Sydney

Sydney city is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.28 million. It is the state capital of New South Wales, and the site of the first European colony in Australia, established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, leader of the First Fleet from Britain. A resident of the city is referred to as a Sydneysider.
Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast. The city is built around Port Jackson, which includes Sydney Harbour, leading to the city's nickname, "the Harbour City". It is noted for the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and its beaches. The metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and contains many bays, rivers and inlets.

It is listed as a beta world city by the Loughborough University group's 1999 inventory.The city has hosted international sporting, political and cultural events, including the 1938 British Empire Games, 2000 Summer Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup. In September 2007, the city hosted the leaders of the 21 APEC economies for APEC Australia 2007, and in July 2008 will host World Youth Day 2008. The main airport serving Sydney is Kingsford Smith International Airport.

Sydney city is one of the most multicultural cities in the world which reflects its role as a major destination for immigrants to Australia. According to the Mercer cost of living survey, Sydney is Australia’s most expensive city, and the 21st most expensive in the world.
Radiocarbon dating has provided evidence that the Sydney region has been populated by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years. At the time of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, 4000 - 8000 Aboriginal people lived in the region, locally known to them as "Eora".

There were three language groups in the Sydney city region; these were further refined into dialects spoken by smaller clans. Each clan had a territory; the location of that territory determined the resources available.European interest in colonising Australia arose with the landing of British sea captain Lieutenant James Cook in Botany Bay in 1770. Under instruction from the British government, a convict settlement was founded by Arthur Phillip, who arrived at Botany Bay with a fleet of 11 ships on January 20, 1788. This site was soon found to be unsuitable for habitation, owing to poor soil and a lack of reliable fresh water. Phillip founded the colony at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson on 26 January 1788.

He named it after the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, in recognition of Sydney's city role in issuing the charter authorising Phillip to establish a colony. In April 1789 a disease, thought to be smallpox, decimated the indigenous population of Sydney; a conservative estimate says that 500 to 1000 Aboriginal people died in the area between Broken and Botany Bays.

LOS ANGELES CITY

Los Angeles city is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A., it is rated an alpha world city, having an estimated population of 3.8 million and spanning over 469.1 square miles in Southern California. Additionally, the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area is home to nearly 17,776,000 people who hail from all over the globe and speak 224 different languages. Los Angeles is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populous and most diverse county in the United States. Its inhabitants are known as "Angelenos" .

Los Angeles city was founded in the year 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. It became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its independence from Spain. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican-American War, Los Angeles and California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus becoming part of the United States; Mexico retained the territory of Baja California. It was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850 — five months before California achieved statehood.

Los Angeles city is one of the world's most prominent centers of culture, technology, media, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most important economic engines of the United States, with the city and surrounding region having a GDP that is among the twentieth largest in the world. Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, video games and recorded music — which forms the base

Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva and Chumash Native American tribes thousands of years ago. The first Europeans arrived in 1542 under João Cabrilho, a Portuguese explorer who claimed the area as the City of God for the Spanish Empire; he continued with his voyage and did not establish a settlement. The next contact would not come until 227 years later, when Gaspar de Portola, together with Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. Crespi noted that the site had the potential to be developed into a large settlement.

VIENNA

Vienna is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city; with a population of about 1.7 million, it is by far the largest city in Austria as well as its cultural, economic and political center. It is the 10th largest city by population in the European Union and is identified having the 3rd highest quality of living. The United Nations has offices there as has OPEC.

The Vienna International Centre near the Danube also hosts important international offices including the International Atomic Energy Agency. Vienna lies in the very east of Austria and is close to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Economist Intelligence Unit study of 127 world cities ranked it first ex aequo with Vancouver for the quality of life.

During the Middle Ages, Vienna was home to the Babenberg Dynasty and in 1440 AD became residence city of the Habsburg dynasties from where Vienna eventually grew to become the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and a cultural centre for arts and science, music and fine cuisine. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman armies were stopped twice outside Vienna

In 1804, Vienna became capital of the Austrian Empire and continued to play a major role in
In 1945, the Vienna Offensive was successfully launched by the Soviets against the Germans holding Vienna. The city was besieged for about two weeks before it fell to the Soviets. After 1945, Vienna again became the capital of Austria. It was initially divided into four zones by the 4 Powers and was governed by the Allied Commission for Austria. During the 10 years of foreign occupation Vienna became a hot-bed for international espionage between the Western and Eastern blocs.

Vienna lies in eastern Austria, in between the most eastern extension of the Alps and the Vienna Basin. The earliest settlement, at the location of today's inner city, were south of the meandering Danube while the city now extens on both sides of the river. Elevation ranges from 151 to 542 m.

ZAGREB

Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental center of the Republic of Croatia in the Prigorje region. The city's population in 2006 was 784,900 (approx. 1.1 million in the metropolitan area). It is situated between the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain and both northern and southern bank of the Sava river at an elevation of approximately 122 m above sea level.
Its favorable geographic position in the southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin, which extends to the Alpine, Dinaric, Adriatic and Pannonic regions, provides an excellent connection for traffic between Central Europe and the Adriatic Sea.

Zagreb is the largest city in Croatia, and is the only Croatian city whose metropolitan population exceeds one million people. Most people live in the city proper. There are 1,088,841 people in the Zagreb metropolitan area, which includes the smaller cities of Samobor, Velika Gorica and Zaprešić. While the official 2001 census states that the population of Zagreb itself is 779,145, the official estimation for 2006 is 784,900. The majority of its citizens are Croats making up 91.94% of the city's population (2001 census). The same census records 40,066 residents belonging to ethnic minorities. Such ethnic minorities comprise: 18,811 Serbs (2.41%), 6,204 Bosniaks (0.80%), 4,030 Muslims by nationality (0.52%), 3,389 Albanians (0.43%), 3,225 Slovenians (0.41%), 1,946 Roma (0.25%), 1,131 Montenegrins (0.17%), 1,315 Macedonians (0.17%), together with other smaller minor ethnic communities.

The climate of Zagreb is continental, with four separate seasons. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are cold. The average temperature in winter is 1°C (34°F) and the average temperature in summer is 20°C (68°F). The end of May, particularly, gets very warm, with temperatures rising above 30°C (86°F). Snowfall is common in the winter months, from December to March, and rain and fog are common in autumn.