Four homes lost, worst over in Vic fires

A huge bushfire burning in the Grampians region of Victoria is now 41-thousand hectares in size. Source: AAP

VICTORIA'S fire chief says the worst of the state's bushfire emergency is over.

Four homes have been lost in the Grampians fire, one of 34 still active across the state.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says fires, mostly caused by lightning, have burned through 100,000 hectares.

Four homes have been lost in Victoria's Grampians region along with numerous sheds and many kilometres of fencing, and up to 7500 sheep have been affected, most of which will have to be put down.

There are no emergency warnings currently in place.

Residents who were evacuated in the Grampians will be allowed back Saturday afternoon.

Mr Lapsley said 34 fires are listed as still going in Victoria, the main ones being in the Grampians, the Mallee, Gippsland and Big River Country.

Most of the fires were caused by lightning during the past two nights but a number were caused by human hand, either by recklessness or arson, Mr Lapsley said.

This included a fire in Melbourne's outer northern suburb of Epping, where police are investigating a suspicious vehicle after fire began in multiple spots on the roadside.

Mr Lapsley says the worst appears to be over.

"I think the worst is behind us," Mr Lapsley said.

However, fire crews are still monitoring north east Victoria which is still experiencing hot conditions.

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Govt's cut to aid budget harsh: oppn

Julie Bishop has announced that Australia's aid budget will be capped at $5 billion. Source: AAP

THE federal government's cut to the foreign aid budget will put Australia's security and prosperity at risk, the opposition says.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced on Saturday that the government's aid budget would be cut to $5.042 billion for 2013/14, down $107 million from last year's budget.

She said the aid expenditure will be focused on the Indo-Pacific region.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong said the cuts would affect both Australia and some of the world's poorest people in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.

"Our aid program helps to enhance global prosperity, and Australia's own security. The Abbott government's cuts put both at risk," she said in a statement.

"Australia is a generous country and we can afford to lend a helping hand to those who need it most."

Ms Bishop said the growth of the previous year's aid budget was "unsustainable" amid an overall budget deficit forecast for this year.

"We must ensure Australia's aid program has a funding base that is responsible and affordable," Ms Bishop said.

The cuts have also been criticised by charities and aid agencies.

Child-rights organisation Plan Australia says the government's cut will hurt vulnerable children in the developing world and will mean the cuts will come out of programs already underway.

Oxfam chief executive Dr Helen Szoke said the aid agency was disappointed by the cuts.

"Just as Foreign Affairs staff had to do yesterday, we will now go to some of those people we have been supporting and tell them that we can no longer support them, which will be acutely disheartening for them," she said in a statement.

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Aust man faces US sex charge extradition

AN Australian man faces extradition to the US after allegedly posing as a teenage girl or boy online to trick and then extort boys into performing sex acts on the internet.

Mark Anthony Warren, 49, was arrested in NSW after an investigation by the FBI, US attorney for the southern district of New York, Preet Bharara, announced on Friday.

"As alleged, Mark Anthony Warren used social media and phoney profiles to ensnare his minor victims and later force them into engaging in sexually explicit acts that he recorded," Bharara said.

"Warren allegedly believed he could hide behind the anonymity of the internet and use special computer software to escape detection, but he was sorely mistaken."

One of Warren's alleged victims was a 14-year-old New York boy.

When Warren tricked boys into engaging in sexually explicit conduct online, he secretly recorded it and then threatened to disseminate the videos unless the children produced and sent him additional sexually explicit videos, prosecutors allege.

He allegedly created bogus accounts on various social media websites using false teenage girl and boy identities to trick the children.

Warren is charged with one count of production of child pornography and one count of attempted production of child pornography.

Each charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in US federal prison and a maximum 30 years.

He is also charged with receipt and distribution of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20.

Bharara praised the FBI, NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police.

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Arsonists light Vic urban fringe fires

ARSONISTS have deliberately sparked 12 fires in Victoria as soaring temperatures and strong winds create the most dangerous fire conditions since Black Saturday.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said police believe 12 of the 68 fires burning across the state were deliberately lit.

Most of those fires were sparked on the urban fringes of Melbourne, including three grass fires in Epping, in the city's north.

Detectives are now investigating those fires.

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Vic Grampians fire 'may claim more lives'

Residents in Victoria's Grampians region have begun evacuating due to a large bushfire. Source: AAP

A BUSHFIRE burning in northwest Victoria could claim more lives and damage properties, the state's fire services commissioner says.

The 21,000-hectare bushfire in the Grampians region has already killed one person at Roses Gap and is now threatening Halls Gap and surrounding towns.

An evacuation notice has been issued for the towns of Halls Gap, Pomonal, Bellfield, Lake Fyans, Lake Lonsdale, Roses Gap, Dadswells Bridge, Heatherlie and Ledcourt.

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley says the threat to the area will increase as a southwesterly change comes through on Friday afternoon.

The fire is expected to move into the holiday town of Halls Gap.

"There is a fair chance of losing property and even, if people are caught in the wrong space, a life could be lost," he told reporters.

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One dead and Vic fire crisis could worsen

Extreme heat will make Friday's bushfire conditions some of Victoria's worst in the past five years. Source: AAP

ONE person has died and a holiday town is under threat with authorities warning Victoria's bushfire crisis could worsen and claim more lives and property.

About 68 fires were burning across the state on Friday afternoon, including a massive inferno in the state's northwest Grampians region that has claimed a person's life at Roses Gap.

Evacuation orders were issued for Halls Gap and a number of surrounding towns, with warnings it could be life-threatening to evacuate after 3pm (AEDT).

A southwesterly wind change due later on Friday had the potential to cause havoc, Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said.

"Today is one of those days that certainly will be marked in the history of Victoria for the types of fires and the conditions that have led up to it," Mr Lapsley told reporters.

He said the Grampians fire, which is now 21,000 hectares in size, had the potential to claim more lives.

The fire is expected to move into the holiday town of Halls Gap.

"There is a fair chance of losing property and even, if people are caught in the wrong space, a life could be lost," he told reporters.

Mr Lapsley said the fire had caused a 12-kilometre convection column that was creating its own weather.

He said the fire was generating lightning and dropping spotfires around Halls Gap.

Emergency Services Minister Kim Wells said a series of fires burning at Gippsland, in the state's east, could unite and create a fire that was 500,000 hectares in size.

He said efforts would be made to protect electricity transmission assets in the area.

A series of 12 grassfires on Melbourne's northern fringe are believed to have been deliberately lit.

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Protesters 'blockade' NSW mine project

PROTESTERS have locked themselves onto bulldozers as they fight against the development of the controversial Maules Creek coal mine in northwest NSW.

About 30 activists, including local Aboriginal community members, on Monday blockaded heavy vehicles which are at the Boggabri site to build roads and a rail line, Georgina Woods from the Leard Forest Alliance told AAP .

If the road to Whitehaven Coal's proposed $767 million open-cut mine is cut through the forest then animals, plants and sacred Aboriginal sites would be lost, she said.

And while admitting that stopping the project was "a bit of a long shot," Ms Woods said the protesters, stationed throughout the large forest, wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

"It's our intention to remain here the rest of the week and until this forest gets a reprieve and it's protected from this coal mine," she said.

About 20 police were at Monday's protest.

"Police rescue have gone in. They will be trying to remove our protesters," Ms Woods said.

"But we think they're set up in a way that they won't be able to be removed quickly."

Protesters also blockaded the site in December after the Federal Court dismissed an application by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment (NICE), which had called for the approval granted by former environment minister Tony Burke to be overturned.

Police cut the activists free before arresting them.

Whitehaven has previously said the project would create 800-plus jobs and enjoyed support from most local residents.

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Father not a danger to daughter: police

Emergency workers are searching for Greg Hutchings and daughter Eeva Dorendahl(pic)in NSW. Source: AAP

EMERGENCY service volunteers and police are searching scrubland for a father and daughter who have gone missing on NSW's far north coast.

Greg Hutchings, 35, and four-year-old Eeva Dorendahl were last seen at Pottsville at about 12.30pm (AEDT) on Saturday, but a police spokeswoman says they do not believe she is in danger from her father.

Police say the pair were due to meet family in the area about midday but never arrived.

It's believed they do not have access to a car, and family members hold serious concerns for the pair's welfare.

About 20 State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers joined police for a ground search for the pair at Pottsville on Monday morning.

The search has been focusing on bushland and scrub around the coastal road, Elfran Avenue.

It will extend to other areas later in the afternoon, a police spokeswoman told AAP.

The ABC has reported that Eeva had been staying at her father's house at Pottsville but was due to return home to her mother at Kin Kin on the Sunshine Coast.

It reported that the father had sent a text to say they were on their way.

"Obviously the mother is distraught at this time and his family are also concerned but we're making every effort to contact anybody he knows in the area and we need the assistance of the public to help locate the father and his four-year-old daughter," Acting Inspector Warwick Rhodes told ABC radio.

Mr Hutchings is of Caucasian appearance, about 175cm tall, with short brown curly hair and of a thin build.

Police say he was last seen wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, grey trousers and carrying a black backpack.

Eeva is also of Caucasian appearance, with long blonde hair and blue eyes.

She was last seen wearing an oversized blue and white-coloured shirt and multicoloured board shorts.

Police are urging anyone with information about this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Redcliffe by-election set for February 22

THE by-election for the Queensland state seat of Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, will be held on February 22.

The seat became vacant after former LNP member Scott Driscoll quit parliament in November because he was found guilty of misleading the house about his financial and business interests.

He had already quit the party, having moved to the parliamentary crossbenches, in April 2013 when the allegations surfaced.

Premier Campbell Newman announced the by-election date on Monday after touring the Redcliffe Hospital.

He apologised and pleaded with voters to not judge the LNP for Mr Driscoll's failures.

Registered nurse Kerri-Anne Dooley will represent the LNP at the Redcliffe by-election.

Labor's candidate is former federal MP Yvette D'Ath.

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Trio attempt to abduct man in Sydney

A MAN has escaped an abduction attempt in a Sydney car park, police say.

The 29-year-old was getting out of his vehicle in an underground car park in Dulwich Hill in Sydney's inner west on Saturday night when three men allegedly approached him.

He was then assaulted, with the trio taking his keys, mobile phone and wallet, police say.

The men then allegedly tried to put the man into a hatchback, but he escaped and ran to a friend's unit.

Police are now looking for the three men.

One is described as being of Asian appearance of about 20 years old.

The other two are described as being of Middle Eastern or Mediterranean appearance and about 20 years old.

Police urge anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Show goes on after hypnotist's death

The Illusionists 2.0 will continue their Australian tour despite the death of one of its performers. Source: AAP

A MAGIC show at the Sydney Opera House will continue despite one of its performers falling to his death from a Sydney balcony.

The body of Las Vegas hypnotist Dr Scott Lewis was found by police on Saturday morning at a Pyrmont apartment block.

He fell from an 11th-floor balcony to the fourth floor, media reports say.

Dr Lewis was to board a bus to take him and the other six members of the magical performance group The Illusionists 2.0 to the Opera House for Saturday's 2pm (AEDT) show.

Following the discovery, the Opera House cancelled Saturday's matinee performance due to "unforeseen circumstances".

It later released a statement confirming his death and expressing its sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues.

"Dr Lewis was a wonderful performer and he will be greatly missed," the Opera House said.

Show co-producer Tim Lawson said the company was "deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Dr Lewis".

"The entire company has decided to continue the show in his honour, and send our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends," he said in a statement.

The performers dedicated Saturday night's show to the hypnotist.

According to his website, Dr Lewis headlined a hypnosis show at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas for more than nine years.

It says he first realised the "power of hypnosis to help people achieve their health and wellness goals" more than 25 years ago when he used self-hypnosis techniques to lose almost 20 kilograms.

"It's also tremendous fun to demonstrate in a stage setting, where you can clearly see people's imaginative process at work," he said.

He was in Australia for a two-month tour as part of The Illusionists 2.0 show.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious and are investigating whether Dr Lewis died from misadventure or self-harm.

They are preparing a report for the coroner.

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Suspicious fire destroys mowing company

FIFTY firefighters were needed to bring a roaring fire under control at a lawn-mowing business north of Adelaide.

The blaze in Willaston, which was well alight by 5am on Sunday, is being treated as suspicious.

A fire service spokeswoman says it took two hours to contain the fire, and it would take several hours to extinguish it.

"The damage bill has been set at about $500,000 and the cause is believed to be suspicious," she said.

Sergeant Andrew Pomeray said investigations were under way into the cause of the fire.

"We believe there may be some evidence of a break-in," he said.

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