Urgent appeal for supplies after strong Indonesia quake

The shallow 6.5-magnitude quake levelled hundreds of homes, mosques and businesses across Aceh province, one of the areas worst affected by the devastating 2004 tsunami. Search and rescue crews using advanced life-detecting devices have been combing the rubble for any sign of movement, as hopes fade of finding any more survivors more than a day after the quake. "These scan through the rubble to see if anyone's alive or dead," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP. The death toll stands at 99, he added. The figure has fluctuated as authorities identify the dead across the region. Thousands of soldiers and emergency personnel have been using excavators to clear rubble in the worst-hit areas, with volunteers -- equipped with little more than hoes and their bare hands, also chipping in. President Joko Widodo asked all Indonesians to pray for their countrymen in the disaster-stricken province. "Aceh is not alone," he posted on his official Twitter account. But attention is shifting to caring for those injured and homeless.