Australia's bushfires circle Sydney as temperatures soar, 1 found dead

Catastrophic conditions fuelled massive bushfires across Australia’s New South Wales state on Saturday, with two blazes around Sydney burning at emergency level, while in South Australia one person was found dead in a fire zone.

Some major roads heading to the south and west from Sydney were closed for part of the day and authorities asked people to delay travel at the start of the Christmas holiday period, warning of the unpredictability of the fires due to high winds and temperatures above 40C (104F).
 

A cooling but powerful wind with gusts of up to 90 kmh (56 mph) from the south