BBC News Online: World: Asia-Pacific

Four killed in sectarian violence

The Indonesian police say four people have been killed in a riot between Muslims and Christians on the island of Seram in the Moluccan archipelago.

A local police spokesman said the deaths occurred during disturbances in the town of Masohi on Sunday night.

At least two-thousand people have been killed in sectarian violence in the Moluccan Islands in the last fifteen months.

The indonesian vice-president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, is due to visit the province this week in an effort to defuse intercommunal tension.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service