A MOTORCYCLIST has died after losing control and hitting a pole in Melbourne's north.
Police believe the 35-year-old Craigieburn man was attempting to overtake a vehicle when he lost control before 7pm (AEDT) on Friday.
He then struck a pole near the intersection of Bridgewater Road and Gillingham Crescent, Craigieburn and died at the scene.
The death brings Victoria's road toll to six, compared with 15 at the same time last year.
IT was a tale of two cities for Sydney on Friday.
The city went from sweltering in record-breaking highs of over 45C to below-average temperatures in the space of about 10 minutes on Friday night.
And while the cool change wiped out the sizzle, it also brought severe thunderstorms and damaging winds that had residents battening down the hatches.
Wind gusts of up to 100km/h swept through the city as temperatures dropped by about 10 degrees in 10 minutes from about 8pm (AEDT), Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster Jake Phillips said.
"It went from the mid-30s to mid-20s in the space of five to 10 minutes in most areas," Mr Phillips told AAP.
The plummeting temperatures brought some relief to Sydneysiders after a sweltering day which saw the mercury hit a record-breaking 45.8C at Sydney's Observatory Hill at 2.55pm (AEDT).
The previous record of 45.3C was set on January 14, 1939.
The sizzling heat caused chaos across the city, with scores of heat-related illnesses, transport meltdowns and even melting roads and ice rinks.
By 5pm (AEDT) on Friday, the Ambulance Service of NSW had responded to 93 cases of heat exposure.
On top of that, 133 people fainted and 37 people were treated for vomiting, with most of those cases attributed to the heat.
Sparks from Sydney's monorail briefly set fire to trees and grass near the entertainment centre, while at the Big Day Out music festival in Homebush a St Johns Ambulance spokesman said the organisation treated 200 people, mostly for dehydration.
In western Sydney at the Australia Youth Olympics, basketball, canoe and athletics events had to be cancelled or postponed because of the soaring temperatures.
Meanwhile, most trains across the CityRail network were delayed by at least an hour on Friday evening, with overhead wiring and signal problems failing to cope with the extreme heat.
It was so hot in Sydney's northwest that a 20km section of Bells Line of Road started to melt, with authorities cutting the speed limit to 60km/h because of safety fears.
And the manager of Canterbury ice rink, in Sydney's southwest, said it was so hot the ice inside the rink had been melting all day.
By 10pm (AEDT) however, Sydney was at a comfortable 23 degrees and the severe thunderstorm warning was removed.
The worst gusts were recorded at Terrey Hills in northern Sydney about 5pm (AEDT) on Friday, with gusts of 104km/h recorded.
The State Emergency Service (SES) received about 100 calls for help, mostly to do with falling trees and roof damage, a spokeswoman said.
The cool weather is expected to continue on Saturday, with forecast highs of 25 in the city and 28 in the west.
"That is actually below average for this time of year," Mr Phillips said.
"It will be a vastly different day from what we saw (on Friday), but after today I don't suppose too many people will be complaining."
THOUSANDS of country music lovers, kitted with paper fans, have braved the stifling heat to see Adam Brand and Melinda Schneider open this year's Tamworth Country Music Festival.
Festival organisers are expecting more than 50,000 visitors to pack out more than 80 venues thought Tamworth between January 18 and 27, with thousands taking up camping spots on the banks of the Peel River.
The festival visitors will double the city's normal population.
The opening event, an open air concert in Bicentential Park, included performances from Aussie country music stars Adam Brand and Melinda Schneider while international acts Craig Campbell and Elizabeth Cook also entertained the crowd.
Schneider, whose five-month-old baby was supporting mum backstage, told AAP Tamworth was the highlight of a country musician's calendar.
"There's nothing like Tamworth anywhere in the world," she said at the opening concert.
"It's where it started and where it continues to produce amazing new talent and stays loyal to all of us who've been in it for a long time.
"The fans of country music are just so lovely, it's great to see them every year."
The 41-year-old former Dancing With The Stars contestant and first time mum said having her son with her at the festival was "so special."
"He's inspired some songs," she said. "Just every day the joy that comes into your life having a baby is amazing."
US-born country artist Elizabeth Cook, who is in Australia for the first time and performs alongside former Midnight Oil member Bones Hillman, said Tamworth had already impressed her in just 24 hours.
"It's a really fun fun vibe," she said.
More than 800 artists will make the annual pilgrimage to Tamworth to put on 4000 performances at more than 2000 events across the 10 days.
Some of those artists are country music stars Beccy Cole, Troy Cassar-Daley, The McClymonts and John Williamson.
Tamworth Country Music festival's most keen have been camping out for weeks to secure prime camping positions.
With temperatures hitting 40C on day one, Tamworth's local pool played host to hundreds of festivalgoers looking to cool off.
Makeshift Akubra stores were erected and starting to sell the iconic hats synonymous with country music.
More than 600 buskers will line-up along Peel Street, a strip often credited for launching the careers of Kasey Chambers and Keith Urban.
This year, festivalgoers can rub shoulders with their favourite country music artists in the newly created Fanzine, an air conditioned marquee where artists will be able to meet and greet fans.
SNOW has swept across Britain, forcing airports to cancel dozens of flights and more than 2000 schools to close.
London's Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, cancelled around 60 flights while the airports in the Welsh capital Cardiff, Southampton in southeast England and Bristol in the southwest were closed completely.
"We've got 24 vehicles clearing the runways," a Heathrow spokeswoman told AFP on Friday.
A Cardiff spokesman said the airport was due to re-open shortly, while Southampton said it would be shut until at least 1500 GMT (0200 AEDT Saturday).
British Airways cancelled more than 60 of its flights but said the figure was likely to rise during the day.
Over 2000 schools were closed across Britain, while the bad weather also caused gridlock on the roads.
Britain's weather agency, the Met Office, issued a rare "red warning" for parts of south Wales, where some areas were expecting up to 11 inches of snow.
TRAFFIC congestion has eased in Sydney CBD after commuters were hit with lengthy delays following an accident on the Harbour Bridge.
Three cars collided around 3pm (AEDT) on Thursday near the north pylon of the bridge, causing one of the cars to crash into the pylon.
A 40-year-old woman, two men aged 30 and 50 and a five-month-old baby were trapped in their cars for some time before they were taken to hospital in a stable condition.
The crash sparked traffic chaos in the CBD, with just one northbound lane and two southbound lanes open while emergency services worked to free the victims.
Even after the lanes reopened, the gridlock continued well into peak hour, with huge traffic queues on the southbound lanes stretching back as far as Artarmon at 6.30pm (AEDT).
Traffic in much of the CBD also came to a standstill, with buses leaving Circular Quay running 20 minutes behind schedule.
The NSW Transport Management Centre urged commuters to take trains or ferries wherever possible, with bus tickets valid on those modes of transport until 7pm.
By 7.30pm traffic was once again flowing on the bridge although some buses crossing were still slightly delayed.
THE West Australian coroner has found that a 20-year-old woman missing for more than 12 years was a victim of a homicide, but has refused to rule on whether a suspect in the case was involved in the crime.
Sarah Anne McMahon disappeared on November 8, 2000 after telling a colleague she was meeting a friend at 5.30pm and then failing to pick up her sister at 8.30pm that evening.
Donald Victor Morey, 57, has long been considered a suspect in her disappearance and was the last person to speak to Ms McMahon before she disappeared.
After the initial police investigation drew a blank, a further investigation was launched after Morey was convicted of the attempted murder of a Perth prostitute in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
He had also been a person of interest in the death of another prostitute the previous year.
However, police were again unable to substantiate enough evidence against Morey, who has consistently denied any involvement in Ms McMahon's disappearance.
A cold case review of both investigations was launched last year and Morey said he was still in contact with Ms McMahon, who he claimed was living in Canada with her two children.
Coroner Alastair Hope said on Thursday that because Ms McMahon had not contacted her loved ones in more than 12 years, he was confident she was dead.
"The circumstances in which Ms McMahon disappeared are sinister and I have confidently been able to exclude the possibility that she died by way of natural causes, accident or suicide," he said.
"In my view, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the proposition that she died by way of unlawful homicide."
Mr Hope said there was no evidence that Ms McMahon left the country and there were no records held in Medicare, Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or her bank that would suggest that she was alive in Australia after that time.
A key piece of evidence examined at the inquest was a statement from Natasha Tracy-Ann Kendrick, dated November 11, 2011.
In her statement, Ms Kendrick said she walked into Morey's room and saw a bloodied naked girl on the bed with an "old fashioned rope" around her neck.
Ms Kendrick claimed that she later saw Morey carrying "something wrapped in a quilt over his left shoulder" and said she knew it was McMahon's body.
However, Mr Hope noted that police were unable to find evidence to corroborate her account.
He said there was also evidence capable of supporting a conclusion that Morey lied to police about his movements on November 8, 2000 and falsified documents to support those lies.
"It is always possible that some further evidence may come to light which could result in criminal charges being laid at some later date," he said.
"In that context, I do not propose to make any finding in relation to Mr Morey's involvement."
A SYRIAN army assault killed more than 100 civilians, including women and children, on farmland on the outskirts of the central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
It said the attack took place on Tuesday.
"The Syrian regime carried out a new massacre on Tuesday claiming 106 victims, including women and children," in an assault lasting 24 hours around Homs, said the watchdog.
The killings took place in farmlands in an area between a military academy, an army checkpoint and an industrial district north of Homs, the Britain-based Observatory said.
The Observatory said the area had become a refuge for around 1000 people who fled fighting in the city of Homs, where regime forces and rebels have been battling for dominance for months.
It quoted witnesses as saying that among those killed were families who died in fires that raged through their homes and others - including three children from a group of 14 family members - killed in cold blood.
At least 32 other members of one clan were shot dead, the Observatory said, adding however that it was not immediately able to establish their identities.
Meanwhile the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper reported that troops had gained ground against "gunmen" around Homs, referring to rebels fighting the regime. The claim was denied by militants on the ground.
Homs, dubbed "the capital of the revolution" by the rebels, is the largest and most strategic city in Syria, lying on key trade routes near the borders with Lebanon and Iraq, and with its southwestern areas not far from Damascus.
The Observatory urged the UN to send a fact-finding team to probe the latest killings.
FIFTEEN foreigners and 30 Algerians being held hostage by Islamist extremists at a gas field in Algeria have managed to escape from their kidnappers, local media reported, citing officials.
"Fifteen foreigners, including a French couple, have escaped from their captors," the private Ennahar television station reported, with TV station's owner, Anis Rahmani, telling AFP that the information came from an "official source."
The French embassy could not confirm the information.
Earlier, the APS news agency said 30 Algerian workers had managed to escape from the In Amenas gas field in southeastern Algeria, where the Islamist gunmen, who say they are holding 41 foreigners hostage, are locked in a tense standoff with the Algerian army.
THE death toll from two massive blasts that ravaged the campus of a Syrian university has reached 87, activists say.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the number of those killed in Tuesday's blasts at Aleppo University could rise even further because medics have collected unidentified body parts and some of the more than 150 injured are in critical condition.
It remains unclear what caused the blasts, which hit the campus as students took exams, setting cars alight and blowing the walls off dormitory rooms.
The opposition and the government have blamed each other for the explosions, which marked a major escalation in the struggle for control of Aleppo - Syria's largest city and once the country's main commercial hub.
Activists said forces loyal to President Bashar Assad launched two airstrikes on the area at the time of the blasts, while Syrian state media said a "terrorist group" - the government's shorthand for rebels - hit it with two rockets.
Either way, the explosions shattered the relative calm of the sprawling, tree-lined campus, signalling that Syria's civil war has reached areas that were mostly spared the violence that has killed more than 60,000 people and reduced entire neighbourhoods all across the nation to rubble.
The competing narratives about what caused the blasts highlighted the difficulty of confirming reports from inside Syria.
The Syrian government bars most media from working in the country, making independent confirmation of events difficult. Both anti-regime activists and the government sift the information they give to journalists to boost their cause. And civilians stuck in the middle avoid talking to the media, fearing reprisals from both sides for speaking their minds.
Aleppo has been the focus of a violent struggle for control since rebel forces, mostly from rural areas north of the city, pushed in and began clashing with government troops last summer.
The university is in the city's northwest, a sector still controlled by the government. Both activists and the Assad regime said those killed in Tuesday's blasts were mostly students taking their mid-year exams and civilians who sought refuge in the university dorms after fleeing violence elsewhere.
Activists said a government warplane carried out two airstrikes on the university. To support their claim, they circulated a video they said showed a small trail of smoke left by a jet. They could not explain why the government would strike an area controlled by its forces.
"We have no idea why the plane hit there, but it was very clear that it was a plane that struck," said an Aleppo activist reached via Skype.
Syria's state news agency said a "terrorist group" - government shorthand for rebels - fired two rockets at the university from an area further north. It did not give numbers for the dead and wounded.
The scale of destruction appeared inconsistent with the rockets the rebels are known to possess.
On Tuesday, Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told a Security Council meeting on combating terrorism that "a cowardly terrorist act targeted the students of Aleppo University" as they sat for their mid-terms.
He said 82 students were killed and 152 were wounded.
Syria's crisis began with political protests in March 2011 but quickly descended into a full-blown civil war, with scores of rebel groups across the country fighting Assad's forces.
The UN said this month that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the violence.
POLICE in Zimbabwe have seized about four tonnes of marijuana aboard a truck driven from the neighbouring country of Malawi, their biggest haul on record.
Police officials said the truck was intercepted when it was being suspiciously "escorted" by a minibus and a taxi to a parking lot in western Harare that appeared ready to ferry away some of the marijuana leaf packed in 90kg hessian bags.
The driver of the Malawi registered truck, destined also for South Africa, was arrested but his suspected accomplices ran off, evading capture on Tuesday.
The marijuana or hemp plant grows wild in southern Africa. The "Malawi Gold" suited to that country's climate and grown in illegal plantations there, is sought after by users across the region.
