Two Kiwis to wake up much richer on Sunday morning.

An out-of-control bushfire is burning dangerously close to homes in Melbourne's east under erratic winds and heatwave conditions.

A Watch and Act warning has been issued for a fire burning through dense and dry bushland at Dr Ken Leversha Reserve in Montrose, at the foot of the Dandenong Ranges.

The Country Fire Authority urge residents in Montrose and Kilsyth to prepare to leave as gusty winds blow flames in the direction of homes to its south and east. 

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH WARNINGS HERE: https://emergency.vic.gov.au/respond/

https://twitter.com/vicemergency/status/1900773453520924704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

There are homes within 50 to 100 metres of the fire in Montrose.

The bushfire ignited about 2pm today and has since burned through more than eight hectares of land.

More than 40 firefighter trucks and three helicopters are at the scene, fighting to contain the blaze. 

"Crews are basically putting the line around it and making sure that the properties on the southern and eastern side of the fire are safe," Country Fire Authority chief officer Alen Slijepcevic said.

The concern for firefighters is strong westerly winds forecast to arrive, which threaten to worsen the conditions.

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According to the Country Fire Authority, it is too early to determine how the fire started.

Temperatures reached the mid-30s in Melbourne today as a band of heat moved over several southeast states. 

Horsham hit 39 degrees. 

The entire state of Victoria was under a high fire danger warning today, with the warning to stay in place into tomorrow. 

Temperatures in Melbourne are forecast to drop to 26 degrees tomorrow with a chance of rain.

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John Birch, 39, has been identified as the body found at a paddock in Sydney's north-west as police work on a new theory surrounding his death.

Officers were searching for a missing man when they found suspected human remains under a tarp near a home in Glenorie about 11am yesterday.

Tonight, the father and friend is being remembered as a big character with an even bigger heart.

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"It's sad for anybody to have to end their life in such a tragic way," his friend Kerry Gillett told 9News.

"If he liked you, he would give you the world. If he could, if he had it, he shared it."

Police are investigating whether Birch had been run down by a ute on Gleness St about 6am yesterday.

Neighbours reported hearing a bang.

"Up on the corner of Cat Eye Ridge Road and Gleness, there was a bang early in the morning," Glenorie resident Bob said. 

Birch did not live there but regularly frequented a house about 100 metres down the road.

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That house was crawling with detectives and forensics specialists who had spent the last 24 hours collecting evidence. 

The occupants of the home, two men and a woman, were arrested yesterday and questioned overnight.

They have all since been released without charge.

While they were in custody, an unknown person tried to break into the home to search for drugs and cash. 

Investigations remain ongoing as police await the results of a post-mortem examination.

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Delays expected by fire on Auckland motorway system

She saw her partner spending time with another woman and launched a campaign of terror.

Police are hoping to locate a man last seen driving the vehicle as part of investigations.

The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced on Friday.

"The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism," Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or "Abu Khadija," was "deputy caliph" of the militant group and as "one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world," the statement said.

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On his Truth Social platform Friday night, US President Donald Trump said: "Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed.

He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters" in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.

"PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!" Trump posted.

A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq.

A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai's death was confirmed Friday.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria's top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat IS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that "there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS."

He said the officials had spoken "in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq" during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront IS, and said it would soon begin work.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad.

The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad's government in Syria.

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But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.

"Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy," he said.

Strengthening the partnership between the two countries "will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny," he said.

The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an IS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.

While Syria's new rulers – led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – have pursued IS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.

The US and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with US forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

When the agreement was reached to end the coalition's mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of IS was under control and they no longer needed Washington's help to beat back the remaining cells.

But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to power in late 2022.

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The person died at the scene, while another was seriously injured.

Police have serious concerns for the wellbeing of Joseph Grattan, 24.

His family argued earlier treatment might have improved his condition.