on the verge of being brought into force this week the new strategic arms reduction treaty will stop 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 holiday the agreement will face further review before the final vote start will slash the deployed russian and american nuclear arsenals by once ratified by sides was actually signed by the two presidents back in april but the u.s. senate only improved the deal on wednesday of the months of heated debate is going to teach in cannes been following the process. the vote. on this matter on this resolution are seventy one days twenty six days two thirds of the senate president having voted in 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 former adversaries actually trusting each other and looking to work hand in hand to provide their security get a check on our team washington d.c. . the british m.p. jeremy corbyn says 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. left wing british m.p. jeremy corbyn. in north korea soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month and 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 a little over a month ago now since then sold but holding more military drills provoking stark warnings from the north pyongyang's military chief says the country will launch a retaliatory nuclear strike if he was firing on the border it's the worst tension on the peninsula since the war sixty years ago an expert on keurig leaned forward so that a new war is unlikely but will remain

a possibility as long as the south keep testing them both 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 island. was consequent upon the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider through their waters the dangerous escalation what you hardy's south korean maneuvers which are in disputed waters which led to the north korean respond. of the artillery shelling of the island we've now seen massive joint us 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 adventures i don't think anyone's intending to start or

if you want a full scale war at this point but there's a danger with escalation if it gets out of control and that's obviously something we need that we need to be concerned about for the future but we need to see your son gestures from either side to try and step down and 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. career experts for coming up in the program fueling anger to find out how the u.s. congress criticize the key american air base in kurdistan and what it all has to do with the revolution in the country. versus the power would be restored now moscow's domodedovo airport after a twelve break over one hundred flights were canceled and others diverted to nearby airports after freezing rain ruptured electricity cables the russian prime minister

vladimir putin's ordered health authorities to do everything in their power to ease the situation on the ice covered streets and airports he sort of tells us how it all happened. substations the power the. cables the run the electric to. people who want to travel. the weather is well really affecting the traffic coming in today. as they were getting the information that they were going to be going anyway. put it trying to rectify the situation as quickly as. none of the international flights were up and running we had planes. taking off.

running and it's not. affected by the. number of people in the most. of the. story the gradually the bad weather how did. this one the last couple of days where we think . i. read of the day just to get around we've had a number of incidents people have been injured in another called the trees thing and nothing. really everyone. suspects militants have been killed in a come to the capital of russian soviet republic of dagestan authorities say one of them was the leader of a terrorist group weapons a six hundred thirty to be planted before seen. outside the building where the violence broke out this morning. we're 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 morning when the. militants wolfy 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 the biggest on has been a very troublesome region this year with many terror attacks launched by the militants trains rails and the whole situation in the region is very troublesome.

coming up on r.t. carving up the deserts the israeli government to to pushing arab tribes off the land that's been home for over a century find out why in a couple of minutes. just last week the brother of the late polish president claimed the body buried in krakow does not belong to lech kaczynski kaczynski also the former prime minister says he's not yet decided whether to have the remains exude poland's rejected moscow's report into the april plane crash that killed lech kaczynski in ninety five others the investigation said pilot error was to blame it's still not clear with contesting that the current polish prime minister donald tusk says the findings into the accident in southwest russia are unacceptable over one hundred fifty pages of reportedly being sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation a full aviation expert chris yet says the russian investigation cvs 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 tragic accident and i think that's primarily major cause for concern. we'll see you soon with the draft report that's been passed on to the polish government i've looked 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 you personally that if we bring an international investigating team into the equation that the findings will be any different to what they are we see. to be in

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. aviation expert christianity's talking to our tape. the son of a record breaking billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of the me to investors visit 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 auntie's charan singh has more on the latest trip. in financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians any columnists worldwide a question to school when he 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 the 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 our 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 history thank you what billions of dollars and 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 if you do that costs three times as much at present the u.s.

is the only country possessing such technology which is used even with. the new aircraft developed by russia and india would have stepped featured and noble for the ripley. forces energy is another sector two countries ago when they sing together russia has agreed to do more nuclear power stations for india but do atomic plants it's already building the so. the country will come online next year and we provide much needed energy for india's growing economy i am particularly. coming to look at him in cooperation unity i. reflect the complementarities. the strength of the interaction relationship is is that it often is an alternative to.

the relationships that countries have with the west you know we can offer 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 their strategic partnership god and saying r.t. you barely have stories online tonight. so these escaping reality would say most of afghanistan's efforts to rehabilitate the country's more than one million heroin addicts is a story we brought yesterday didn't catch it wanted to get out of line from the. well you can also have your say as well i had a discussion about all the stories you're seeing. in the festive fall out in eastern europe as a stone you're in latvia because over who decorated the christmas tree to find out

both sides of the argument at our t.v. dot com. the u.s. congress to slam the pentagon over a shady jet fuel deals for the american military base in the central asian republic of kurdistan fuel worth a. two billion dollars was purchased for civilian use allegedly to avoid high a tariff but it was actually for the money basic key supply for the u.s. campaign in afghanistan peters oh my of of the eurasia democracy they should have says the deal helped spark unrest that ousted the president in april. 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 kyrgyzstan c'mon big 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 presidents. who 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 happened was the direct result of this relationship we saw in april two thousand and ten when president was ousted was the direct result of the

popular anger that was stirred by the complete lack of accountability a lack of transparency in the deals that pentagon was cutting with. teargas government. mood music brief now violence following up close to speed to presidential elections for some fourteen thousand to flee to neighboring liberia at least two hundred seventy people have been killed in clashes so far most of those who were fleeing are supporters of opposition leader and the son of a tartar un is recognized as the winner of last month's vote the incumbent leader laurent gbagbo is refusing to quit. eight have died more than twenty others were injured when a bus collided with a truck in southern egypt but it was traveling from the southern city of us one to the ancient temple side to abu simbel it is a truck carrying sandwiches broken. in the after show. the new zealand city of christchurch months after

a powerful earthquake struck the region at least twenty buildings were damaged and power lines were cut off the tram a blue gloucestershire brickwork but there are no reports of injuries piece of cordoned off the central business area of special units from spectator buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for some time. the ship at the center of a deadly raid by israeli forces earlier this year has received a hero's welcome on return to its home port in istanbul in may the navi was reported by troops as an attempt 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 diplomatic relations between turkey and israel would damage the incident and both continue to call on the other side to apologize. still ahead fear this weekly news from r t a spy in the u.s. role model of home and a chat with deadly russia's political stage adding some glamour to the youth wing of the ruling united russia party that later. the

israeli governments are rooting arab tribes from the desert they've been living in for over a century the jewish state says that the bedouins built 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 our kids village. for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with a few verses and in 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 is that the land should go to the jews not. the big ones are nomadic arabs who've lived in the negev desert for more than one hundred years they claim they used to pay taxes during the autumn and period in british mandate but after israel took over in one thousand nine hundred eight they've been hard placed to prove their ownership of the land they don't have any legal documents proving that this land is theirs they have agreements of buying and selling between themselves but according to the law of the state of israel ownership of land can only be proven by registering the land in a public office israel says it's built alternative cities for 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 so they would like to give the land to. the jewish settlement. it's 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 warehouse 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 jima will build again and in a few weeks the israelis will return policy r.t. in the negev desert israel. favored firm photo of the chapmans embarked on a political career in russia after a brief debut as an undercover agent of the us should go ahead the ruling united russia party is youth movement at a recent meeting chappell made a speech calling on party members to transform the future for the next generation and chapman shot to fame during a spy scandal between russia and the u.s. in the summer when the f.b.i. uncovered russian espionage ring she was one of a number of agents deported from the u.s. in a cold war style swap. sports coming up in fifteen minutes now with andrew and it's . russia's top ice hockey team news of yet another win for them coming up shortly

then i'm kevin owen before but all a big headline smart of you of the week after this quick break.

we're going. to close some. industries are back at least developing. now watty goes to the homeland of those with strength of mind and body. to the land developed by cossacks in ancient times. which became the premier destination for

nineteenth century political exiles. this is the oem city russia close on oxy. for the full story we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers. every couple of weeks top stories here in washington give starts the green light throwing the ball to russia moscow's already given its initial approval to the treaty which will seem clear arsenal slashed by a good deal signed earlier this year by presidents medvedev and has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough. between north and south korea's sole zone

go in close to the border provokes the threats of a sacred nuclear war and soldiers who reportedly took part of the shelling the south korean island last month said their actions were a response to provocation. aviation experts back moscow's report into the april plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five others to poland refusing to accept the findings over one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent now to moscow detailing where the investigation was for. developing story tonight power back on that one of moscow's main airports after freezing rain the power cut the bullet through a hold over a hundred flights were canceled the dead event while others were diverted to nearby airports thousands of people stranded during the twelve hour break. midnight thirty one next the russian president shares his views on the events that shaped twenty ten from wildfires to wiki leaks.