New Delhi, Dec 26 : Indonesia commemorated the fourth anniversary of the tsunami that devastated the coastal areas of Indian Ocean on December 24, 2004, and killed over 230,000 people, with 170,000 of them in Aceh province.

According to head of the provincial development agency Rahman Lubis, the commemoration took place in Meulaboh town at the west coast of the province in the northern tip of Sumatra island, which was hit the hardest during the tsunami triggered by a strong quake in December 2004.

Jakarta - Indonesia Friday marked the fourth anniversary of the Boxing Day tsunami, with thousands of people scrambling up to higher ground on the coast of North Sulawesi as sirens blared in a drill.

In Aceh at the northern end of Sumatra, where more than 170,000 people were either killed or went missing when a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami on December 26, 2004, hundreds of survivors prayed at mosques across the staunchly Muslim province, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Hundreds of others prayed at mass graves or gathered along the Aceh coast to honour victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed up to 230,000 lives in 11 countries and displaced more than 1.8 million people.

Jakarta  - At least 12 people were killed and more than 20 others injured after a bus carrying a wedding delegation plunged into a deep ravine in southern Sumatra province of Lampung, media reports said Saturday.

The accident occurred Friday afternoon when a passenger bus with 38 people on board was en route from Muaradua district of Lampung province to Manna of the adjacent Bengkulu province, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Jakarta - Indonesia on Friday launched a major three-day counter-terrorist exercise in several cities and in the Malacca Strait.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto said the operation in the Malacca Strait was designed to show Indonesia's readiness to protect one of the world's busiest waterways. "Security in the Malacca Strait is very important not only for Singapore and Malaysia but also Indonesia ... especially with regard to piracy threats," the state-run Antara news agency quoted Widodo as saying.

National police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said more than 6,500 officers from the Indonesian Armed Forces and national police would take part in the counter-terrorist drill.

Jakarta  - Indonesia is confident its number of foreign tourists would increase up to 25 per cent next year despite previous downward expectations because of the global financial crisis, a media report said Friday.

Sapta Nirwandar, the Culture and Tourism Ministry's director general, said Indonesia's tourism industry would continue to grow because of higher spending on promotion combined with large numbers of regular visitors who came to the country to enjoy surfing, scuba diving, natural attractions and cultural pursuits.

Nirwandar said his ministry forecast 8 million foreigners would visit the country in 2009, up 1 million from an initial target. Such numbers would compare with a target of 6.4 million visitors this year.

Jakarta  - Indonesian police have arrested two Russians and a local man for their alleged involvement in abducting a Russian businessman, media reports said Thursday.

The two Russians, identified only as Alex and Igor, and Richard Sihite, an Indonesian citizen, were arrested Wednesday in Serpong, West Java.

Police freed the kidnapped Russian businessman, identified as Colavenko Alexandre, 37, and confiscated a laptop, 1,300 dollars and 50 million rupiah (4,560 dollars) in cash as evidence, The Jakarta Post reported.

Detective Senior Commissioner Muhammad Iriawan, Jakarta's police chief, quoted Alexandre as saying he came to Indonesia after receiving a business invitation through the internet.