verge of being brought into force this week the new strategic arms reduction treaty or start was approved by both russian and american lawmakers the state duma the lower house of russia's parliament voted in favor of the treaty and is likely to ratify it after the new year holidays we grieve in the face further review before the final vote start will slash the deployed russian a nuclear and american nuclear arsenal once ratified by both sides it was actually signed by the two presidents back in april but the u.s. senate only approve the deal on wednesday after months of heated debate is gonna teach it can and has been following the process. the vote. on this summer on this resolution or seventy one 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 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 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 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'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. angle and 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 he managed to get this important in the senate liquid now security for the next few years movie based on this treaty depending 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 has no he's not impeded by stereotypes of wood 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 gonna check on our team washington d.c. . moscow has repeatedly said it could pull out of the start treaty would feel stretton by u.s. missile defense systems in europe connecting the two remains key for russia and political analysts to meter since love told me the country's no makers will reinforce that the 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. russia might pull out 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 political analysts to me to slow speaking to me in the week. in north korea's soldiers who reportedly took part of the shelling of a south korean island last month and spoken publicly about the attack and 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 seoul and holding more military drills provoking start warnings from the north military chief says the country will launch a retarded three 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 keeps testing the most patient. 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 and the the recent shelling of the of the island actually was consequent upon the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans considered through their waters the dangerous escalation what you heart is south korean maneuvers which in disputed waters which led to the north korean response of 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 something we need that we need to be concerned about for the future but we need to see is some gestures from either side to try and step down a maybe an offer from the north koreans for example to give up their their fuel rods from the young nuclear reactor and try and ship them to the scientists will be something that might be allow us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. that was good for an expert on korea speaking to us coming up in the program fueling anger find out how the u.s. congress decides to keep american air base introduced and what isn't going to do with the revolution country. after mother freezing rain has been causing major

delays and disruption and airports across russia one of the worst affected was moscow's domodedovo airport where there's been a power cut earlier today some flights were canceled others had to be diverted to nearby airports now a small number of domestic flights have since taken off of the power has been restored sort of tells us how it all happened. the. cables that run the. double whammy of the weather is well really. coming in today. they were getting the information that they were going to be going anywhere. situation is. running we had planes.

taking off. running. by the. people in the most. by the. story. of the bad weather. one. of the. number of incidents people had been injured in another piece called the tree thing nothing and. everyone. sort of correspond of. operation of the company of russian southern republican. to say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group weapons. found ready to be planted at the scene.

of the building where the violence broke out. where just a couple of meters away from the building where a group of militants has been walk today in the center of. the counterterrorist operation has started early in the morn. when the militants will feel is to surrender and open fire the residents of the houses nearby were evacuated and the whole area has been blocked by the police than 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 the yet to be identified and as the russian and to terrorists kmita says this group could be behind the killings of the police officers in the region and launching a serious altera attacks there is also information that the head of my high school a terror only 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 legion this year with many terror attacks launched by the

militants planes derailed and the whole situation in the region is very troublesome . coming up shortly on this channel carving up the desert the israeli governments are pushing tribes off the land that's been home for over a century find out why in just a couple of minutes on our team. this week the brother of the late polish president claimed the body buried in krakow does not belong to the chin skee. also the former prime minister says he's not yet decided whether to have the remains exude poland has rejected moscow's reported to the april plane crash that killed like a chain skin ninety five others the investigation said the pilot error was to blame and still no clear weather was contesting that current polish prime minister donald tusk says the findings into the accident in southwest russia are unacceptable over one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation the floor aviation expert crissy eight spoke to us he

says the russian investigation seemed thora 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 his copilot operating that aircraft on the day of that tragic accident and i think primarily major calls between. what we see you see with the draft report that's been passed on to be published up 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 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. 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 the accident. aviation expert crissy aids talking to us there son of a record breaking billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of dmitri with veteran visits to india this week the russian president also promised to build nuclear power stations to meet the growing needs of the world's second most populous nation at his current seeing as more on the need to strip. financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians an economist's worldwide question

to school many can do that the previous order dominated by the u.s. and europe is being left behind by the rising giants russia india china and the deed struck the president medvedev during the annual summit between russia and india to support. 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 and or friends it is india is the number one. offering in cutting edge weaponry such as beings and so it was funny. and now the countries have signed the biggest ever defense contract and he gives history thank you billions of dollars in 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 twenty two raptor that costs

three dimes as much at present the u.s. is the only country in such technology which should even with this film since unlike the new aircraft developed by russia and india have stepped feature and noble for the rippling. forces energy is another sector the two countries are basing 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 big. on. coming to legume in time cooperation. and gas sector it reflects the complimentarity cream. the strength of the interaction relationship is is that it often does an

alternative to the relationships that countries have with the west you know we can offer all alternative ways of thinking on on various things whether it's on 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 saying r.t. . well if more of the story as well as many others log on to our web site out there you'll also find tonight escaping reality we take a look at afghanistan's efforts to rehabilitate becomes more than one million heroin addicts a story yesterday tell about it online as well tonight you might want to recycle and also a festive pull out in eastern europe as a stoner in latvia

a big killer over the decorating the christmas tree. both sides of the argument. don't come on you know website. next tonight the u.s. congress has slammed the pentagon over the shady jet fuel deals for the american military airbase in the central asian republic of kurdistan fuel worth around two billion dollars was purchased for civilian use allegedly to avoid higher tariffs but it was actually for the money that's a key supplier for the u.s. campaign in afghanistan peters oh my of of the eurasia democracy initiative spoke to us he said the deal helped spark unrest that ousted the president in april. 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 you stand to prosecute the war effort in afghanistan and members of the family of the deposed former president of kyrgyzstan kuhlmann begg but key of the same report stated that these subsidiaries namely the mena corps and red star back in two thousand and nine tempted to reach out to the former president's son maksim but has subsequently followed his father in exile and is now in hiding in the u.k. to try to engage in bed or negotiations with the pentagon regarding the future of the base following kyrgyzstan's announcement that it would shut down the base so what we saw in that case was another proof of the fact that president's family and so on were calling all the shots in the country were pretty much running the place

what would eventually happen was the direct result of this relationship we saw april two thousand and ten 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 the pentagon was cutting with. their government. well news in brief this sunday violence following ivory coast disputed presidential election some forty people to flee to neighboring liberia at least one hundred seventy have been killed in clashes so far most of those who are fleeing are supporters of opposition leader and the son of a tyler knew the u.n. is recognized as the winner of last month's vote but incumbent leader refusing to quit. a two died more than twenty others were injured when a bus collided with a truck in southern egypt the bus was traveling from the southern city of us want to the ancient temple site of symbol it hit a truck carrying sand which is broken down and was parked at the side of. a series

of our shocks is the new zealand city of christchurch months after the powerful earthquake struck the region there at least twenty buildings have been damaged and power lines are being cut off the tremor blew out glass and shook brickwork but no reports of any injuries so far police have cordoned off the central business area now and special units are inspecting the buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for some time. the ship at the center of a deadly raid by israeli forces leave this year as received a hero's welcome on return to its home port in istanbul it may the. it was it was boarded by troops as it attempted to break the blockade of gaza to get aid to palestinians nine people were killed on the ship which was part of a larger convoy israel's actions severely damaged relations with former ally turkey and triggered international condemnation. still ahead for you in this weekly news wrap a spy in the u.s. role model at home and

a child debuts in russia's political stage atoms and glamour dealing with the ruling united russia party. the israeli government is up rooting out of tribes from the desert where they've lived for over a century the jewish state says the bedouins built their homes without permission but local activists say the aim of the crackdown on arab villages is to replace them with jewish settlements. reports from the desert. in the middle of nowhere the remains of all i'm a kid village for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with a few verses and a little more than an hour demolished sixty houses. from a club 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 to be. the big ones on a medic arabs who've lived in the negev desert for more than one hundred here as they claim they used to pay taxes during the autumn and period in british mandate but off to 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 they would like to push them into the townships where they could become simple workers they would like to give the land to the army and the jewish settlement. it's who. 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 is because the desert is it seemingly

not big enough for jew an arab jew mel torme 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 guns 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 will build again and in a few weeks the israelis will return policy r.t. in the negev desert israel fly overhead firm chapman's embarked on a political career in russia after her brief debut as an undercover agent of the us she'll now ahead the ruling united russia party youth movement at a recent meeting chapman made a speech calling on party members to transform the future for the next generation by the chapman shop fake during a spy scandal between russia and the us in the summer but the f.b.i. uncovered a russian s.p. dollars ring she was one of a number of agents deported from the us in

a cold war styles. twenty seven hours minutes past ten o'clock at night here in moscow sport in fifteen minutes it is turning into a. yet another win for the details for you. bring you up to date on the head of the week after this quick break.

for the. biggest issues get. to face with the news makers.

the russian president shares his views on the events that shaped twenty ten from wildfires to wiki leaks to.