The Islamic State (IS) militants on Sunday released 19 Christian Assyrians they had kidnapped last month, a monitoring group reported.
The 19 people are the first batch of 29 Assyrians the sharia court of the IS exonerated on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, Xinhua reported.
On February 23, the IS abducted 220 Christian Assyrians during an assault it had waged on predominantly Assyrian areas, mainly in the area of Tal Tamr and its countryside in Syria's northeastern province of al-Hasakah.
The fate of the other abductees is still unknown amid reports that the rest of the Assyrians are awaiting trials in the IS courts.
There is no clear reason why would the IS even put the Assyrians on trial.
Also on Sunday, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the Syrian troops captured as many as 33 towns in the eastern countryside of Hasaka after clashes with the IS.
The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), a forum of the Indian American community in the US, has urged the Narendra Modi government to issue infrastructure bonds for the NRI community.
A Malaysian Airlines flight crashed Thursday in Ukraine near the Russian border, with all the 280 passengers and 15 crew members on board feared to have been killed. There were conflicting reports on how the plane went down, with some suggesting it might have been shot down.
Debunking a feeling among US couples that daughters lead to divorce, a significant study reveals that tense relationship, and not a girl child, prior to pregnancy is the real cause for divorce.
Four officers of the Rio de Janeiro state police were detained Wednesday on charges of assaulting reporters and activists during a protest against the amount of public money Brazil spent to host the FIFA World Cup.
An eight-year-old Indian boy was adjudged the "Preacher of the Nation" in an Arabic religious sermon contest in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a media report said Wednesday.
