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.
In a major blow to the scientific community, the HIV virus that was once vanquished in the 'Mississippi baby' by administering aggressive anti-retroviral therapy before she was barely 30 hours old has rebounded.
The Christ the Redeemer statue that crowns Corcovado mountain here, being repaired since February after being damaged by lightning, has been completely restored two days before this Brazilian metropolis hosts the 2014 World Cup final between Argentina and Germany.
"Mulk taksim huye, dil to abhi ek hai/Isi liye hamne khidkiyan kat rakhi hai deewaron mein (The nations were divided, but hearts are still one/That is why we've cut windows into the walls (between us))", wrote an Urdu poet. Divided amid bloodshed, experiencing long spells of adverse relations punctuated by armed conflict, Indians and Pakistanis have however never lost their fascination for each other - despite the prevalent stereotypes.
An Indian woman was arrested in the US when she arrived at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport eight years after she apparently forcibly took her son away to India and brought him back again.
Variation in how efficiently urban areas release heat back into the lower atmosphere - through the process of convection - is the dominant factor in the daytime "urban heat island" (UHI) effect, a phenomenon that makes urban areas significantly warmer than the surrounding countryside.
