SEVERAL shots have been fired into an empty home in Sydney's south.
The latest shooting happened shortly before 10pm (AEDT) on Monday, at a residence on The Kingsway at Woolooware.
Several bullet holes have been discovered in the front of the home and police say a crime scene has been established.
Detectives and forensic police are conducting further inquiries.
AS the five-day heatwave in Australia's southern states enters its second day, it is expected to push health and emergency services to the limit.
Victoria and South Australia are tipped to endure the worst of the conditions, but NSW and Tasmania will also feel the hot air mass spreading from the west.
Adelaide continues its five consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees, with 42C forecast for Tuesday, 43C on Wednesday and Thursday and 40C on Friday before a cool change.
Melbourne is forecast to top 40C on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, with 39C predicted for Wednesday.
Victorian Fire Service Commissioner Craig Lapsley says the heatwave will bake Victoria's bush and grassland, creating perfect bushfire conditions.
Ambulance Victoria manager of emergency management Paul Holman described this week's conditions as the worst heatwave since the lead-up to the 2009 Black Saturday fires.
During Victoria's 2009 heatwave 370 people died from heat-related illnesses and there was a 46 per cent increase in calls to triple zero in three days.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill has urged all people to take care of those most vulnerable to the heat, including elderly relatives, friends and neighbours.
He says people without air-conditioning at home should consider heading to cooler public facilities such as cinemas, shopping centres and libraries.
Sydney will be spared the worst of the weather, with temperatures in the high 20s in the city and high 30s in the city's west.
A total fire ban has been declared for southern Tasmania on Tuesday and parts of the state's south will reach the mid to high 30s during the next few days.
After a weekend of extreme heat that triggered bushfires, Perth will experience a mild week before temperatures hit the high 30s at the weekend.
A SIX-YEAR-OLD boy has been hit by a car after it veered off the road and mounted a footpath in Sydney's west.
Police say a P-plater was driving when the child was clipped by the car, but the boy luckily walked away with only cuts and bruises.
The accident happened as the driver turned from Railway Terrace at Merrylands into Merrylands Road on Monday evening.
"The car has left the road, mounted the footpath and clipped a six-year-old boy," a police statement said on Tuesday.
The boy suffered only minor injuries and was treated by paramedics before being taken to hospital for precautionary medical checks.
An 18-year-old man was breath-tested at the scene and returned a negative result.
WORKERS at a restive Goodyear plant in northern France have detained two managers in a conference room at the tyre factory.
The factory's union says the director and human resources chief were blocked from leaving after an especially difficult meeting on Monday with staff.
A Goodyear representative, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the tense situation, says the two managers were being held against their will.
"Boss-napping" became rampant in France in 2009 at the height of the economic meltdown, although the practice has since tapered off.
But the Amiens plant has an especially contentious past. Goodyear has been trying to restructure or close the factory for more than five years.
Sometimes violent workers' protests, government concerns and France's prolonged layoff procedures have stalled the process.
BRITAIN'S Treasury chief says the country still has a long way to go to eliminate the deficit and that substantial savings must be gleaned from welfare cuts.
George Osborne says 2014 is to be the "year of hard truths" and that there are still big underlying problems in the economy.
Osborne told autoworkers in Birmingham on Monday billions of pounds in welfare cuts will be needed to reduce the deficit, which has been swollen by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Pensioners are likely not to be affected, as the coalition government has suggested they will remain protected.
THE Turkish national currency has fallen to a new low, a sign the government corruption scandal is taking its toll on the economy.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to reshuffle his government after three ministers' sons were among dozens of people detained in a vast police corruption and bribery investigation.
The head of a state-owned bank was also arrested.
Erdogan's government has rejected the corruption allegations, pointing fingers instead at an alleged conspiracy to hurt his government ahead of local elections in March.
But the political instability is unnerving investors.
The Turkish lira reached a record 2.19 against the dollar and 2.97 against the euro on Monday.
It has slid more than seven per cent against the dollar since the scandal began on December 17.
AN icy vortex of Arctic air pushed deadly wind chills and heavy snow into much of the US Midwest with meteorologists saying at least 32 states were in its path over the coming days as it moves south and east.
Even the northern tier of winter-hardy states and cities like Minnesota, Chicago and Milwaukee called off school for Monday as the country braced for wind chill temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Celsius and colder.
It was the first time in 17 years that Minnesota schools have been closed due to snow and dangerously low temperatures, reports said.
Governor Mark Dayton ordered the closings.
"Temperatures are deadly," warned Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard in broadcast remarks. Snow fell in his state of Indiana on Sunday at the rate of 5 centimetres an hour, media reports said.
In Green Bay, Wisconsin, tens of thousands of fans braved minus-26-degree wind chill temperatures to watch a key football playoff game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers. Despite the Green Bay team having an apparent weather advantage, the 49ers won 23-20.
With the mercury expected to drop down to minus 44C through the night, food stands at Lambeau Field in Green Bay were offering free coffee and hot chocolate to keep fans warm. There were worries that beer would freeze in the open air stadium, CNN reported.
"Life-threatening wind chill," the National Weather Service warned.
"The coldest temperatures in almost two decades will spread into the northern and central US ... behind an Arctic cold front," the government forecaster said.
Before the "polar vortex" - as it's being called by meteorologists - hits the east and south, rain was expected to fall in those regions and be turned into thick ice when temperatures plunge into the minus-20C range on Tuesday.
The normally mild-temperature city of Nashville, Tennessee, has delayed by a day the post-holiday school start until Wednesday.
"Dangerously low temperatures forecast for Tuesday morning a concern for student safety," the school system said.
Flash freezes after the rain and blizzard conditions were expected from Tennessee to Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the private forecaster AccuWeather said.
At least 13 people have died due to blizzard-like conditions and record cold over past days, most of them from traffic accidents in Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana.
Broadcasters warned that frost bite could set in within just five minutes in the harsh conditions.
The weather caused cancellation of 3,467 flights and delays in another 11,191, according to the flight tracker FlightAware.com.
Overall, around 149 million people - about half the US population - were expected to be in the grip of the Arctic chill by Monday and Tuesday, meteorologists said.
BRITAIN'S coastal residents are bracing for more flooding with lashing winds, rain and high tides expected.
At least three people have died in a wave of stormy weather that has battered Britain since last week, including a man killed when his mobility scooter fell into a river in Oxford, southern England.
Weather forecasting body the Met Office warned on Monday of wind gusts of up to 113 km/h accompanied by exceptionally large waves, along the coasts of Wales, southwest England and Northern Ireland.
The Environment Agency issued a severe flood warning - meaning a threat to life and property - for the county of Dorset in southwestern England, as well as more than 300 less serious flood warnings and alerts.
THE Afghan government says it will release 88 prisoners seen as posing a security threat by the US, ignoring warnings from Washington ahead of a planned pullout of international forces from the country later this year.
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THE majority of Australian businesses are more upbeat about growth in 2014 than they were last year, with business expectations rising to a one-year high.
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