Large parts of Australia endure heatwave

Large parts of Australia yesterday sweated through heatwave conditions as authorities warned of a high bushfire risk in many parts of the country's vast Western Australia state. The nation's weather forecaster yesterday issued heatwave alerts for the western state, the neighbouring Northern Territory and Queensland state, warning temperatures in some regions could hit around 45 degrees Celsius. In Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a maximum temperature of 35 C was forecast for yesterday, more than five degrees above the December mean.