Singapore - Malaysians overtook Indonesians as the top foreign buyers of private homes in Singapore in the second quarter, a property consultancy said Thursday.

According to DTZ, Malaysians accounted for 19 per cent of the overall purchases by foreigners, who bought a total of 913 private homes, up 3 per cent from the previous quarter.

Indonesia followed with a 17-per-cent share. Chinese and Indian citizens each accounted for 11 per cent of the foreign buyers while purchases from UK nationals accounted for 9 per cent.

The Indonesians were found to favour the prime districts, DTZ senior director Chua Chor Hoon said.

Jakarta - A powerful earthquake struck islands in the eastern Indonesian province of North Maluku Thursday, briefly triggering a tsunami warning and causing residents to flee their homes in panic, seismologists and officials said.

The tsunami alert was cancelled about 40 minutes later after no tidal waves materialized, seismologists said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Jakarta - Indonesian authorities lifted a tsunami warning after tidal waves did not materialize following a powerful earthquake that struck the eastern province of North Maluku on Thursday morning.

An official at Indonesia's National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said that a tsunami warning had been lifted, more than 40 minutes after the 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the Halmahera Island at about 7 am (0000 GMT).

Jakarta - Indonesia issued a tsunami warning Thursday after a powerful earthquake struck the eastern province of North Maluku, seismologists said.

The quake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck about 7 am (0000 GMT), with its epicentre on the sea about 122 kilometres north- west of Ternate, the provincial capital on North Maluku. It occurred at a depth of 10 kilometres, Indonesia's National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said in a short message.

Jakarta - Australia announced Wednesday it will provide 50 billion rupiah (5.36 million dollars) to help improve food security and reduce malnutrition among children in eastern Indonesia, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

The contribution was announced by Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, while visiting a clinic in Kupang, West Timor, the WFP said in a press statement.

"It is with pleasure that I announce that from 2008-10 Australia is providing the WFP with a further 50 billion rupiah (6.5 million Australian dollars)," the statement quoted Farmer as saying.

Jakarta - At least 11 people were killed in a landslide and floods that swept through villages in two Indonesian provinces, local media reports said Wednesday.

In South Kalimantan province on the Indonesian portion of Borneo island, heavy floods have inundated thousands of homes in a number of districts for the past three weeks and claimed the lives of at least seven people, the state-run Antara news agency reported.