News in Brief -(04-01-2018)

Two die in Russian chopper crash in Syria
MOSCOW, Jan 3: A Russian helicopter crashed in Syria on New Year's Eve killing both pilots following a technical fault, Moscow's defence ministry said Wednesday. The Mi-24 military helicopter was flying to Hama, northwestern Syria, and there was no firing from the ground, agencies quote the ministry as saying. "Both pilots died in a hard landing 15 km from the air base," the ministry said, adding that a technician had been injured and taken to another air base at for emergency treatment. The investigative blog Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) quoted a post from Forumavia aviation forum saying the helicopter had tripped over power line wires and crashed while escorting a convoy. — AFP

Canada arrests former Taliban hostage Boyle
MONTREAL, Jan 3: A Canadian man who was held captive by a faction of the Afghan Taliban for five years has been arrested on 15 charges, including sexual assault, illegal confinement and issuing death threats, according to reports on Tuesday. Joshua Boyle was freed last October along with his American wife Caitlan Coleman and their three children born in captivity. Boyle and Coleman, who have been married since 2011, were kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2012, and were later transferred to the custody of the Haqqani faction. They were freed on October 12, but refused to board a US military plane. Boyle, a Muslim convert and long-time advocate of freed Guantanamo inmate Omar Khadr, cited fears over his background. — AFP

Equatorial Guinea says it thwarted 'coup'
MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, Jan 3: The West African state of Equatorial Guinea said Wednesday it had thwarted "a coup" in late December mounted by mercenaries who sought to attack President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa's longest-serving leader. In a statement read on public radio, Security Minister Nicolas Obama Nchama said: "Mercenaries... were recruited by Equatorial Guinean militants from certain radical opposition parties with the support of certain powers." The plot had been prevented thanks to an operation carried out "in collaboration with the Cameroon security services", he said. The announcement came after Cameroon on December 27 arrested 38 heavily-armed men on the border with the tiny state. — AFP