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 American Embassy School (AES) in New Delhi's plush diplomatic enclave is deep in crisis after nearly 40 teachers quit as a fallout of last year's India-US diplomatic row.
A US soldier seized by the Taliban nearly five years ago in Afghanistan has been released after five Taliban leaders held in Guantanamo Bay were let off, US and Taliban officials said.
In a letter to BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall dated May 19, Priti Patel, British prime minister David Cameron's Indian diaspora champion, brought to notice the complaints she received about BBC Newsnight aired May 16, which covered the day the results of India's general elections were announced.
Ash plumes billowing from an Indonesian volcano have cut off all air services to Darwin city in Australia's Northern Territory and grounded flights to Bali, a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, the media reported Saturday.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel Saturday said he is planning to visit India later this year to drive "transformational cooperation" with the country which is playing an "active role" in strengthening security in Asia.
