A crush of fans circled a flower-graced mosaic in Central Park's 'Strawberry Fields' and sang lyrics from Imagine to honour Beatles legend John Lennon on his 70th birthday.

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.