russia's lawmakers followed suit and gave the new start agreement an initial go ahead artie's washington correspondent dan it's it you can follow the developments . in the vote. on this man on this sort of 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 am glad the 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 us rivalry of the past is finally laid to rest for weeks and months the president of the united states all members of his administration the military all living former secretary of state and of defense were calling for senators not to ruin this reset opportunity for us 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 continued 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. anglin 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 militants 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 because he can really listen to you and he he's not impeded by stereotypes and what is probably the most important thing for a politician that will he keeps his promises 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 in hand to provide their security get a check on our team washington d.c.

left wing 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 was 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 a nuclear nonproliferation treaty particularly israel india pakistan north korea that was left wing british m.p. jeremy corp. this week saw another major security crisis on the korean peninsula north korea warned it is ready to start

a nuclear war if the south continues with military provocations seoul has been conducting a live fire military exercises next to the border with the north and in disputed waters north korean t.v. has shown soldiers who reportedly took part in the shelling of a south korean island last month they say it was in response to south korea's aggressive war games four people including two marines were killed in the attack it is believed to be the worst escalation of tension on the peninsula since the war sixty years ago an expert on korea glyn ford says event no one is provoking a war deliberately but the situation can easily spiral out of control. the danger is if we have new military exercises at sea because the problem is the land border is very clear the sea border is been arbitrarily and unilaterally is stopped by the south koreans along with northern limit line which is not recognized even by the

united states. the recent shelling 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 hot is sized korean maneuvers which in disputed waters which led to the north korean response of. the artillery shelling of the island we've now seen massive joint u.s. south korean exercises which clearly are leading to the north koreans paying 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 so we see something we need that we need to be concerned about for the future what we need to see is some. yes cheers from either side to try and step a maybe an offer from the north koreans for example to give up their their fuel

rods from the real 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 now as korean experts going forward for us there. on the way black ops denied. details of allegations against american and military officials in afghanistan who are reportedly preparing to take the war over the border. power has been restored at moscow's airport after a twelve hour break over one hundred flights were canceled and others are diverted to nearby airports after freezing rain down electricity cables authorities have been ordered to do everything in their power to ease the situation on the ice covered streets of the russian capital and airports are sarah firth tells us how the day unfolded.

there were no means no place for people to sit there is no transport nothing has been done for the people. we had.

one. credit. the number of incidents. nothing and. everyone. first reported for us their. suspected militants have been killed in a counter terror operation in the capital of southern republican. authorities say one of them was the leader of a local terrorist group. ready to be planted were found at the scene. we're just a couple of meters away from the building where

a group of militants has been a block today in the center of. the counterterrorist operation has started early in the morning when the militants will see used to surrender and opened fire on the residents of the houses nearby and were evacuated and the fall area has been blocked by the police there and the special task force talking to 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 the media says this group could be behind the killings of the police officers in the region and launching a serious terror attacks there is also information that the head of the high school a terror only was among 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 shortly on our carving up the desert. israeli government is accused of

pushing arab tribes off the land they've been home for over a century find out why in just a couple of minutes. this week the brother of the late polish president claimed of the body buried in krakow does not belong to lech kaczynski jaroslav kaczynski also the former prime minister says he's not yet decided whether to have the remains exuma poland has rejected moscow's report into the plane crash that killed of the president and ninety five others the investigation said pilot error was to blame it's still not clear whether warsaw is contesting this current polish prime minister donald tusk said the findings in to be accident in southwest russia are unacceptable over one hundred fifty pages have reportedly been sent to moscow detailing where poland believes the investigation was flawed aviation expert chris gates says the russian investigation. seems no further international inquiries

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 cause for concern. what we see you see with the draft report that's been passed on to the published 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 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 in the pressure was brought to bear in some way shape or form on the pilots and copilots of 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 chris yates talking to us there the signing of a record breaking a billion dollar defense contract was among the highlights of dmitri medvedev 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 artie's can sing has more on the leaders. financial crisis that shaken the group has let politicians an economist's world why question the wall street 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 close up of beans and supersonic. and now the countries have signed the biggest ever defense contract and he gets history and 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 should even with its fuel since unlike the new aircraft developed by russia and india would have steps each of us and noble for the ripley for cortef forces energy is another sector two countries ago when they sing together russia has agreed to do more nuclear power stations for india to do atomic plants it's already building the south of the country will come on lang next year and will provide much needed energy for india's growing economy i am particularly glad that we are. coming to legume and time cooperation. and gas sector it reflects the complementarity. the strength of the interaction and relationship is is that it was. to

the relationships that countries have with the west you know we can offer alternative ways of thinking 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 this strategic partnership got in saying r.t. . and you can find more on that story online at our two dot com here's a taste of what's there right now with nothing to snip the russian brushes off the competition. as it wigs makers say the country has the best blocks to create their pieces and. get blown away by the chilling beauty of the.

senior u.s. military commanders are 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 cafe kelly who campaigns against the u.s. led war 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 in the 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 bear the brunt of the united states warfare 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 anti-war campaigner kathy kelly some more news making headlines

around the world right now. supporters of ivory coast opposition leader tara are calling for a general strike across the country with the backing of the international community who claims to have won the recent presidential election but incumbent leader laurent gbagbo is refusing to leave office at least one hundred seventy people have been killed and fourteen thousand have had to flee the violence and following the disputed poll. eight american tourists have died and more than twenty others were injured when their bus collided with a truck in southern egypt they were traveling from the. southern city of us want to the ancient temple site of. the bus hit a truck carrying sand which had broken down on the side of the road. a series of aftershocks has rocked the new zealand city of christ church months after a powerful earthquake struck the region at least twenty buildings were damaged and

power lines cut which blew out windows and shook brick work but there are no reports of injuries police have cordoned off the central business area and special units are inspecting the buildings scientists warn the tremors could continue for quite 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 mavi marmara 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 diplomatic relations between turkey and israel were damaged over the incident and both continued to call on the other side. the israeli government is uprooting arab tribes from the desert that they've lived in for over a century the jewish state says the bad winds built their homes without permission but local activists say the aim of the crackdown on arab villages is to replace

them with jewish settlements policy reports from the desert. in the middle of nowhere the remains of all our kids village for the third time in two weeks israeli police came with a bulldozer and in little more than an hour demolished sixty houses. from a flood 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 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. 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 pressed 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 it to count troops where they could become simple workers they would like to give the learned to

the army and jewish settlements. 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 and arab jew mel torme has lost his way hoss in 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

juma will build again and in a few weeks the israelis will return to our t. in the negev desert israel. flame haired. chapman has embarked on a political career in russia after her brief debut as an undercover agent in the us . the ruling united russia party movement at a recent meeting chapman made a speech calling on party members to transform the future for the next generation and shot to fame during a spy scandal between russia and the u.s. in the summer when the f.b.i. . she was one of a number of agents deported from the u.s. in a cold war style swap. coming up in about fifteen minutes it's turning into a bumper month. with news of yet another win for the. headlines from our

review of the week.

british.

washington.

close to the border provokes threats of a nuclear war soldiers from the north said on t.v. that the shelling of a south korean island last month was a response to ongoing provocations. aviation experts. ordered to be a plane crash that killed the polish president and ninety five others but poland refuses to accept the findings and has reportedly sent a confidential document to russia contains scores of recommendations. and happening right now the electricity is back on it. after major delays and cancellations it's far from over for thousands of passengers freezing. power lines across the region that leaving more than four hundred thousand.