Jakarta  - An earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck off Indonesia's North Sulawesi province Friday morning, seismologists said.

The quake's epicentre lay about 101 kilometres south-east of Gorontalo in northern Sulawesi at about 4:40 am Jakarta time (2140 GMT Thursday), and occurred about 95 kilometres beneath the seabed, the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said.

Jakarta  - Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas died on Thursday at the age of 76, officials and media reports said.

Alatas, who served as Indonesia's foreign minister from 1988 and 1999, passed away at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Hospital at about 7:30 am (0030 GMT) after he was hospitalised on November 24, Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.

However, Faizasyah declined to go into details about the former top diplomat's illness. He added that preparations are underway to fly Alatas' body to Jakarta from Singapore.

Jakarta - A 2-year-old Indonesian girl died from bird flu, raising the country's world-leading death toll from the H5N1 virus to 113, while another 9-year old girl has been infected by the virus, the health ministry said Wednesday.

The girl from the Indonesian capital Jakarta died on November 29 after developing symptoms on November 18, ministry spokeswoman Lily Sriwahyuni said.

She said the girl was brought to Jakarta's Omni Medical Centre on November 26, before being sent to the Sulianti Saroso Hospital, which is designated to treat bird flu patients in the capital, on November 29. She died one day later.

Bali, Indonesia - Indonesia and Australia pledged Wednesday to intensify efforts to fight against human trafficking, and Jakarta will soon to extradite an Iranian national to face such charges in Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed that "we would further deepen our cooperation at the operational field level in dealing with the challenges of people smuggling."

Rudd, who was on the Indonesian resort island of Bali to attend a regional forum to promote democracy, said an Iranian national suspected of smuggling people to Australia will soon be extradited from Indonesia.

Jakarta  - Foreign ministers of 10 nations will meet in Jakarta next week to celebrate the new charter of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional grouping said Tuesday.

The event at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta on December 15 will mark the effective date of the regional bloc's guiding constitution, the Secretariat said in a statement.

"The entry into force of the Charter is a historic milestone for the organization, repositioning ASEAN to better meet the challenges of the 21st century," Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said.

Jakarta - Indonesia's central bank on Thursday lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to 9.25 per cent, an unexpected move aimed at helping shield its economy from the global financial crisis.

It was the first cut since Bank Indonesia lowered its key interest rate in December.

"The decision to cut the rate was taken after evaluating financial and economic prospects, both in the domestic and global market," the central bank said in a statement.

The bank said it hoped the rate cut would help maintain domestic economic stability amid the global economic meltdown.