitate the country's one million heroin addicts maybe you've got some thoughts about what you consider the discussion but many of the stories and sequels. band on a lighter note find some new ideas for a festive chipotle is hard to get since cocktail shaker i'd still be mix it up this

year. more top stories from the week a rally is considering severing ties with the united kingdom angered by british criticism of its human rights record to run says the comments were interference in its domestic affairs the islamic republic's lawmakers have already approved a bill to cut diplomatic relations the parliament stude be finalized next week but relations between the two countries interior agencies to claim the british intelligence was involved in the assassination of a top iranian nuclear scientist last month the london based journalist yvonne ridley says when it comes to basic freedoms the u.k. zone record is far from perfect the politicians in iran are 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 and 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 has its money to truck and. everybody lines up to their particular. so u.s. military commanders reportedly want to expand their afghan campaign into neighboring pakistan but officials deny legations secret cross border operations are already happening washington does however use unmanned drones to strike at suspected militants across the border retired u.s. officers and wright says pakistan has simply sold out. i think the government is.

saying you're wrong. you don't want it i agree they are allowing it in fact states is given them something like three billion dollars extra military. surprise. take out military operations what's happening. against the. sponsors drone. numbers a little bit you'll still. see lots of people in the swat valley military operations with no consideration for taking care of those people is that it's a very very dangerous u.s. operation that is jeopardizing the sovereignty and stability you know it's not simply. world news in brief you this sunday violence following ivory coast

disputed presidential elections for some fourteen thousand people to flee to neighboring liberia at least one hundred seventy are being killed in clashes so for most of those who are fleeing are supporters of the opposition leader alison i would do the un is recognized as the winner of last month's vote but incumbent leader laurent gbagbo is refusing to quit. tourists have died and more than twenty others have been injured after the bus collided with a truck in southern egypt the bus was traveling from the southern city of us one of the ancient temple sites of abu simbel it hit a truck carrying sound which had broken down and was parked at the side of the world. series of aftershocks has rocked the new zealand city of christ church month suffer a powerful earthquake struck the region there at least twenty buildings have been damaged this time and power lines cut off the tremor blew out glass and shook brick work but there are no reports of any injuries police have cordoned off the central business area then special units from spec to the buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for some time. of the center of

a deadly raid by israeli forces earlier this year has received a hero's welcome on return to town hall. in may the mavi marmara was boarded by troops as attempted to break the blockade of gaza to get aid to palestinians nine people killed on the ship which was part of a larger convoy israel's action severely damaged relations with former ally turkey and triggered international condemnation. for death people in russia communication gets no further than their own community and although there are an estimated ten million hearing impaired people here in russia siloed which still isn't officially recognised. over reports on the silent struggle. shit. alex econ hear the song. from the family. yet he sings it with his hands touching. that i thought it.

was. 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 theater of death actors is an exception in the world mostly hostile to those speaking with their hands. even their language doesn't officially exist all previous attempts to pass a law 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 a sorry state 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. racial. you know. 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 hard of hearing and has stuff interpreter. they may not hear but they're not commute and they love talking. to us. i. was after all those who call in to hear all the same people it may be just that the

music of their hearts and souls is louder but still not loud enough to be officially recognized. the. kovach party moscow. it's exactly twenty eight minutes past not at night here in moscow you're watching we are to news channel i'm kevin now in frank you for being with us this sunday night it is our review of the week's top stories of what's going to be for you again in just a few minutes time. it

can hear dr swines policeman's wives ministers why i just pray to god. if you didn't find me if i could just live through the night that i would get my kids out of here because i knew that what was going to happen was that he was going to kill me many victims don't understand that domestic violence includes verbal abuse psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million women are affected by abuse every year those are my only two options that i saw at that moment either i'm going to kill him i'm in jail or he's going it killing me says.

wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy is a cause a report on. this is all to you from moscow thanks craig with us recap of all the top stories tonight's washington give. the green light throwing the ball for russia. given its initial approval to a treaty which will see nuclear arsenals. the deal was signed earlier this year by president. has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough. in more top stories from the week's threats and

accusations between north and south korea souls long war games close to the border provokes pyongyang into threats of a sacred nuclear war and soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling the south korean island last month said their actions in response to provocation. put it under. reported the plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five the poland refuses to accept the findings over a hundred fifty pages of reported had been sent to moscow detailing believes the investigation was floored. the story happening right now freezing rain causing major delays and flight cancellations at one of moscow's main airports as the russian capital didn't she devise the first few domestic flights have started to take off despite of major. airports and the latest. start to come back online there has been no more. and more at r.t. dot com.