A pair of 16-year-old skaters, their mothers, and two Russian coaches were among the passengers on board an aeroplane that hit a helicopter above Washington DC on Wednesday evening, the group's skating club in Boston says.

By Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian-born ice skating coaches and former world champions Yevgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov were on board the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Potomac River in Washington on Wednesday night,

A delegation of Russian officials is in Damascus, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. It is the first such visit to Syria since the fall in December of former President Bashar Assad, an ally of Moscow.

The first Russian official delegation to visit Syria since the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad has arrived in Damascus, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday. The visit comes with Moscow keen to secure the fate of two military bases there and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered a strategic "defeat" in the Middle East following the fall of Assad.

Syria’s new leaders said Wednesday they had discussed “transitional justice” with the first Russian official delegation to visit Damascus since the toppling of long-term Moscow ally Bashar al-Assad. The visit came with Russia keen to secure the fate of two military bases in Syria and after Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that Moscow had suffered