Three British girls who crossed into Syria to join the Islamic State group were helped by a Syrian working as a spy for a country in the U.S.-led coalition, Turkey's foreign minister said Friday.

Meanwhile, video footage emerged purportedly showing the agent helping the girls into a car in southeastern Turkey on their way to Syria.

Sixteen Indonesians, mostly women and children, have been arrested in Turkey attempting to cross into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group, a minister said, the latest case of Indonesians heading to battlegrounds in the Middle East.

The 11 children, four women and one man from the world's most populous Muslim-majority country were detained in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep. Officials did not say when they were arrested.

Indonesia said Thursday it had rejected an offer from Australia to pay the cost of life imprisonment for two drug smugglers if they are spared the firing squad, as Jakarta signaled the executions might not take place for weeks.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made the offer in a letter to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi as Canberra explores all avenues to convince Jakarta not to execute the Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The husband of an Indian IT professional stabbed to death in a Sydney park called on Thursday for the killer of a "beautiful soul" to be brought to justice.

Prabha Kumar, 41, was knifed in a brutal attack while speaking by phone to husband G. Arun Kumar in India on Saturday night.

An Indonesian minister has warned a "human tsunami" of asylum-seekers could be unleashed on Australia in retaliation if Canberra keeps pressing for clemency for two Australian drug smugglers on death row, as ties between the neighbors fray.

Several foreigners are due to be executed for drug-related crimes with Australia among countries pleading with Indonesian President Joko Widodo to show mercy to their citizens.

Malaysia's handling of Flight MH370's disappearance faced new criticism on Monday after an interim investigation uncovered a dud beacon battery and more potential missed opportunities to track the plane a year ago.

The international investigation team set up by Malaysia released its interim report on Sunday, the first anniversary of the disappearance. It contained no new clues on what caused the plane to vanish with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

Relatives of two Australian drug smugglers visited them Monday for the first time on an Indonesian prison island where they will be put to death, as their prime minister urged Jakarta to rethink the planned executions.

Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the ringleaders of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug trafficking gang, were sentenced to death in 2006 for trying to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott lashed out at criticism over Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers on Monday, saying the country was "sick of being lectured" by the United Nations.

Canberra sends asylum-seekers arriving by boat into detention on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island or the small Pacific state of Nauru and refuses them resettlement in Australia, policies which are condemned by refugee and rights advocates.

A westerner pictured alongside Islamic State group fighters and dubbed "Britain's white jihadi" is in fact an Australian teenager who converted to Islam, a report said Monday.

A photo of the meek-looking youth, holding a rifle and sitting in between two jihadists with a black IS flag in the background, emerged on Twitter in late December.

An Indian mother was fatally stabbed in a Sydney park during a brutal attack as she was on the phone to her distraught husband back home, police said Monday.

Prabha Arun Kumar, a 41-year-old IT professional, was taking a shortcut through Parramatta Park in the city's west at around 9.30pm (1030 GMT) on Saturday when she was killed.