Jakarta  - A powerful 7.2-magnitude quake struck at sea early Sunday off Indonesia's West Papua province, sending residents running out of their homes and other buildings, seismologists and authorities said.

A tsunami alert was issued by the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) but was later canceled after no waves materialized.

The quake, which hit at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, struck at 4:43 am (1943 GMT Saturday), about 135 kilometres north-west of Manokwari, the provincial capital of West Papua, the BMG said.

Jakarta  - A powerful 7.2-magnitude quake struck at sea early Sunday off Indonesia's West Papua province, sending residents running out of their homes and other buildings, seismologists and authorities said.

A tsunami alert was issued by the Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) but was later canceled after no waves materialized.

The quake, which hit at a shallow depth of 35 kilometres, struck at 4:43 am (1943 GMT Saturday), about 150 kilometres north-west of Manokwari, the provincial capital of West Papua, the BMG said.

The US Geological Survey put the quake at 7.6 on the Richter scale.

Jakarta  - A powerful 7.6-magnitude aftershock struck at sea Sunday morning off Indonesia's West Papua province, following a 7.2 magnitude initial earthquake, seismologists said.

Jakarta - Indonesian prosecutors will appeal the acquittal of a former intelligence agency official accused of masterminding the murder of a leading human rights activist, a spokesman for the Attorney-General's Office said Friday.

Activists have criticized the acquittal of Muchdi Purwoprandjono in the murder of Munir Said Thalib as proof that powerful figures remain above the law, despite a pledge by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to get to the bottom of the case.

Jakarta - More than 10,000 Indonesians rallied outside the US embassy in Jakarta on Friday to protest against Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and condemn the United States for supporting the Jewish state.

It was the biggest protest in support of the Palestinians in Indonesia since Israel launched the airstrikes on Saturday in what it says is a defensive move to halt rocket attacks on Israeli territory by Palestinian militants.

At least 420 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured in the attacks.

Jakarta  - An Indonesian district court on Wednesday unexpectedly acquitted a former senior intelligence official of charges of murdering a prominent human rights activist.

The South Jakarta district court declared Muchdi Purwoprandjono "not guilty" of involvement in the assassination of Munir Said Thalib, who died of arsenic poisoning aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight to Amsterdam in 2004.