SYRIA: The first trial was opened today of some of the hundreds of suspects linked to deadly clashes in Syria’s coastal provinces earlier this year that spiralled into massacres of Christians and Alawites.

State media reported that 14 people were brought to Aleppo’s Palace of Justice following a months-long government-led investigation into the violence in March.

The investigating committee referred 563 suspects to the judiciary.

NIGERIA: A schoolgirl who was abducted by gunmen with 24 others from a dormitory in Nigeria has escaped and is safe, the school’s principal said yesterday.

The student arrived home late on Monday, hours after the kidnapping at the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, in north-western Kebbi state, said principal Musa Rabi Magaji.

POLAND: Two Ukrainian citizens working for Russia are suspected of blowing up a railway line in Poland over the weekend, Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed today.

Mr Tusk told MPs the two suspects had been collaborating with Russian secret services for a long time. He offered no evidence.

He said their identities were known but could not be revealed to the public because of ongoing investigations. The pair have already left Poland.

There has been no comment from Russia.

SLOVAKIA: Tens of thousands of people in Slovakia protested against the country’s Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday, taking advantage of the anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that ended decades of communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.

Rallies and marches took place in dozens of communities including the capital Bratislava.