Via FNA:

Extremist al-Nusra Front, a branch of Al Qaeda operating in Syria and Lebanon which is holding hostage a group of twelve nuns from the Syrian Christian town of Maaloula, has demanded the release of 500 of its militants in Syria and Lebanon in exchange for the nuns, media reports said.

The Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen satellite channel said Monday that the extremists had made their demand known by the Syrian businessman George Haswani who acted as a mediator between the Syrian authorities and them.

Nuns and postulants from the Eastern Orthodox convent of St Thekla in Maaloula with Abbess Pelagea at the head are staying in Haswani’s guarded private house near Yabrud for the second month running.

Yabrud, which is located 57 kilometers to the Northwest of Damascus, is encircled by Syrian government troops but a military operation there has been suspended out of fears for the nuns’ lives.