A powerful earthquake in north-eastern Indonesia today caused panic, shook buildings on islands in the Maluku Sea, and triggered a brief tsunami warning.

Up to 25,000 villagers have been evacuated from the slopes of a rumbling volcano on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island despite assurances by scientists today that the mountain was calming down.

A series of powerful earthquakes have struck Indonesia’s remote Papua province, killing up to 23 people, injuring as many as 600 and destroying hundreds of houses, authorities said.

INDONESIA announced a fresh breakthrough in the Bali bombing probe yesterday.