An earthquake off Indonesia's northern Aceh province has killed at least 97 people, say local military officials.

"So far, 97 people have been killed and the number keeps growing," Aceh military chief Tatang Sulaiman said in a live TV interview.

• A spokesman for Indonesia's national disaster agency said more than 200 shops and homes had been destroyed, along with 14 mosques. A hospital and school were also badly damaged.
• "We estimate the number of casualties will continue to rise as some of the residents are still likely [to be] under the rubble of the buildings. The search and rescue operation is still underway," said Sutopo Nugroho, who also said thousands of rescuers, including soldiers, had been deployed.
• Maj Gen Tatang Sulaiman said four people had been rescued alive from the rubble and he believed there might be four or five more still buried, though he did not say whether they were alive.
• "Hopefully we would be able to finish the evacuation from the rubble before sunset," he said.

Said Mulyadi, deputy district chief of Pidie Jaya, the region hit hardest by the quake, told the BBC's Indonesian service earlier in the day that the death toll was likely to rise.

Heavy equipment is being used to search for survivors, but Puteh Manaf, head of the local disaster management agency, told the BBC's Mehulika Sitepu that more people were needed to help because some staff were busy helping their own families.

It is about 110 km (68 miles) from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Musman Aziz, who lives in Meureudu, another affected town, told AP news agency: "It was very bad, the tremors felt even stronger than (the) 2004 earthquake... I was so scared the tsunami was coming."

The island of Sumatra has been hit by several earthquakes this year.

Jakarta – Indonesian police have arrested dozens of suspected Islamic extremists on Java island, most of whom were allegedly carrying out military-style training on a remote mountain, police and reports said Saturday.

Around 30 were reportedly detained late Friday on Mount Sumbing as they took part in the training, while another five were arrested the same day in raids in the city of Malang.

• A member of Indonesia’s elite anti-terror police, speaking anonymously, confirmed there had been a “raid on an arms training session” taking place on a mountain.
• Local media reported that the group of around 30 were from Islamic extremist group Jamaah Ansharus Syariah and the training was on the slopes of Sumbing, in Central Java province.
• The arrests came after local villagers reported hearing gunfire, MetroTV reported, citing provincial police spokesman Liliek Darmanto.
• Air guns, knives, religious books and flags were seized at a house where some of the participants had stayed en route to the mountain, the report said.

In the separate raid in Malang, five alleged Islamic radicals were seized by police backed by officers from the elite anti-terror squad, said local police chief Yudho Nugroho.

The attacks in the capital centred around a Starbucks outlet and were the country’s worst terror incident in seven years, prompting police to launch a nationwide crackdown.

Authorities said last week that 33 people from radical Islamic groups who were plotting attacks against the airport and other targets in the near future had been arrested, with around half directly linked to the Jakarta attacks.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – When Indonesia’s anti-drugs czar announced plans to guard a death-row prison island with crocodiles, the government rushed to explain that it was just a joke, but on Friday Budi Waseso said he was now thinking of using tigers and piranha fish too.

Media quoted the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) chief as saying that he had already obtained two crocodiles from a farm to study their power and aggression and may ultimately put as many as 1,000 in place to keep convicts from escaping.

“The number will depend on how big the area is, or whether perhaps to combine them with piranhas,” he told reporters, according to the rimanews.com portal. “Because the (prison) personnel numbers are short we can use wild animals. We could use tigers too – for conservation at the same time.”

Piranha fish, meat-eaters with sharp teeth and powerful jaws, are indigenous to South America and are not found in Indonesia.

• He has repeatedly refused clemency to traffickers and more than two dozen, mostly foreign, drug convicts have been executed this year after a five-year moratorium on the death penalty.
• In separate comments on the TVOne channel, Waseso rejected critics who said his plans to use animals as jailors were trampling on the human rights of convicts.

“We have to look at the whole problem,” he said. “These people are murderers – mass murderers. Shouldn’t we also look at the human rights of their victims?”
The plan has echoes of the Bond movie “Live and Let Die”, when the secret agent escapes from an island surrounded by crocodiles by using the reptiles as stepping stones.

More than two million hectares of Indonesia's forests were burnt down in the past five months, Indonesian authorities have revealed, as neighbouring countries get respite from the choking smoke.

Jakarta Globe reported the country's National Space and Aviation Agency (Lapan) as estimating that 2,089,911 hectares of forest area were lost to fires, based on satellite data collected from June 21 to October 20.

“We have compared the data gathered from before and after the fires started,” Parwati Sofan, a senior official at Lapan was quoted as telling  a press conference in Central Jakarta on Friday.

• The figures may actually be higher, as Parwati reportedly said the satellite is unable to scan forest areas covered in smoke.
• He added that the numbers were expected to increase since they were still in the midst of collecting date.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's Natural Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho reportedly said that 32% of the hot spots were in non-concession forest areas, 20% in industrial forest areas, and 20% in palm oil plantations.

BANDUNG, Indonesia - Uber has fallen foul of authorities in the Indonesian city of Bandung, with the local government banning the controversial taxi-hailing app, the latest in a series of setbacks for the company internationally.

Just three months after launching in Bandung, a busy city known for its IT expertise about 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the capital Jakarta, the popular ride-sharing service has been told it doesn't possess the right permits and can't operate.

• "All companies must have the proper permits to operate." It's not the first time Uber has clashed with authorities in Indonesia, where local transport organisations and traditional taxi drivers have protested against what they claim is an unregulated industry.
• Last month 18 vehicles owned by Uber drivers were impounded in Jakarta, with the city's mayor declaring the US-based taxi app illegal.
• Uber claims it plays by the rules in Bandung, as elsewhere, and has been given an overwhelming "thumbs up" by passengers and drivers so far.
• "It's why we are also disappointed that the government of Bandung has declared that it is banning Uber," the company said in a statement.
• Despite the opposition it's faced, Uber still plans to set up a foreign investment company in Indonesia, and has a representative office in Jakarta.

The smartphone-based ride service has sparked angry protests worldwide, with some taxi associations taking legal action while others have demanded the arrest of Uber operators and executives.