Australia on Tuesday ordered China's Evergrande Real Estate Group to sell a Sydney mansion worth Aus$39 million (U.S.$30 million), saying it was bought illegally under foreign investment rules.

Cashed-up foreigners, many from China, have been blamed for driving up prices in Australian property markets, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, and placing home ownership out of reach of many locals.

The intensive underwater hunt for missing plane MH370 has so far turned up just a few shipping containers -- and no sign of the jet, the head of the Australian agency leading the search said Tuesday.

The plane vanished a year ago Sunday carrying 239 people en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have gone down in one of the deepest and most remote areas of ocean far off the Western Australia coast.

Australia announced Tuesday it will send another 300 troops to Iraq in a joint mission with New Zealand to help train local forces fighting to reclaim territory seized by the Islamic State group.

The decision follows Wellington last week deciding to deploy some 140 soldiers in a non-combat role to boost the Iraqi military's ability to battle the jihadists.

Australia is considering joining New Zealand in a training mission in Iraq to help counter the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday.

New Zealand announced Tuesday it will send troops to Iraq on a "behind-the-wire" non-combat mission to boost the local military's ability to fight the jihadists.

An Australian journalist will be deported from Indonesia Friday after being caught covering the story of two Australian drug traffickers on death row without the correct visa, immigration authorities said. 

Candace Sutton, a reporter for the Daily Mail, was taken in for questioning by immigration officials on Wednesday as she interviewed a relative of one of the Australian convicts at a hotel on the main island of Java. 

Embattled Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Friday dismissed heated speculation he will be dumped by his conservative colleagues, saying he expected to lead his party to the next election.

After reports that Abbott may not survive another challenge to his leadership, the prime minister was asked whether he expected to be in his job by the end of next week.

A worrying number of Australian women are heading to Iraq and Syria to become so-called Islamic State group "jihadi brides", Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Thursday, warning against notions of a "romantic adventure".

At least 110 Australians have left to fight alongside militants in the Middle East and security officials said between 30 and 40 women were among them or were actively supporting the group in Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Thursday offered a glimmer of hope for two men facing imminent execution in Indonesia after phoning President Joko Widodo, who he said was "carefully considering his position".

Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug smuggling gang, were arrested for trying to traffic heroin out of Indonesia in 2005 and sentenced to death the following year.

An Australian who travelled to Syria to join Kurds battling jihadists has been killed, a monitor said Wednesday, adding he was the first Westerner to die fighting alongside the Kurds.

"An Australian man was killed in an assault on Tuesday by the Islamic State against a position of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) near Tal Hamis in Hasakeh province," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday she was "very disappointed" at the failure of the latest bid to spare two Australians on death row in Indonesia, as Jakarta signaled that execution preparations were almost complete.

An Indonesian court on Tuesday dismissed a bid by Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan to avoid execution by challenging President Joko Widodo's rejection of their pleas for clemency.