Firefighters battling some of the most destructive wildfires to ever strike Australia’s most populous state are focusing on a major blaze near the town of Lithgow that stretches along a 190-mile front.

Firefighters battling wildfires in Australia are braced for conditions to get worse in the coming days, with high temperatures and strong winds expected to intensify the danger.

Emergency services say the conditions surrounding more than 130 bushfires in one Australian state have reached "catastrophic" levels.

A search for bodies has begun among the charred ruins of more than 100 homes and other buildings destroyed by wildfires in Australia’s island state of Tasmania.

Three houses and a golf club were destroyed today as extreme weather conditions in south east Australia fuelled wildfires and fear and crews battled scores of blazes.

A Blanchardstown man who burgled five premises in Swords in one night has been given a five-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for these and other offences.