Australia moved closer to stripping dual nationals of their citizenship for terrorism offences on Friday, with a parliamentary committee recommending it be approved even for old convictions.

Canberra has passed a series of national security laws to combat concerns about Australians supporting jihadist groups such as the Islamic State group and in June put forward changes to the Citizenship Act.

Heart-breaking images of a Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach were a reminder of the need to stop people-smuggling boats, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday, as he stood firm on Canberra's hardline immigration policies.

Photographs of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying dead on the sand as Europe grapples with its worst refugee crisis since World War II showed the "evil" nature of people-smuggling, Abbott said.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was slammed by Jewish groups Thursday after saying that Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria were worse than Nazis as they "boast about their evil".

The Australian leader, who is considering extending Australia's air campaign against IS in Iraq into Syria following a request by the United States, made the comments after describing the jihadist group's actions as "unspeakable evil" and "medieval barbarity".

A boom in cashed-up visitors from China and India has helped Australia record its strongest tourism year since the Sydney Olympics, officials said Wednesday, with more than Aus$33 billion (U.S.$23.1 billion) pumped into the economy.

The government-run Tourism Research Australia's International Visitor Survey showed that seven percent more people made the trip in the year to June 30 to reach a new high of 6.6 million -- the best since the hugely successful Games were held in 2000.

An Australian immigration camp on the Pacific island of Nauru is inadequate and unsafe, a Senate committee said Monday as it called for the government to remove children from the center.

Submissions to the inquiry, which the government has dismissed as a political "stunt", have included allegations of rape and other abuse at the camp which is funded by Australia.

Australia on Monday urged more European nations to begin air strikes against Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq as a way of tackling the escalating refugee crisis gripping the continent.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said jihadists were responsible for driving hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe and a broadening of the coalition fighting them was necessary.

Australian authorities Tuesday dropped a terror charge against a teenager over an alleged Islamic State-inspired plot to attack Anzac Day commemorations honoring the war dead, citing insufficient evidence. 

Harun Causevic, 18, was arrested along with fellow teen Sevdet Ramden Besim in raids in Melbourne in April and both were charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

Australia is considering a request from the United States to extend its air campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq into Syria, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday.

The United States has been leading a coalition of Western and Arab powers carrying out air strikes against IS fighters in Syria and Iraq since last year.

Melbourne, Australia, is the world's most liveable city but conflict and terrorism have led to a fall in global urban living conditions more generally, according to a respected British study published Tuesday.

For the fifth year running, the Australian city came out on top of the annual Liveability Ranking study of 140 cities, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ahead of Austrian capital Vienna and Vancouver, Canada, which came out top in 2011.

France launched a hunt for more wreckage from the ill-fated MH370 plane off Reunion island on Friday in a fresh effort to shed light on one of aviation's biggest mysteries.

The tiny French Indian Ocean territory has been under intense scrutiny since a beach cleaner found a washed-up wing part last week, which Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak later declared was part of the Boeing 777 that mysteriously vanished 17 months ago.