Damascus (Syria), Dec 18 : A research team from Udine University in Italy has uncovered a vast, ancient necropolis near the Syrian oasis of Palmyra.

The team, headed by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi of Udine University, believes the burial site dates from the second half of the third millennium BC.

The necropolis comprises around least 30 large burial mounds near Palmyra, some 200km northeast of Damascus in Syria.

Damascus  - The Syrian government announced on Tuesday that it will adopt an anti-smoking law "to protect people from the negative consequences of smoking on health, economy and environment".

The law prevents smoking in public places and prohibits advertising of all tobacco products, reported the Syrian official news agency SANA.

Local statistics indicated that smokers represented 15 per cent of the population, or three million Syrians, with an average of one cigarette pack smoked a day.

Damascus  - A proposal to establish a new international school in Syria is being discussed between members of the foreign community and the government, diplomatic sources said Thursday.

Damascus had ordered the closure of a US school and a US cultural centre as a response to a US commando raid inside Syria on October 26.

Syria said four helicopters attacked a building near its border with Iraq, killing eight people. US officials said the target was a top al- Qaeda figure in Iraq.

Damascus (Syria), Dec 8 : Archaeologists have announced the discovery of one stretch of the previous wall of Raqqa Palace in Syria, a few days after finding other things that enrich the country’s heritage.

Raqqa city is an old locality built by Alexander the Great in the Four Century (b. c.), but very few is preserved from that glorious period from which highlights Baghdad Door, the walls and Qasr al-Binaat Palace.

According to a report by Prensa Latina, a Latin American news agency, experts from a national mission said that after the wall fragment, they found a lion bronze image and lamps made of pottery, a metal ax, a bottle of crystal and a crystal’s collection.

DAMASCUS, Syria, Dec. 3  -- U. S. President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state should help build peace in the Middle East, an official Syrian source says.

In a report published Wednesday, the source stressed the importance of Clinton's presence to the resuscitation of the Israeli-Syrian peace talks, Ynet. news. com said.

The Syrian official also commended Clinton for her commitment to "render the U. S. a power for positive change" in the world by cooperating with the international community to solve global crises.

Damascus  - Syria and Lebanon can build a "bright future" together, Lebanese Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun said Wednesday after talks in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad.

Aoun said Damascus and Beirut were seeking to put aside their past differences and "turn a new page where there is no victor and no loser".

"This is a return to normal relations, of the past and build a bright future together," Aoun told a press conference after his meeting with Assad at the People's Palace.