and voted in favor of the treaty and is likely to ratify it off the new year holidays the agreement will face further review before the final vote stop it will slash the deployed russian and american nuclear arsenals by one stratified but both sides it was actually signed by the two presidents back in april but the u.s. senate only approved the deal on wednesday after months of heated debate ati's got a teacher can has been following the process. the vote. on this tomorrow on this sort of resolution are seventy one days 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 u.s. will start the new year with a treaty that has become a symbol of trust and cooperation between the two nuclear superpowers and 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 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 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 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 just because you 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 the 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 nuclear superpowers forming adversaries actually trusting each other and looking to work in the hands to provide their security gonna check on our team washington d.c. . moscow's repeatedly said it could pull out of the start treaty if it feels threatened by u.s. missile defense systems in europe connecting the two remains key for russian political analysts to be too slow says the country's lawmakers will reinforce that 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. some 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 legal analyst said to me to slow speaking to me in the week. in north korea soldiers who reportedly took part of 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 sold but holding more military drills provoking star warnings from the north pyongyang's military chief says the country will launch a talent for a nuclear strike if the south keep firing on the border it is the worst tension on the peninsula since the war sixty years ago an expert on korea glyn ford spoke to us he says a new war is likely but will remain a possibility as long as the south keep testing 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 i actually was called squanto palm the south koreans intruding into what the north koreans consider through their waters the dangerous escalation what you hotties size korean maneuvers which are 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 are 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 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 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 allowed us to start scaling down the current levels of tension. that's good for talking to us an expert on korea as he is all the way black ops denied details about the gators against american military officials in afghanistan who are reportedly preparing to take the war over the border. first though the power is being 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 authorities to do everything in their power to ease the situation on the ice covered streets and airports r.t. sarah firth tells us how it all happened. substations the power the. cables the run the electric to. do one thing to travel. the double whammy of the weather as well really affecting the traffic coming in today. they were getting the information that they were going to be going anywhere. there were no meals no one has no place for people to sit there is no transport nothing has been done for the people. trying to rectify the situation as quickly as. none of the flights are up and running and we had planes actually going save people.

maybe taking off. the still running and it's not been affected by the. number of people in the most. had been affected by the. story he gradually but the bad weather how did. this one the last couple of days that we think right now i find it incredibly dangerous to get around we've had a number of incidents people have been injured in another he's pulled the tree thing and nothing and. everyone. so first reporting for us eight suspected militants have been killed in a come to a ration in the capital of russia's southern republic of dagestan sora to say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group weapons and six handmade bombs ready to be planted were

found at the scene artie's exotica cho is outside the building where the violence broke out this morning. where just a couple of meters away from the building where a group of militants has been walk today in the center of. the counter-terrorist operation has started early in the morning when the militants will feel used to surrender and opened fire on the residents of the houses nearby and were evacuated and the full area has been walked by there probably is there and the special task force the fled where the militants were hiding as far as we know by now several militants have been killed and they get 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 at terror only was a man the militants and that he was eliminated this is yet to be confirmed by the officials there just on has been a very troublesome region this year with many terror attacks launched by the

militants trains derailed and the whole situation in the reason is very troublesome . coming up on this channel breaking the silence millions of people voice their concerns because their only means of communication is still not officially recognized find out why just a couple of minutes. before that this 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 they could should secure nine hundred five others the investigation said pilot error was to blame it's still not clear where the horse was contesting that. current polish prime minister donald tusk said the findings into the accident in southwest russia are on acceptable over one hundred fifty pages of reportedly being sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation was floored aviation expert crissy eight says the russian investigation seemed thora no further

international inquiry is needed. i think the key issue for the polish side is probably quite a significant amount of criticism of the polish air force and in particular the captain of the aircraft and his copilot operating that aircraft on the day of that tragic accident and i think that's primarily major calls because. what we see you see with the draft report the scream passed on to the polish government i've looked at this issue since the accident and examined the cockpit voice recording transcripts and so on and i can't fault any of the conclusions that have been leaked by the the russian authorities i don't believe personally that if we bring an international investigating team into 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 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 this ability and a lot of pressure being brought on the pilots conspired to cause that accident aviation expert christian talking to r.t. there. signing of a record breaking billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of jimmy to prevent as 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 is cut and seeing has more of the leaders trip. financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians any columnists will why question

to school many conclude that the previous order dominated by the u.s. and europe is being left behind by the new rising giants russia india and china and the deal that struck 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 supplier offering it cutting edge weaponry such as submarines and supersonic. and now the countries have signed the biggest ever defense contract and he gets 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 in such technology which it is used should even with its fuel since. the new aircraft developed by russia and india would have steps each unit and noble for the ripley. forces energy is another sector two countries ago when they sing together russia has agreed to do more stations for india but the 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. this 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 offer alternative ways of thinking on various things whether it's a climate change whether it's on science and technology it's on speed 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 got in saying r.t. you delhi as one of the stories that go on our new low website if not check today why not check it out right now if you like rather you say about that story also there as well escaping reality we look at. afghanistan's efforts to rehabilitate the country's more than one million heroin addicts a story we brought you yesterday didn't catch it really your eye opening story has to get in front of you so it's also a festive fall out of eastern europe was

a sturdier latvia a bit cooler over whom decorated the christmas tree. lined up both sides we are about website r t v dot com. senior u.s. military commanders reportedly want to expand their afghan campaign into neighboring pakistan but officials deny allegations that secret cross border operations are already happening washington does however use unmanned drones to strike at suspected militants across the border kathy kelly campaigns against the u.s. led war she says america's military establishment is just trying to make more money . it seems to me that the united states would have an effect similar to what has happened in the past here in afghanistan along with the drone attacks the

invasion of a sovereign country. a united states joint special operations there is a means of attack including death squads and assassinations and night raids would exacerbate the tremendous almost tidal wave of anti-american sentiment amongst the public united states establishment the military industrial complex companies have learned that you can make an enormous profit you can stuff your financial portfolios and run to the bank and that you can do this in another limited way and they've learned that lesson and they would like to continue it but as far as what the united states might have learned from listening to people on the ground who are in touch with those who bears the brunt of the united states wife there i'm talking about the families whose loved ones have been slaughtered i'm talking about families where people are now widow and orphan the united states

doesn't learn from listening to the cries in the pleas of people who beg us to stop the killing. that was and he will come kathy kelly speaking to us some more news making headlines around the world violence following ivory coast presidential elections now for some fourteen thousand people to flee to neighboring liberia at least one hundred seventy have been killed in clashes so far most of those who were fleeing are supporters of the opposition leader understand what who the un is recognized as the winner of last month's vote but it. was refusing to quit. a truce and died more than twenty others were injured when the bus collided with a truck in southern egypt the bus was traveling from the southern city of us want to the ancient temple saw a symbol that had a truck carrying sand which had broken down in this part of the. the wrote. a series of aftershocks in new zealand city of christchurch months after a powerful earthquake struck the region at least twenty buildings were damaged and

power lines cut off the tram of blue glass and shut brick work but there are no reports of injuries tonight police have cordoned off the central business area and special units were inspecting the buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for some time. shift 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 now the martyr was bombarded and boarded by troops as of attempting 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 the damage to the greens both continue to call on the other side to apologize. for deaf 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 sign language is still not officially recognised that a push kovar reports on the silent struggle.

alex econ to hear the song. from the family. he had he sings it with his hands touching. that was that. 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 theatre of the deaf actors is an exception in the world mostly hostile to those speaking with their hands.

even though language doesn't officially exist all previous attempts to 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 date 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. you wish. you. the head of the old russian federation of the deaf believes there are more than ten million hard of hearing people in the country but no interpreters no t.v. channels almost nothing to ease their interaction with the world that. is one of

four children the only deaf one in the family. this is the first beauty shop for the hard of hearing and has a staff interpreter. they may not hear but they're not mute and they love talking. to. us.

was after all those who calls here all the same people it may be just that the music of their hearts and so is louder but still not loud enough to be officially recognized. as. the. diary bush kovach party moscow. this is the r.t. news channel i'm kevin owen coming up after the headline show find out what it takes to be a good soldier as our programs continue the twenty seventh of december. the

book. is easy to.

believe. since. they faced it this is not a promotion but more of the. may force it let me show you some staffers are you sure disapprove trish crossin they have no idea about the hardships the face of. the bite one it is this is it all going to need some for any army to life level using them it is the most precious thing in the world. years of self-sacrifice and heroism but those who understand it fully but you have to live a. real life stories from world war two the success of victory nineteen forty five dollars r.t. dot com. hungry for the full stop we've got it for us. the biggest issues

get a human voice face to face with the news makers. the . top stories for a few of the week on r.t. washington give stock the green light throwing the ball to russia. given its initial approvals with nuclear arsenal slashed. the deal signed by president obama has been hailed as a major diplomatic breakthrough. in north korea.

war games close to the border provokes threats of a sacred nuclear soldiers who reportedly took part of the shelling of a south korean island last month said their actions were a response to. reports plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five others but refuses to accept the findings over one hundred fifty pages of reports. leaves the investigation. freezing rain led to a company called in to hold over one hundred flights were canceled. thousands of people. more.