Armed conflicts and attacks
Syrian Civil War
The Assyrian Human Rights Network (AHRN) reports Islamic State militants released 37 Syrian Christians, mostly women, who were among more than 200 people from the Assyrian minority group abducted in February. (AP)
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll from an airstrike on an IS-controlled eastern city near the border with Iraq rose from 25 to 71. (AP)
Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
Art and culture
The University of Sydney's Australian Archaeological Mission, excavating at a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, discover Cyprus's oldest theatre. Located in the ancient city of Nea Paphos (capital of Cyprus at the time), it is a Hellenistic-Roman structure believed to have been in use for about six and a half centuries, from c. 300 B.C. until its final destruction in the earthquakes of A.D. 365. The Roman columns are made of granite from quarries in Troad, Turkey. (AFP, via MSN)
The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities says infrared thermography indicates a hidden chamber in the tomb of King Tutankhamen, findings consistent with early theories his tomb included two concealed doorways and with the theory presented in archaeologist Nicholas Reeves' paper this summer. (UPI)