Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said the death penalty is "under review" in Papua New Guinea after recent global outcry over the execution of foreign drug convicts in neighboring Indonesia.

The Pacific island nation revived capital punishment two years ago to reduce rampant crime, prompted in part by the burning alive of a 20-year-old woman by a crowd for sorcery.

An Australian teenager charged with involvement in a "well advanced" terrorist bomb plot was remanded in custody Monday, with the 17-year-old saying nothing during a brief court appearance.

Police allege the boy, who was arrested during a raid on his family home in a Melbourne suburb on Friday and cannot be named for legal reasons, was planning to target a public event.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo insisted Saturday that the death penalty was "positive" for his country after the execution of seven foreign drug convicts by firing squad last month sparked international outrage.

Jakarta put to death two Australians, a Brazilian, and four Nigerians on a prison island, along with one Indonesian, despite worldwide calls for them to be spared and heartrending pleas from their families.

An Australian executed in Indonesia on drugs charges was Saturday remembered as an artist whose paintings were powerful images created in the face of the death penalty.

Myuran Sukumaran was shot dead by firing squad late last month after his pleas for clemency over his role in a syndicate smuggling heroin from the Indonesian island of Bali were rejected.

Australian police said Saturday they had foiled an alleged terror bomb plot reportedly planned for Mother's Day, arresting a Melbourne teenager and detonating three suspected explosive devices.

Australian Federal Police (Agence France Presse) and their Victoria state counterparts raided a home in the north Melbourne suburb of Greenvale on Friday, arresting and charging a 17-year-old male.

Australia's central bank Friday said lower growth and higher unemployment concerns prompted it to cut official interest rates to a historic low of 2.0 percent this week in an bid to spur the economy.

Ahead of the conservative government releasing its national budget on Tuesday 12 May, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said a long-awaited pick-up in non-mining investment, which is holding back the economy, would likely take longer than anticipated.

Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Wednesday announced a $19 million aid package for Pakistan that includes help for border areas hit by conflict and natural disasters.

Bishop made the pledge during a two-day visit to Islamabad, where she is holding talks with her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz on efforts to counter militancy, the future of Afghanistan and the reported rise of the Islamic State group in the region.

Two Australian teenagers arrested last month on terror charges allegedly planned to run down  police officers with a car, behead them and then shoot other people, reports said Tuesday.

Two Melbourne men, Sevdet Besim and Harun Causevic, were charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act, allegedly at an Anzac Day parade for Australia's soldiers on April 25.

A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, sending frightened residents fleeing from their homes, but a threatened tsunami passed without incident, seismologists said.

The quake struck 133 kilometers (83 miles) south-southwest of the town of Kokopo in the New Britain region at a depth of 63 kilometers, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and was followed by a 5.9 magnitude aftershock.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday said Australia and Europe were in talks on how to stop asylum-seeker boats after the success of his government's controversial polices on the issue.

Another 5,800 migrants desperate to reach Europe were rescued this weekend as they tried to cross the Mediterranean, more than 2,150 of them on Sunday, the Italian coastguard said.