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.
Sikh children in American schools have been punched, kicked, have had their turbans ripped off by fellow students and called "Bin Laden" or worse. Some have even had to face abuses like "Go Home Terrorist".
More than half of Sikh children in US schools endure bullying with over two-thirds of turbaned Sikh children among its worst victims, according to a new national report. Sikh children have been punched kicked, and had their turbans ripped off by fellow students, it found
US President Barack Obama Monday announced sanctions against seven Russian and four Ukrainian officials after a referendum in Crimea, the White House said.
Rubbishing US media reports suggesting missing Malaysian plane was taken to Pakistan, Islamabad said Sunday that its radar network had no information about the aircraft, but the country is ready to share any information if it is available
An exit poll by the Crimean Republic Institute for Political and Social Studies showed that 93 percent of voters in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea favoured reunification with Russia, media reports said late Sunday
The two pilots of the Beijing-bound Malaysia Airlines flight, that went missing March 8, had refused to fly together, Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein Sunday said citing the airlines authorities.
