Tasmania Fire Service spokesman Paul Symington said on Friday that firefighters are trying to confirm reports that up to 65 buildings have been damaged by a wildfire near the small town of Dunalley, east of the capital, Hobart.

Symington said officials are also looking into a report that one person was killed in the blaze.

Wildfires raged across southern Australia on Friday amid scorching temperatures and high winds. The temperature in Hobart reached a record high of nearly 42 Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) Friday.

Wildfires are common during the Australian summer. In February 2009, hundreds of fires across Victoria state killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes.

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Sixty journalists from the Southern Weekly in Guangdong province issued a complaint Thursday over the last-minute changes that they said were made without the consent of the newspaper's editorial department.

Another group of 35 former reporters from the paper went a step further Friday, calling for the resignation of the province's propaganda chief and arguing that strong and credible news media are crucial for the country.

The state-run Global Times newspaper hit back with a defense of the government line, saying the media cannot exist "romantically" outside the country's political reality.

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China's Foreign Ministry said Friday a visa application for Chris Buckley — who recently was hired by the Times — has remained in limbo because his previous employer failed to undertake the proper procedure when he left that company.

Though Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying did not name the former employer, Buckley worked for the Reuters news agency until October. Reuters had no immediate comment.

The 45-year-old Australia flew to Hong Kong on Monday with his family amid increased pressure on foreign journalists by the Chinese government, which is concerned over media scrutiny of its top leaders.

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The number of programs nationwide using inmates to train service dogs is growing, but the program at Western Correctional Institute might be the first to use incarcerated veterans to train dogs for other veterans.

Professional trainers say prison-raised dogs tend to do better than those raised traditionally in foster homes, because puppies respond well to consistency and rigid schedules. That's just what they get in prison.

It's not all work and no play.

"I just love to see him be a puppy," said Wilson, 53, serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. "We're putting them through some very stringent training — 90 percent of their time is training — so it gives me great joy just see them romp and roll around and be puppies."

The dogs were provided by America's VetDogs of Smithtown, N.Y. They're spending 14 months at the prison for training in obedience and tasks like working light switches and retrieving objects.

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Not only do these schools stand among the best ever in college football, they also lead the pack in celebrating that success and in investing for the future.

If ever college football presented a heavyweight event it's the Fighting Irish against the Crimson Tide.

So here, then, is a tale of the tape for Monday's marquee matchup in Miami.

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— FOOTBALL BUILDING

ALABAMA: The Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility, named for the current athletic director, has a 20,000-square-foot strength and conditioning center — which is soon to be replaced — plus aquatic rehabilitation pools. The building also houses athletic administrators and the football offices.

NOTRE DAME: The Guglielmino Athletics Complex, named after the booster who funded it, has a 25,000-square-foot health and fitness center, meeting rooms and the football offices. Plus, the Morse Recruiting lounge with championship banners for Notre Dame's "11 consensus national championships."

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— TROPHIES

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Whether he returns or not is up in the air.

If Kelly does head to the NFL, this was a great send off.

Sparked by De'Anthony Thomas' 94-yard touchdown return on the opening kickoff, No. 5 Oregon turned the Fiesta Bowl into a track meet from the start and bolted past No. 7 Kansas State 35-17 Thursday night in what could be Kelly's final game with the Ducks.

"This wasn't going to be a distraction," Kelly said of reports that he was headed to the NFL. "It wasn't a distraction for me — I think it's an honor. But I think it's an honor because of the players we have in this program that people want to talk to me."

Teams that had their national title aspirations end on the same day, Oregon and Kansas State ended up in the desert for a marquee matchup billed as a battle of styles: The fast-flying Ducks vs. the methodical Wildcats.

With Kelly reportedly talking to several NFL teams, Oregon (12-1) was too much for Kansas State and its Heisman Trophy finalist, Collin Klein, who were playing catch-up from the start.

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The Idaho Republican has said he doesn't plan to contest the allegations.

Police have said Crapo initially registered a blood alcohol level of 0.11 percent when he was pulled over Dec. 23 in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va. after running a red light. Police said a secondary test performed at the jail registered at 0.14.

Virigina's strict drunken driving laws could result in Crapo being ordered to attend an alcohol awareness class, installing an ignition interlock device in his car and losing his driver's license for one year.

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TRT television says Friday a court freed Gen. Ismail Hakki Karadayi after he was questioned by prosecutors over his alleged role in forcing the resignation in 1997 of former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan. No trial date has been set.

Dozens of other people, including the country's former chiefs of air force and land forces, were charged over Erbakan's ouster.

Karadayi, who is 80, served as the chief of the military staff between 1994 and 1998.

The military pressured Erbakan to resign over his alleged attempts to raise the profile of Islam in the predominantly Muslim but secular country.

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Shell incident commander Sean Churchfield said Thursday that the first salvage crew on board the Kulluk, a 266-foot diameter barge with a 160-foot derrick, reported back with details that will be used to begin planning. He would not speculate on when a salvage report might be ready.

"There is still a lot of work to do to bring a safe conclusion to this incident," he said.

The vessel is upright and stable, with no indication of a fuel leak, Churchfield said.

The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, meanwhile, said in a statement that the New Year's Eve grounding should trigger a look at Shell's entire Arctic Ocean drilling operation by the Interior Department and the Coast Guard.

The coalition is made up of 45 House Democrats.

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Muqtada al-Sadr said he visited the Our Lady of Salvation church to express sorrow at the attack and send a message of peace to Iraq's Christian community.

The Friday visit comes amid rising sectarian tensions nearly a decade after the U.S.-led invasion.

Al-Sadr grudgingly backed longtime rival Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shiite prime minister, following elections in 2010. But last year he joined Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds in calling for al-Maliki to resign. This week he spoke up for Sunni protesters in the country's west.

Over 50 were killed in the 2010 attack on the church blamed on Sunni extremists.

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The Los Angeles-based appeals court said that the 1872 measure doesn't give single women the same protections as their married counterparts in certain rape cases.

Julio Morales had been convicted and sentenced to three years in state prison, found guilty of entering a woman's bedroom late one night once her boyfriend had gone home and initiating sexual intercourse while she was asleep, after a night of drinking.

But a panel of judges overturned the trial court's conviction and remanded it for retrial, in a decision posted this week.

The victim said her boyfriend was in the room when she fell asleep, and they'd decided against having sex that night because he didn't have a condom and he had to be somewhere early the next day.

Morales pretended to be her boyfriend in the darkened room, and it wasn't until a ray of light from outside the room flashed across his face that she realized he wasn't her boyfriend, according to prosecutors.

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Late Thursday night, Dempsey told a KOMO-TV reporter in Seattle that his investment group appears to have the winning bid for Tully's Coffee. He noted that a bankruptcy judge will have the final say on Jan. 11. Still, Dempsey tweeted "We got it! Thank you Seattle!"

Tully's Coffee has 47 company-owned locations in Washington and California. Tully's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

After Thursday's auction, Starbucks spokesman Zack Hutson confirmed his company participated and "is currently in a back-up position" for some of Tully's assets. He says the final certification of the winning bid won't occur until the Jan. 11 bankruptcy court hearing.

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If the House, as expected, approves the flood insurance proposal on Friday, the Senate plans to follow with a likely uncontested vote later in the day.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency warns that the National Flood Insurance Program will run out of money next week if Congress doesn't provide additional borrowing authority to pay out claims. Congress created the FEMA-run program in 1968 because few private insurers cover flood damage.

Northeast lawmakers say the money is urgently needed for storm victims awaiting claim checks from the late October storm.

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Seoul's Justice Ministry says 38-year-old Liu Qiang left South Korea on Friday after the court ruled that his 2011 attack on Yasukuni Shrine didn't justify extradition to Tokyo.

Liu had served 10 months in a South Korean jail for setting fire to the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in early 2012. China and Japan have both asked for him to be handed over.

Liu told authorities he attacked Japanese property because he was angry about Japanese WWII-era crimes. Yasukuni honors Japan's 2.5 million war dead but also includes high-profile war criminals.

Liu's attacks reportedly caused only minor damage.

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Americans blame too much screen time and cheap fast food for fueling the nation's fat epidemic, a poll finds, but they're split on how much the government should do to help.

Most draw the line at policies that would try to force healthier eating by limiting food choices, according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

A third of people say the government should be deeply involved in finding ways to curb obesity, while a similar proportion want it to play little or no role. The rest are somewhere in the middle.

Require more physical activity in school, or provide nutritional guidelines to help people make better choices? Sure, 8 in 10 support those steps. Make restaurants post calorie counts on their menus, as the Food and Drug Administration is poised to do? Some 70 percent think it's a good idea.

"That's a start," said Khadijah Al-Amin, 52, of Coatesville, Pa. "The fat content should be put up there in red letters, not just put up there. The same way they mark something that's poisonous, so when you see it, you absolutely know."

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Digits in the phone numbers dialed were generated randomly to reach households with unlisted and listed landline and cellphone numbers.

Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.

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Supporters had hoped lawmakers would act before the lame-duck session ends Jan. 9.

A Senate committee voted in favor of a measure to allow gay marriage Thursday. But Senate Democrats delayed a floor vote because three supporters needed for passage were absent.

Sen. Heather Steans (STAYNZ), the bill's sponsor, said a full Senate vote is possible Tuesday. But Senate President John Cullerton said it might be a few weeks.

Opponents, including a group of religious leaders, say the bill is an attack on their religious beliefs.

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Lerner would say years later that the woman taught her during those six weeks how to survive and that the experience taught her how society can manipulate people. It was a lesson that the women's history pioneer, who died Wednesday at age 92, said she saw reinforced in American academia by history professors who taught as though only the men were worth studying.

"When I was faced with noticing that half the population has no history and I was told that that's normal, I was able to resist the pressure" to accept that conclusion, Lerner told the Wisconsin Academic Review in 2002.

The author was a founding member of the National Organization for Women and is credited with creating the nation's first graduate program in women's history, in the 1970s in New York.

Her son said she died peacefully of apparent old age at an assisted-living facility in Madison, where she helped establish a doctoral program in women's history at the University of Wisconsin.

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Kansas law states that a sperm donor is not the father of a child if a doctor handles the artificial insemination. But the law does not specifically address the donor's rights and obligations when no doctor was involved.

That was the case in 2009, when William Marotta answered an online ad for a sperm donation for Angela Bauer and her then-partner, Jennifer Schreiner. The three signed an agreement they believed severed Marotta's parental rights, and Schreiner became pregnant.

But because they didn't go through a doctor, the state argues, Marotta is the legal father and should be responsible for about $6,000 in public assistance Schreiner received to help care for the child. The state also wants him to pay child support, though neither woman is asking for money.

Marotta's attorney said Thursday that the law is outdated. But legal experts agreed that Marotta and the women put themselves in the predicament.

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Chavez hasn't spoken publicly or been seen since his Dec. 11 operation in Cuba, and the latest report from his government Thursday night increased speculation that he is unlikely to be able to be sworn in for another term as scheduled in less than a week.

"Chavez has faced complications as a result of a severe respiratory infection. This infection has led to respiratory deficiency that requires Commander Chavez to remain in strict compliance with his medical treatment," Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Thursday night, reading the statement on television.

The government's characterization raised the possibility that Chavez might be breathing with the assistance of a machine. But the government did not address that question and didn't give details of the president's treatment.

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