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.
South Africa will grant visas to Indian businessmen wishing to explore prospects in the country within four days of submitting an application, its envoy here said Thursday.
South Asia is the world's most corrupt region and rampant corruption is preventing people here from breaking the barrier of poverty despite the fact that the subcontinent has attained strong economic growth over the past several years, a global anti-graft watchdog
Dinesh D'Souza, an Indian-American conservative commentator and author who shot to fame with a highly critical 2012 documentary of President Barack Obama, has pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law.
An Australian court has ordered the deportation of an Indian taxi driver after convicting him for indecently assaulting a woman passenger four years ago, a media report said.
The European Union (EU) Tuesday disbursed its first loan tranche of 100 million euros ($137 million) to Ukraine, marking the start of its financial assistance to the country.
