Australian state minister goes hiking, goes missing

Rescue crews will resume their search Tuesday for an Australian state minister who went missing while hiking alone on a rugged, icy mountain. Tim Holding, the water and tourism minister for the southeastern state of Victoria, was last heard from on Saturday. He had gone to hike to the summit of Mount Feathertop, Victoria’s second-highest peak.

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Man charged over Australian bush fires named

A court has lifted a ban on identifying a man charged with one of a number of deadly wildfires that scorched southwestern Australia this month. The man, 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk, did not appear in Monday’s hearing in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, the Australian Associated Press reported

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Winds continue to spread Australia’s wildfires

Winds whipping across southeastern Australia’s countryside continued to fan deadly brushfires Wednesday, spreading flames through rural towns and ravaging scores of homes. “The temperatures are much cooler, but the concern is there’s still this wind which sort of fans the flames and keeps them spreading,” said CNN Correspondent John Vause from Whittlesea, where tent cities have sprung up just north of Melbourne. Relief agencies pitched camps for those forced out of their homes.

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Raging Australia bushfires kill at least 35

Deadly bushfires raged on in southeast Australia on Sunday despite cooler temperatures and scores of firefighters trying to control the flames. At least 35 people have died in the fires, authorities said Sunday “Unfortunately those numbers will increase as we move through the day,” said Kieran Walshe, deputy police commissioner of the state of Victoria, told CNN on Sunday, adding that police are investigating possible instances of arson. “We do believe some of the fires are the result of human intervention,” he said

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