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MELBOURNE, Australia - A court lifted the ban Monday on identifying the only arson suspect so far in Australia's recent deadly wildfires, and authorities urged people not to target him in their rage over the disaster's more than 180 deaths.

GIPPSLAND firefighters are outraged at the jail sentence handed down to a pregnant arsonist in Morwell Magistrates' Court this morning. Rosemary Ann Harris, 31, of Moe, was refused bail this afternoon after she was sentenced to three years with a minimum of two-and-a-half behind bars for lighting two fires at Tyers, near Traralgon, and Driffield, near Morwell on a total fire ban day in December 2006. "In the circumstances the application for bail is refused," Magistrate John Dugdale said, explaining the refusal was based on "the nature of the offending and the prevailing bushfire situation in Victoria". The bail hearing...

THE public has been urged not to threaten the safety of an accused firebug scheduled to appear in court today on a deadly arson charge. A 39-year-old man accused of starting the Churchill-Jeerelang bushfire in Gippsland, in Victoria's east, has been remanded in custody and is due to appear in court today. "Coming to court and protesting is not an appropriate thing to do,'' Police Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon said today. "Obviously, we will make sure this person is well protected. "We hope that we don't have to deal with a gang of people who are angry and concerned...

THE man accused of starting one of the deadly Victoria fires, which killed at least 21 people in Gippsland on Black Saturday, has failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing in Melbourne. The hearing was held without 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk. He was remanded in custody until a committal hearing, which will be held on May 25. The man, who faces charges including arson causing death and possession of child pornography, can now be named after a court order banning publication of his name was lifted. However the order remains barring publication of his address or a photo of him....

BRUCE Esplin woke at 6am last Saturday with a gnawing feeling in his gut. Victoria's Emergency Services Commissioner knew the odds were not good for the 3582 firefighters and emergency workers who had been placed like toy soldiers across the breadth of his state. "We were about to face weather beyond our experience, and I just had this feeling of dread," Esplin says. Across town, Ewan Waller, the Government's chief fire officer, was also on edge. By 7.30am he was already sitting in the Integrated Emergency Co-ordination Centre in central Melbourne, otherwise known as the "war room", where he would...

A media report says a suspect has been charged with lighting one of the wildfires that killed more than 180 people in Australia last weekend. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that the man was charged in court on three counts: arson causing death, lighting a wildfire and with possession of child pornography. The report cites no sources.

VICTORIA'S bushfires have released a massive amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - almost equal to Australia's industrial emission for an entire year. Mark Adams, from the University of Sydney, said the emissions from bushfires were far beyond what could be contained through carbon capture and needed to be addressed in the next international agreement. "Once you are starting to burn millions of hectares of eucalypt forest, then you are putting into the atmosphere very large amounts of carbon," Professor Adams said. In work for the Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre, he estimated the 2003 and 2006-07 bushfires could have...

A firefighter finds a koala moving gingerly on her scorched paws after wildfires sweep Australia. "Sam" accepted a bottle of water and is now recovering at a wildlife shelter.

Pictured: The badly burned koalas who became best friends after surviving Australia's deadliest bushfires By Mail Foreign Service 11th February 2009 A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of over 180 lives. The story of Sam and her new boyfriend Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter Dave Tree used a mobile phone to film the rescue of the bewildered female. She was found cowering in a burned out forest at Mirboo North, 90 miles southeast of Melbourne.

SYDNEY (AP) - Kangaroo corpses lay scattered by the roadsides while wombats that survived the wildfire's onslaught emerged from their underground burrows to find blackened earth and nothing to eat. Wildlife rescue officials on Wednesday worked frantically to help the animals that made it through Australia's worst-ever wildfires but they said millions of animals likely perished in the inferno.

CONTROLLED burning would be declared a key national threat to biodiversity under a new proposal before government that has been slammed as dangerous to life and property. While Environment Minister Peter Garrett yesterday gave Victoria carte blanche to do all it needed to control its deadly bushfires, without review by federal environment laws, it emerged he will be asked next year to decide whether prescribed burning to reduce fuel loads puts plants and animals at risk. A Department of Environment spokeswoman confirmed yesterday it had received a public submission to list controlled burning as a "key threatening process" - the...

THE United States will send 60 experts to help in recovery efforts after the worst bushfires in Victorian history. The support team was requested by Emergency Management Australia (EMA) in response to the ongoing Victoria fires, and should arrive on Sunday. The team will include experts on burned area rehabilitation, incident management, aviation support and mid-and senior-level management.

"INCENDIARY" abortion law reforms last year that made Victoria "the baby-killing state" are responsible for the devastating bushfires, controversial Christian leader Danny Nalliah said yesterday. "God's protection has been taken off the state, and Satan is having a go at the nation," Mr Nalliah, senior pastor of Catch the Fire Ministries, told The Age. Mr Nalliah's Australia Day prayer rallies have been supported by former prime minister John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello. Mr Costello delivered a televised address to Mr Nalliah's Australia Day prayer meeting last month. Mr Costello yesterday rejected Mr Nalliah's abortion explanation for the fires...

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has already spoken of “mass murder’’ after investigators said arsonists may have set off some of the wildfires which have already claimed 181 lives. Now, there’s an even more chilling question: could it be the work of jihadis? Experts on terrorism aren’t ruling it out. A report in Australian newspaper The Age points out that US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to “start forest fires”, claiming “scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to...

THE death toll from the Victoria fires catastrophe leapt to 173 overnight as authorities found bodies clustered together where people fleeing the flames or trying to save their homes had been overwhelmed. Twenty-four fires were still burning early this morning and towns remained under threat as authorities moved deeper into the ruins of those communities hit in the fire's first wave, when more than 700 homes were lost. The death toll from the bushfires is certain to rise further. Bushfire relief funds were receiving $1 million in donations per hour yesterday, with $15 million pledged by last night. Victorian Premier...

HEALESVILLE, Australia – The deadliest wildfires in Australia's history burned people in their homes and cars and wiped out entire towns, officials discovered Sunday as they reached farther into the fire zone. The death toll rose to 130 by Monday. Blazes have been burning for weeks in the southeastern state of Victoria but turned deadly Saturday when searing temperatures and wind blasts created a firestorm that swept across a swath of the region. A long-running drought in the south — the worst in a century — had left forests extra dry and Saturday's fire conditions were said to be the...

THE DEATH toll from the nation's worst bushfires is expected to more than double, with the Victorian Government being advised to prepare for 230 fatalities.

Marysville is the town that disappeared. Once known as Melbourne's honeymooning centre, with its pretty guesthouses and century-old oaks, the town, about 60 miles from the Victoria state capital, is now a smouldering, post-apocalyptic wasteland.From the air, nearby St Fillans resembles a row of campfires - piles of powdery ashes with the embers trampled out. The landscape is deserted, with caravans, boats and burned-out cars abandoned in the middle of roads. Many appear to have been trapped by flying debris - huge sections of what were once walls which have blocked the road. A house under construction is untouched by...

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd said arsonists in Victoria had committed mass murder as the death toll in Australia's worst ever bushfires rose to 108 this morning. The final toll was expected to rise further and fires were still burning out of control and putting towns at risk in the Beechworth and Yackandandah regions in the state's northeast. Amid speculation some of the fires were deliberately lit - and with reports yesterday that people were returning to relight blazes after fire crews had left an area - Mr Rudd said: "There are no words to describe it other than mass murder."...

THE death toll in Australia's worst bushfires has hit 108, with TV veteran Brian Naylor among the dead. Firefighters have worked through the night to battle 31 fires across scorched Victoria. A total of 108 people have been confirmed dead in Australia's deadliest bushfires, with fears the death toll may rise sharply. According to police figures, another 11 people were found dead at Kinglake West, north of Melbourne, taking that community's toll to 20 while another four bodies were found at Marysville taking that town's toll to eight. Only one building was left standing at Marysville after the inferno swept...