A shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit the southern Indian Ocean on Saturday, U.S. seismologists said, prompting Australia to issue a tsunami warning which was later cancelled.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of seven kilometres (4.4 miles) at 1110 GMT, almost 700 miles northwest of Australia's Cocos Islands, also known as the Keeling Islands.

Thousands of Australians rallied Saturday against the proposed logging of protected forests in rugged Tasmania ahead of a UNESCO World Heritage meeting where the issue will be discussed.

The conservative government has asked UNESCO to revoke its World Heritage listing for 74,000 hectares (183,000 acres) of forest, claiming it was not pristine, and open it up to the timber industry.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that he envisioned greater defense cooperation with Australia in a tension-filled Asia, welcoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott despite differences on climate change.

In the conservative leader's first White House summit since his election in September, Abbott said that Australia "will be an utterly indispensable ally" of the United States and welcomed Obama's efforts to shift more U.S. attention on Asia.

Japan and Australia said Wednesday they have stepped up their defense ties and moved toward a possible future submarine deal, as a rising China stirs tension in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera met with in Tokyo with Julie Bishop and David Johnston, their respective opposite numbers, for the fifth round of so-called "2+2" talks.

Australia on Tuesday said it had chosen a Dutch firm to help it map the Indian Ocean floor as the search for missing flight MH370 heads deeper under water.

Netherlands-based Fugro Survey will help a Chinese military vessel survey the ocean bed as part of the next stage of the quest for the Malaysia Airlines plane which vanished three months ago, the Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC), said.

Jordan on Monday summoned Australia's charge d'affaires John Feakes after Canberra said it would no longer refer to annexed east Jerusalem as "occupied," the foreign ministry in Amman said.

"The ministry summoned the Australian charge d'affaires and informed him that the kingdom is concerned about the Australian government's decision to stop referring to east Jerusalem as 'occupied'," ministry spokeswoman Sabah Rafei said in a statement.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Sunday summoned Australia's diplomatic representative after a top judicial official said Canberra would no longer refer to annexed east Jerusalem as "occupied."

Last week, Australian attorney general George Brandis sparked Palestinian fury by saying Canberra would not use such "judgmental language" to describe an area which was the subject of negotiations.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott met French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Saturday following D-Day commemorations with both sides pledging to deepen ties.

Hollande "thanked (Abbott) for his participation in the June 6 ceremonies and hailed the role of Australian soldiers who took part in the battle of Normandy alongside the Allies," the French president's office said in a statement.

Australia has decided to remove the term "occupied" when referring to East Jerusalem in a move blasted by an opposition party leader Friday as "inflammatory" and "at odds with the peace process.”

The issue flared in the upper house Senate this week with Attorney-General George Brandis issuing a statement to clarify Canberra's stance on the controversial question of the legality of settler homes.

Standard & Poor's was found liable Friday for investment losses incurred by Australian councils in the lead-up to the global financial crisis, after a court dismissed its appeal against a landmark 2012 ruling.

The full bench of the Federal Court of Australia threw out the appeal by the ratings agency, ABN AMRO Bank and Australian firm Local Government Financial Services (LGFS) and upheld the original judgement.