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 last conversation between the air traffic controller and the cockpit of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was at 1:19 a.m. and the last words were "good night Malaysian 370," Malaysian Transport Ministry said in a statement Monday.
Ukraine Monday asked Russia to stop interfering in its internal affairs in response to Moscow's calls on Kiev to establish a federal form of government.
It was tasted by food critics Hanni Ruetzler and Josh Schonwald who awarded it top marks for texture and consistency but admitted that the flavour was lacking.
A total of 46 people have sought to contest Ukraine's presidential election scheduled for May 25, the Central Election Commission said Monday as it finished the application process.
The search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 1,850 km west of Perth concluded Sunday with no headway as ships retrieved objects that could not be related to the aircraft, Australian authorities said.
