They were a perfectly representative entrance to a sprawling capital of only 450,000 people, which on Sunday was particularly quiet.

The minefields, marked with danger signs, lay on both sides of the road to Stanley, the islands' tiny capital of 2,000 people.

This railway junction has grown into a provincial capital of 600,000 people.

Critics of the troop-increase plan have complained that 17,500 more troops are too few to control a capital of six million people.

The officers, from the energy security force, were returning from duty guarding pylons that bring power to this capital of seven million people.

The financial capital of the world, as well as 8 states and 50 million people, lost power for, in some cases, more than a day.

More than half of Dhaka, a capital of nine million people, is flooded - including its landfills.

Rebels again cut electricity and water to this capital of five million people today, heightening fears about an imminent attack.

Port-au-Prince, a sprawling and chaotic capital of nearly two million people, has only one fire station.

No mad scientist could think up a better machine for creating air pollution than this capital of nearly 20 million people.