India and Pakistan will attend an international nuclear disarmament conference for the first time in Sydney next month, Australia’s government said Friday, even though the nuclear-armed foes have consistently shunned a nonproliferation treaty.

A shortage of international troops in Afghanistan reflects insufficient defense spending across most of Europe, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said Wednesday during a visit to Australia.

A large shark entangled itself in a surfer’s leg rope in Australia and began towing him and his board out to sea, the surfer said Tuesday.

An oxygen tank exploded and blew a car-sized hole in a Qantas jet last month, air safety officials said Friday, but investigators appear to be no closer to figuring out why.

Air safety investigators say a pressurized oxygen cylinder set off a blast that blew a large hole in the side of a Qantas jet last month, forcing an emergency landing.

An Aboriginal leader said Friday he wants a boomerang to return to Australia more than 300 years after it was taken as a souvenir by celebrated British explorer Capt. James Cook.

Capital punishment is declining in most Asian countries and will likely disappear from the region, an expert said Wednesday.

A refugee advocate attacked Australian authorities on Saturday for rejecting the application of a Palestinian asylum seeker who returned to the Gaza Strip and was killed as part of a clan rivalry.

Australia has resettled about 400 Iraqis and their relatives who were at risk for helping Australian troops and diplomats in their troubled homeland, officials said Friday.

A packed Qantas jetliner lost the use of crucial flight instruments after an explosion aboard the aircraft last week blasted a large hole in its fuselage, an air safety investigator said Wednesday.