Damascus...

Damascus (Arabic: دِمَشق‎ Dimashq, commonly known as الشام al-Shām also known as the "City of Jasmin" Arabic: مدينة الياسمين‎ Madīnatul Yāsmīn) is the capital and the second largest city of Syria as well as one of the country's 14 governorates. The Damascus Governorate is ruled by a governor appointed by the Minister of Interior. In addition to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Damascus is a major cultural and religious center of the Levant. Currently, the city has an estimated population of about 1,711,000 (2009 est.).[1] Located in southwestern Syria, it is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2,4 million people (2004).[3] Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 km (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea on a plateau 680 metres (2,200 ft) above sea-level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate due to the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus.

First settled in the 2nd millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. During Ottoman rule, the city decayed completely while maintaining a certain cultural prestige. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. Damascus was chosen as the 2008 Arab Capital of Culture


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'Two dead' as engine failure airliner lands in Moscow

The plane broke up after making an emergency landing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport
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At least two people have been killed and many others injured when a passenger plane rolled off the runway after making an emergency landing at a Moscow airport, Russian officials say.

All of the plane's engines had failed by the time it landed at Domodedovo airport in Moscow, an official said.

The aircraft, a Russian-built TU-154 of Dagestan Airlines, was carrying about 150 passengers.

It made the emergency landing after taking off on a flight to Dagestan.

"As a result of the TU-154 making an emergency landing at Domodedovo airport, two people died and several dozens were injured," Tatyana Morozova, a spokeswoman for Moscow transport investigators, said.

Civil aviation official Sergey Izvolskiy told broadcaster NTV that the plane had taken off from Vnukovo airport in Moscow, and was heading to Makhachkala in Russia's southern Dagestan region.

Shortly after take-off, the crew reported engine problems and was forced carry out an emergency landing at Domodedovo, Mr Izvolskiy said.

"Following the landing, the plane slid off the runway and broke up", he said.



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The BBC's Steve Rosenberg says the plane broke in two during the landing
By the time the aircraft landed all three engines had broken down, Russian media reported.

The cause of the engine failure is under investigation.

Russia's national carrier airline Aeroflot took all its remaining 23 TU-154 aircraft out of service in January, after a series of crashes led to safety fears.

The Tupolev midrange jets are banned from landing in Europe because of excessive engine noise.

But the aircraft are still used by smaller airlines across Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski was killed earlier this year when a Polish Airforce TU-154 crashed in western Russia.





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