The death toll from heavy rains that inundated Australia's east coast has climbed to six, as flood warnings continued Sunday following a severe deluge that cut power to thousands of homes and isolated numerous communities.

The eastern states of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) faced a huge clean-up task ahead, but were forecast to experience easing conditions on Sunday following two days of wild weather.

Five people have been swept to their deaths by flash flooding in northeastern Australia, officials said Saturday, after what the Queensland state premier described as an "off-the-scale" deluge.

State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had warned that the weather bureau had forecast extremely heavy weather for southeast Queensland on Friday afternoon.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday it would be best to restore Australia's relationship with Indonesia "as quickly as possible" as the bodies of two drug traffickers executed two days before were set to return home.

Canberra withdrew its ambassador to Jakarta after Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 34, were executed by firing squad along with six others on Wednesday despite a storm of international criticism and pleas from their families.

Australia violated the rights of an Iranian man forced from the country he had lived in for 16 years over vague national security concerns, a U.N. watchdog said Thursday.

Australia's decision to deny Mansour Leghaei a permanent visa "constituted arbitrary interference with (his) family," the U.N. Human Rights Committee ruled.

An Australian teenager arrested in recent counter-terrorism raids faced fresh charges Thursday for alleging importing weapons to supply two others accused of planning an Islamic State-inspired attack on Anzac Day commemorations.

Mehran Azami, 19, who was already facing weapons offenses after being arrested with four others during the raids on April 18, was refused bail at a hearing in Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

The United States, where the death penalty is still carried out, on Wednesday steered clear of a storm of global protest triggered by Indonesia's execution of seven foreign drug traffickers.

The seven -- two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa -- were shot along with one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.

Indonesia faced a storm of international protest Wednesday for putting seven foreign drug convicts before a firing squad, but Filipinos rejoiced after a compatriot was spared at the last minute.

Australia withdrew its ambassador in protest at what it called "cruel and unnecessary" executions, Brazil expressed strong regret and France vowed a diplomatic battle to save a citizen still on death row.    

Indonesia geared up to execute eight foreign drug convicts by firing squad after midnight Tuesday, despite a firestorm of international criticism and heartrending last-ditch pleas by the condemned prisoners' families.

Ambulances were seen carrying coffins to Nusakambangan prion island, where Indonesia puts condemned prisoners to death, and embassy officials and religious counselors also made their way to the site late Tuesday as the clock ticked down to the executions.

Australia urged Indonesia Monday to ensure the trials of two men sentenced to death on drugs charges were corruption free before their executions go ahead, as family members readied to say their last goodbyes.

"Bali Nine" drug traffickers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan could face the firing squad within days, along with others from Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines and an Indonesian prisoner.

Australia Monday said it was deeply concerned about an Australian-trained doctor who appears in an Islamic State propaganda video which urges other medical professionals to join the jihadists.

The slick video, uploaded to YouTube, shows a man who identifies himself as Abu Yusuf explaining that he traveled to the city of Raqa in Syria to use his medical skills to help the IS cause.