Australia on Thursday said fresh analysis of data on missing jet MH370 confirmed authorities are searching in the right place, with hopes remaining that it will one day be found.

Australia has been leading the difficult search in the remote southern Indian Ocean for the Malaysia Airlines plane since it mysteriously disappeared on March 8 last year en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

Sixteen asylum seekers have come ashore in Indonesia after their boat was turned back from Australia, police said Friday, prompting fresh concern from Jakarta over Canberra's tough immigration policies.

An Australian navy boat had reportedly been spotted last week towing an Indonesian fishing vessel away from the Australian territory of Christmas Island.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Tuesday there was no global support for a U.S.-led ground force to destroy the Islamic State group, which he called fundamentally weak with "more Twitter accounts than fighters".

Calls have been mounting in Canberra for boots on the ground in Syria to combat the threat from Islamic State jihadists and other militant groups in the wake of deadly attacks in Paris this month.

Australian officials said Monday they were aware of 12 men or boys in the community who they believe could commit an act of terror, as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull convened a national security meeting.

Canberra has become increasingly concerned about the prospect of lone-wolf attacks by individuals inspired by groups such as Islamic State, and a tightening of counter-terrorism laws is underway.

Indonesia is in talks with Australia about temporarily housing asylum-seekers stranded in Indonesia on an island in the archipelago, an official said Friday, but Canberra will reportedly have to cover the cost.

Canberra has introduced hardline policies to stem the influx of asylum-seekers reaching its shores on people-smuggling boats, with those arriving by sea denied resettlement in Australia even if found to be genuine refugees. 

At least four people died in bushfires raging in parts of Western Australia, authorities said Wednesday, with a shocked local community lamenting the "day from hell".

Several fast-moving blazes, sparked by lightning, were burning around Esperance some 750 kilometers (450 miles) southeast of Perth, with hundreds of firemen working round the clock in searing temperatures to put out the first serious fires ahead of the Australian summer.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed a "great future" for relations between his country and Indonesia during his first trip to the key ally since taking power, seeking to turn the page after a series of crises.

Ties between the neighbors sank to their lowest level in years under his conservative predecessor Tony Abbott, over rows about Jakarta's execution of Australian drug smugglers, Canberra's hardline policy of turning migrant boats back to Indonesia and espionage allegations.

A two-day riot at an Australian immigration center, in which detainees set fires and reportedly armed themselves with makeshift weapons including a chainsaw, caused Aus$10 million (U.S.$7 million) in damage, the government said Thursday.

The unrest began late Sunday at the facility on Christmas Island, a remote Indian Ocean territory which houses both non-citizens convicted of crimes awaiting deportation and asylum-seekers.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has defended Australia's hardline policy on asylum-seekers against criticism from the United Nations, particularly from countries such as North Korea.

The U.N.'s top human rights body took Australia to task on Monday over its policies of sending refugees to offshore Pacific islands and turning back boatloads of asylum-seekers to other countries.

Detainees set buildings alight and armed themselves with baseball bats in a riot at an Australian immigration facility on Christmas Island, people at the center said Monday, with officials admitting the situation was out of control.

The disturbance at the Indian Ocean island center comes after the unexplained death of an escaped asylum-seeker.