A former unionist and Australian political figure was Sunday questioned on his return from the Middle East where he is believed to have helped those fighting against the Islamic State group, reports said.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said it understood that Matthew Gardiner was stopped by customs officials early Sunday after flying in to the northern Australian city via Sweden and Singapore. 

Protesters waving Australian flags and carrying signs such as "Yes Australia. No Sharia" rallied around the country on Saturday in events organisers said were against Islamic extremism.

The "Reclaim Australia" events drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance.

An Australian man was convicted Wednesday of procuring his 12-year-old daughter for sex by letting her marry a man more than twice her age in an Islamic ceremony.

The father, who cannot be named to protect the girl's identity, was found guilty of procuring a child under the age of 14 for unlawful sexual activity and encouraging the pair to have intercourse despite denying the charges.

Australian airlines must ensure that two crew are on the flight deck at all times, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said Monday in response to the Germanwings disaster.

Investigators believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked his captain out of the cockpit of Flight 4U 9525 and deliberately steered the Airbus A320 into a French mountainside last week, killing all 150 onboard.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the sails on the nearby Opera House went dark Saturday, as lights on landmarks around Australia were switched off for the global climate change awareness campaign Earth Hour.

Millions are expected to take part around the world in the annual event, including Lebanon which is set to join in at 8:30 Beirut time, organised by conservation group WWF, with hundreds of well-known sights including the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Seattle Space Needle set to plunge into darkness.

Hundreds of mourners gathered Friday at a state funeral for former conservative prime minister Malcolm Fraser, who came to power in 1975 with Australia's greatest constitutional crisis and died last week aged 84.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott attended the ceremony at Melbourne's Scots' Church along with former prime ministers Julia Gillard, John Howard and Paul Keating.

The success of the new China-led development bank has caught the United States off guard, after it fought the project and now finds itself increasingly isolated.

Britain, Germany, France... the United States has watched, helpless and dumbfounded, as its European allies flocked to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, seen as a potential rival to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, both institutions under powerful U. .influence.

Australia and Cambodia on Thursday sealed a second deal on immigration cooperation, vowing to tackle the "growing security threat" of asylum-seeker smuggling just months after agreeing to transfer refugees to the Southeast Asian nation.

The new memorandum of understanding will see the two nations exchange information on people-smuggling activities, building on September's deal to transfer refugees held by Australia on the remote Pacific island of Nauru to Cambodia.

Australia has prevented a third teenager from flying out to fight in the Middle East, a minister said Wednesday, as Western countries battle to stop the flow of youngsters to jihadist groups.

The 17-year-old boy was taken off a plane at Sydney airport on March 12 after being interviewed by counter-terrorism officers, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told reporters.

The heartbroken father of an Australian schoolboy believed to have died while carrying out a suicide bombing for Islamic State said Monday he felt "totally responsible" for failing to see that his son needed help.

Melbourne teen Jake Bilardi, 18, is believed to have carried out the attack in Iraq earlier this month, after allegedly ditching plans for attacks on home soil.