An earthquake measuring at 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted Morotai Island in Indonesia's North Maluku Province Tuesday, killing a resident and damaging more than 20 houses, the official news agency Antara reported.

Quoting a statement from the national Meteorology and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta, the agency said the quake came at 2:23 a.m. western Indonesia time (21:23 GMT), affecting the cities of Ternate and Manado in neighboring North Sulawesi Province, some 2,400 km northeast of Jakarta.

The epicenter was 33 km beneath the Maluku Sea, some 366 km east of Manado.

Strong Earthquake Hits Southern Philippine Island

A strong earthquake rocked the southern Philippine island of Sulu early Tuesday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, a government seismology agency said.

The quake, estimated at Magnitude 6.6, struck at 7:13 a.m. local time (2313 GMT Monday) with the location at 114 km west of Cotabato City in the southern province of Maguindanao, and the origin of the tectonic tremor was initially plotted at 544 km beneath the seabed of Sulu Sea in Mindanao, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said in a statement.

General Santos City also in the south felt the quake with the intensity of two, and there could be strong aftershocks, the statement said.

An earthquake, measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale, Friday hit Masbate Island in the central Philippines but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2003)