Three Al-Jazeera journalists faced Friday the prospect of at least several more weeks in Egyptian prison, with two of them awaiting a decision on whether they can be deported, lawyers and relatives said.

Australian Peter Greste, Egyptian-Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were detained in December 2013 for spreading false information and accused of aiding the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

An Australian ranger has captured the moment a python swallowed a wallaby at a national park in a giant feast that could keep it full for three months.

Ranger Paul O'Neill was patrolling Nitmiluk National Park in the Northern Territory when he heard numerous birds making alarm calls and came across the feeding frenzy.

An Australian man was charged Wednesday with possessing documents connected to a planned terrorist attack on government targets in Sydney as police insisted people should not be afraid.

Sulayman Khalid, 20, was arrested following raids last week which uncovered a large number of documents, a rifle, and two shotguns.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Wednesday she is optimistic that Egypt may release jailed Australian journalist Peter Greste within days.

Greste and two Al-Jazeera colleagues -- Canadian-Egyptian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed -- were sentenced in June to seven years in jail for defaming Egypt and aiding banned Islamists.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday warned of heightened "terrorist chatter" in the aftermath of the fatal Sydney cafe siege and said another attack was likely, as tearful mourners paid tribute to the victims.

Iranian-born gunman Man Haron Monis, who had a history of extremism and violence, took 17 hostages in the city's financial heartland last week, unveiling an Islamic flag and demanding to talk to Abbott.

The mother of seven of eight children killed in Australia was charged with their murder Sunday, police said, describing it as the most tragic episode in their career as a makeshift memorial saw an outpouring of grief.

The 37-year-old, named in local media as Mersane Warria, was charged with eight counts of murder after the bodies of the children -- four girls and four boys aged between two to 14 -- were found in the northern city of Cairns on Friday morning.

Australian police said Saturday they had arrested the mother of most of eight children reportedly stabbed to death in the northern city of Cairns, as vigils were held to mourn the tragedy.

Officers have not revealed the cause of death of the children, aged between 18 months and 14 years, but said knives were found at the house where the bodies were discovered on Friday morning.

The United States issued a worldwide travel alert Friday, warning Americans to be vigilant during the holiday period, especially in the wake of a deadly siege in Australia.

Sydney this week saw a dramatic siege in a cafe that began Monday and left two hostages and a gunman dead.

Lawyers who defended the Sydney siege gunman on a string of charges and the magistrate who bailed him have received deaths threats, officials said Friday, amid growing anger that he was on the streets.

Iranian-born Man Haron Monis, a self-styled Islamic cleric, took 17 people hostage at a cafe in the heart of the city's financial district on Monday.

An Iranian asylum-seeker on hunger strike for almost seven weeks after being denied a visa in Australia has asked not to be revived if he loses consciousness, his lawyer said Friday.

John Lawrence said the 33-year-old had been in Australia for more than four years, but was now in legal limbo after his application for a protection visa was denied and he has refused to return to Iran.