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 seven long years, five Indian 'guest' or temporary workers who were allegedly defrauded and exploited in a labour trafficking scheme have won $14 million in compensatory and punitive damages by a US court.
An Indian-American dentist has been charged with homicide a year after the death of a patient who became unresponsive while having 20 teeth pulled and several implants installed, according to a media report.
A noted Indian-American lawyer has sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry to issue a humanitarian visa to the wife of an Indian grandfather assaulted by an Alabama policeman.
Rashad Hussain, of Indian heritage, has been appointed as US envoy and coordinator for Strategic Counter-Terrorism Communications to expand international engagement and partnerships to counter violent extremism.
Eleven days after a police officer in Alabama slammed a visiting Indian grandfather to the ground leaving him partially paralysed, the state governor has issued an apology, even as the officer pleaded not guilty.
IS militants captured over 40 people from the albu-Obeid Sunni tribe, including policemen and members of the government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group, in al-Baghdadi town, and executed them, Xinhua cited the official, who did not wish to be named
