Two Indonesian nationals were Thursday sentenced to six and nine years in jail in Australia for people-smuggling, after a doomed venture in which more than 100 people drowned.

The men were not charged with organizing the people-smuggling venture or with the deaths of any passengers who perished when the boat sank off Christmas Island in June 2012.

Australia was Wednesday investigating an account from a sailor who said she may have seen Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 on fire, as officials said the underwater hunt for the plane could dive much deeper.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), which is leading the search at the request of the Malaysian government, is looking at the claim from a British yachtswoman made this week. 

Australia said Tuesday a week-long protest by asylum-seekers at one of its immigration detention centers had been broken up with six people injured.

Refugee activists said hundreds of would-be refugees at the Christmas Island compound, about 2,600 kilometers (1,612 miles) from the western city of Perth, were refusing food. They claimed seven had sewn their lips together.

Australia's central bank on Tuesday left interest rates on hold at a record low 2.5 percent as it sounded a cautiously optimistic note on the economy's transition away from mining-led growth.

The Reserve Bank continued to flag a period of unchanged rates in a statement that balanced a more positive outlook for the labour market and for firms' spending plans with a warning that a sharp fall-off in mining investment was still to come.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday brushed off an apparent Indonesian protocol breach in which reporters listened to a phone call between the two nations' leaders intended to repair strained relations.

Abbott will meet with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday on Batam island as he tries to restore ties that have been hurt by spying allegations and turnbacks of boatpeople headed for Australia.

A Sri Lankan asylum-seeker has died after setting himself on fire while awaiting a visa decision in Australia, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Monday, with a Tamil group claiming he was "living in great fear".

Leorsin Seemanpillai, 29, who was living in Geelong, outside Melbourne, after being granted a temporary visa a year ago, suffered burns to 90 percent of his body after the incident on Saturday morning.

Australia has granted refugee visas to more than 500 Afghans for their help during its mission in the war-torn nation, saying their safety would be jeopardized by remaining in the country.

The Afghan nationals, mainly interpreters, were resettled with their families in late 2013 and early 2014, the government revealed in a statement late Sunday.

Seven asylum-seekers sewed their lips shut Sunday as part of a mass hunger strike protest involving hundreds of detainees in an Australian immigration detention center, activists said.

Refugee activists said seven Iranian men had stitched their lips to protest their detention on Australia's remote Christmas Island for almost a year under punitive policies aimed at deterring people-smuggling voyages.

Flights into and out of the northern Australian city of Darwin were cancelled Saturday and some to Bali affected due to huge ash clouds thrown up by an Indonesian volcano.

Indonesia's Sangeang Api volcano began erupting Friday and its ash is sweeping south towards Australia, prompting Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia to cancel Darwin flights.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will visit France for the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, before traveling to the United States and Canada, he said Saturday.

Abbott said he would join French President Francois Hollande and other heads of government at the British services at the Bayeux Cathedral and Cemetery and the international ceremony at Sword Beach, Ouistreham.