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.
A Sikh temple in the US is facing local opposition because of plans to replace its existing prayer hall with a 12,000-sq-ft building with gold domes in a rural neighbourhood, media reported Monday.
An initiative by Britain and Canada seeks to study and tackle the effects of climate change in South Asia, in tandem with TERI and Jadavpur University in India and similar institutes in neighbouring Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The US Monday came full circle as after shunning Narendra Modi for over a decade, President Barack Obama Monday vowed to work closely together with the new Indian prime minister "for years to come".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will Tuesday meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif and other leaders from the Saarc countries in one of his first engagements after taking charge.
The American media sees in Narendra Modi becoming the new Indian prime minister from the dawn of a "new era" to "a wildcard" for the Western world with little known about his foreign policy.
Geo TV network and Jang media group Monday tendered apology to Pakistan’s armed forces and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for hurling allegations its chief Lt. Gen. Zaheerul Islam.
