Indonesian authorities were today preparing to execute three Christian militiaman found guilty of carrying out bloody attacks on Muslims during sectarian fighting in 2000.

Indonesian earthquake survivors salvaged bricks and planks from the remains of their flattened homes today as they began the arduous process of rebuilding, but international relief agencies warned that the emergency phase was far from over.

Indonesia’s vice president today said the country had captured more than 200 terrorists in two years, more than any other nation, as it cracked down on militants after a series of attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Indonesia’s first polio outbreak in a decade widened today with two new cases reported, as the government kicked off a massive eradication campaign that aims to vaccinate 6.4 million children in one day.

SURVIVORS combed the rubble of buildings for loved ones on Indonesia's earthquake-devastated Nias island yesterday as reports emerged of hundreds of additional deaths on a nearby island group.

Indonesia’s vice president has predicted that as many as 2,000 people may have died in yesterday's earthquake.

A powerful 8.7-magnitude earthquake hammered Indonesia’s west coast, collapsing homes and burying sleeping residents inside and sparking panic across Indian Ocean countries still traumatised by the tsunami disaster three months ago. Death toll estimates varied widely, from about 200 to 10 times that number.

Indonesia's vice president has welcomed a ceasefire offer by rebels in the devastated Aceh province, saying today that Jakarta would "make efforts" toward keeping peaceful relations as it seeks to rebuild the tsunami-battered region.

TIDAL waves swamped towns in northwestern Indonesia close to the epicentre of yesterday’s massive undersea earthquake, killing at least 4,185 people and leaving corpses wedged in trees as waters receded, the health ministry and witnesses said.

Indonesian police are investigating a possible poisoning plot after traces of arsenic were found in a bowl of noodle soup to be served to vice president Jusuf Kalla today.

Indonesia today ordered a mandatory mass cull of chickens in areas affected by an outbreak of bird flu, reversing its earlier insistence that a large-scale slaughter was not necessary.

Explosions which killed three people at a McDonald's restaurant and a car dealership in Indonesia were caused by bombs.