Jakarta - Rescue workers on Thursday picked up four bodies from a passenger ferry that sank four days ago in seas off the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, raising fears that more than 200 other missing people have died as well, officials said.

"We have just got reports that rescue workers recovered four bodies and now they were on board a Navy warship heading the search operation," said Junaedi, an official at western Sulawesi port town of Majene, the closest port to the ferry's location when it sank.

He said the four bodies, twos adult and two children, were recovered from seas near Laboso Bay, about 18 kilometres from where the ferry went down Sunday morning, carrying 267 people.

Jakarta - A court in Indonesia's Papua province on Thursday jailed five Australians for two and three years in prison for landing a plane illegally, a prosecutor said.

The five Australians were arrested in September after landing a small plane in the Papuan district of Merauke. The plane departed from Australia's Horn Island.

Judges at the Merauke district court sentenced the pilot, William Scott-Bloxam, to three years in prison and fined him 50 million rupiah (4,550 dollars), said prosecutor Rifky Firmansyah.

Jakarta - A Pakistani and two Afghan refugees were killed after a boat carrying 18 Australia-bound foreign asylum seekers who escaped an Indonesian immigration detention centre sank off eastern Indonesia, police said Thursday.

Nine people survived after the boat capsized in the Pakuafu Strait off Rote island in East Nusa Tenggara province on Wednesday, said provincial police spokesman Octo Riwu.

Six other asylum seekers and three members of the boat's crew remained missing, he said.

Jakarta - Indonesia and the Netherlands on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where an Israeli military offensive has killed more than 900 Palestinians.

Visiting Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said after meeting his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda that Indonesia and the Netherlands had a common interest in an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

"We also shared ideas on how to realize a ceasefire in Gaza," he told a news conference.

Retno Marsudi, the foreign ministry's director general for the Americas and Europe, said each country should play a role in pushing for a Gaza ceasefire.

Jakarta - Rescue workers made no progress in their search for more than 230 missing people three days after a passenger ferry capsized in rough seas off the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, officials said Wednesday.

"We received no report on more survivors or bodies found from the field until mid-day Wednesday," said Junaedi, an official at western Sulawesi port town of Majene, the closest to the ferry's location when it sank.

He said only 35 survivors and two bodies had been found since the ferry sank early Sunday, leaving at least 230 others missing and feared dead.

Hong Kong  - A Hong Kong woman who slapped her Indonesian maid across the face for getting up five minutes late has been fined 2,000 Hong Kong dollars (256 US dollars), a court report said Wednesday.

Housewife Lok Hung-tan, 29, claimed she was depressed and sick with a kidney disease when she accused her 25-year-old employee called Yanti of being late last December.

She fined her 12 US dollars and when the maid objected slapped her face, causing abrasions to her lip, said the report in the South China Morning Post.