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.
After keeping both countries guessing for two days, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Saturday accepted the invite to watch Narendra Modi take oath as India’s next prime minister
South Carolina's Republican governor Nikki Haley and Neera Tanden, president of liberal think tank, the Centre for American Progress have been named among 50 Most Powerful Moms of 2014 by The Working Mother magazine.
Among those who pressed Sharif to accept the invitation to attend the swearing in ceremony was Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif, a politician of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
A US based Sikh group has challenged the dismissal of a rights violation case against India's Congress party relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots before the US Court of Appeals here.
The Australian state of Victoria is pushing for a ban on the Indian practice of dowry in marriages amid concerns that it is leading to domestic violence and abuse of women within the Indian community here, a media report said Friday.
