THE wife of a French militant who joined the Daesh group says her husband Jean-Michel Clain has died of his wounds in Syria.
The 38-year-old woman, who only identified herself as Dorothee, said she does not want to go back to France and wants the country to “leave me alone”.
It comes in contrast to British teenager Shamima Begum, who fled from Bethnal Green in east London in 2015 to join Daesh as a 15-year-old. After being traced to a refugee camp in northern Syria, she said she wanted to return to the UK with her new baby, but she has since been stripped of her British citizenship.
Dorothee described the situation in the village as a “horror film”. She said her husband joined Daesh with his older brother, Fabien Clain, one of Europe’s most wanted members of the extremist group.
Fabien Clain was killed in a strike by the US-led military coalition in Syria in February.
Dorothee says her husband was wounded in the same air strike and died of his wounds two days ago.
THE president of Belarus – once dubbed Europe’s last dictator – has said his country is eager for better ties with Nato after Russia announced a hike in oil prices.
Alexander Lukashenko, who spent a week with President Vladimir Putin in Russia earlier this year, said at a government session yesterday that his country should seek “relations with Nato based on mutual respect that would help strengthen our country’s security”.
His comments came amid talks with Russia about £300 million his country risks losing every year after the hike in prices for Belarus. Moscow has for years been selling oil to Belarus at subsidised prices, which allowed Belarus to make hefty profits from its oil refineries, some of Europe’s largest, which then export oil products.
Lukashenko has also complained that his country’s attempts at rapprochement with the West “sometimes cause tantrums” in Russia which, he said, fears that Belarus “has turned its head somewhere else”.
MORE homes are being threatened by wildfires that have burnt dozens of properties in rural south-east Australia.
Emergency warnings were issued in Victoria for the towns of Dargo and Licola, which are east of the state capital Melbourne, as flames approached homes.
Since last Friday, 38 fires have razed more than 40,000 hectares of forest and farmland, destroying a number of homes.
“We have literally got hundreds and hundreds of firefighters working on the ground, doing their absolute best to keep our communities safe,” said Victoria’s emergency management commissioner, Andrew Crisp.
The fires were also being fought from the air, with 75 planes and helicopters dumping water.
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