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 first legal victory for the Sikh community in Britain, the planning permission for the setting up of a meat plant near a gurdwara in northern Britain's Bradford city was cancelled by the Bradford City Council Wednesday.
While eighth seed P.V. Sindhu advanced to the women's singles second round, compatriot Saina Nehwal yet again failed to perform to expected standards as the seventh seed suffered a first round loss at the $300,000 Singapore Open Super Series here Wednesday.
Louisiana's Indian American Governor Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, will headline a major Republican fundraising event in the early primary state of South Carolina.
US police officer Brian Murphy, who was struck with 12 bullets during the Aug 5, 2012 shooting at the Sikh gurudwara in Wisconsin, will be honoured by Sikhs in Washington on Vaisakhi Day (April 13).
At least 12 people were Tuesday killed and 30 others injured in a bomb explosion in a train at a railway station in Pakistan's Balochistan province, media reported.
