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MOUNT MERAPI (AFP) - Indonesia has downgraded its top alert on Mount Merapi volcano as scientists said they no longer believe an eruption is imminent. Merapi -- whose name means "Mountain of Fire" -- was put on red alert on May 13 and its activity has fluctuated since then. It has declined substantially since Friday when part of a lava dome forming at its peak collapsed. "The activity status of Merapi is downgraded from 'beware' to 'standby' as of June 13, 2006, at 11:00 am," said Yousana Siagian, head of the vulcanology office in West Java's Bandung, in a statement....

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Mount Merapi's unstable lava dome has partially collapsed, easing pressure that threatened to make the Indonesian volcano erupt. However, the mountain remains as the "highest possible alert," volcanologist Antonius Ratdomopurbo said on Monday. "We should know within two days whether we can lower the (alert) level," Ratdomopurbo said. The mountain has been venting steam and debris for weeks, but its lava dome swelled after a powerful May 28 earthquake, raising concerns the dome could suddenly collapse, sending scalding gas, rocks and debris hurtling into populated areas. A huge, superheated cloud, the largest this year, brought down...

Hot clouds again billowed down the slope of Mount Merapi Thursday morning over a distance of five kilometers in the direction of the upper reach of Gendol River, thus burning down northern part of Kaliadem forest area in the district of Sleman, Yogyakarta. The volcano erupted more than 10 times from 06:00 to 09:00 Thursday morning. Eruption of hot air had lasted for 25 minutes since 07:20 (0020 GMT). Such a long distance of hot clouds moving down from the mount's crater burning some forest areas in Kaliadem, but no casualty was reported in the disaster, official news agency Antara...

JAKARTA (AFP) - Thousands of people have evacuated from the slopes of Indonesia's menacing Mount Merapi as lava flows spread further around the slopes of the volcano, officials have said. The volcano was put on red alert -- indicating a feared imminent eruption -- on May 13 but residents have been particularly nervous since a deadly earthquake rocked the region 10 days ago. A natural ridge formed by an eruption early in the last century and known as Geger Boyo which had so far helped contain larger lava flows to the southwest and west of the mountain has collapsed, they...

BANTUL, Indonesia - The Mount Merapi volcano spewed lava and hot clouds Saturday and a strong aftershock hit the region, sending fear rippling through the southern Indonesian area devastated by an earthquake only a week ago. The mountain's lava dome has swelled in the past week to 330 feet, raising fears that it could collapse, said Subandriyo, a government scientist who uses one name. That could release a highly dangerous pyroclastic flow — a fast-moving burst of high-temperature gases and rock fragments that burns anything in its path. More than a thousand aftershocks have hit the region since the 6.3-magnitude...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A lake atop a rumbling volcano on the South Pacific island of Ambae has changed color from blue to bright red, puzzling scientists. Mount Manaro, one of four active volcanos on the island nation of Vanuatu, has been showing signs of erupting for only the second time in 122 years. "We are still ... trying to understand this change of color in the lake from blue to red," Geology and Mines Department director Esline Garae said by telephone Monday from Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila. She said two scientists on Ambae Island were monitoring Lake Vui as...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia (Reuters) - Lava streamed down the sides of Indonesia's mystical Mount Merapi on Tuesday, but the clouds of hot gas belching from the top were substantially smaller than the day before. Around the base of the mountain some Indonesians consider sacred, thousands of residents went about their daily lives such as milking cows and collecting grass for feed despite warnings a major eruption could come soon. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on a visit to the threatened area, urged officials to be persistent in their efforts to move people away from the danger zone and warned residents not...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Scientists warned Tuesday that erupting Mount Merapi still posed a deadly threat to villagers living on its lava-scarred slopes, even as volcanic activity eased. Clouds of searing hot gases and debris continued to stream down the mountain, but not as far or as often as they did Monday, which saw the most violent activity in several weeks. "That is Merapi," said Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist, who uses a single name. "She is always fluctuating." A large, unstable lava dome perched on the crater formed by magma from within the volcano remained in place and could...

QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano is emitting its loudest and most frequent explosions since it rumbled back to life nearly seven years ago after eight decades of inactivity, scientists said. The volcano registered 133 explosions of vapor and gas between Wednesday and Friday, Ecuador's Geophysics Institute reported. But the increased activity was not necessarily a sign of an imminent eruption, said Hugo Yepes, the institute's director. "It has been rumbling constantly in the last six years, always registering explosions, emitting ash," he told The Associated Press. "What's happening now is that since May 10, we have had times in...

MOUNT MERAPI, Indonesia - Thousands of people fled the fertile slopes of Indonesia's most dangerous volcano Saturday as glowing lava oozed down the side and ash and rock spewed from the mountaintop, leading authorities to warn that an eruption could come soon. Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty. Women, children and the elderly filled buses and trucks to be driven to shelters set up at government buildings and schools in nearby towns on the island of Java. Throughout the day, volcanic tremors shook the ground, some strong enough to send people running in fear. After nightfall, fiery magma...

May 4, 3:30 AM (ET) JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Red-hot lava began flowing from the crater of Indonesia's rumbling volcano Mount Merapi early Thursday as vulcanologists warned residents an eruption may be imminent. Burning streams of molten lava started pouring down the slopes at about 2 a.m. local time, said Subandriyo, the chief of Merapi's Volcanology and Monitoring offices, who goes by a single name. Residents still near the 9,700-foot peak were urged to leave immediately, even though officials said they were not yet raising the alert to the highest level. "The volcano has shown significantly more activity," Subandriyo said....

As you may have read in the press/on the Internet in recent days, two Chile Growers in Dorset (UK) are claiming to have grown the worlds hottest pepper - the dorset Naga (also know as Naga Morich). There are always going to be arguments and counter claims on what is the worlds hottest chile. The the heat of pods is very subjective and is influenced by many factors and can vary considerably (even on the same plant). Although I cannot profess to growing all hot chiles, I have grown most of the 'claimants' to be the worlds hottest from the...

PALMER -- When news of a big earthquake hits in the middle of the night, it takes geophysicist Bruce Turner five minutes to fumble for his beeper, throw on a coat, scrape ice off his car windshield, drive a mile to work and transmit a tsunami alert from the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center. These few minutes, essential to communities in a tsunami's path, will no longer be wasted on commuting when the center goes to round-the-clock staffing in April. A portion of $24 million appropriated by Congress in May to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will...

Richard Maltby Jr., the director who guided Ain't Misbehavin' and Fosse to Broadway, is staging and co-creating the new Johnny Cash-inspired musical, Ring of Fire, in its test run at Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo, Sept. 2-Oct. 9. The world premiere, subtitled The Johnny Cash Musical Show and conceived by William Meade, will move to San Francisco's Curran Theatre in January 2006 before heading to Broadway in March 2006. Singer-songwriter Cash, a country music and blues legend, died in 2003. The new theatrical event features six actors and eight musicians, bringing theatrical life to his classic story songs. The show...

Uranus may be responsible for recent devastating Asian sea quakes because the mystery-shrouded "planet of calamity" is unusually close to the Earth, tabloid newspaper readers in Germany were warned on Wednesday.

Evacuation Of Volcano-Hit Papua New Guinea Island Gets UnderwayPort Moresby, PNG (AFP) Nov 28, 2004 An urgent evacuation of around 9,000 villagers from Papua New Guinea's remote Manam Island got underway Sunday amid fears the the island's volcano was on the verge of a major eruption, officials said. The first batch of hundreds of islanders were taken off the island by container boat in the morning, an official coordinating the evacuation told AFP from the remote community of Bogia, where the islanders are to be taken. "It is on its way to Bogia," disaster relief official John Bivi said, when...

Magnitude 7.2 - PAPUA, INDONESIA 2004 November 26 02:25:06 UTC Preliminary Earthquake Report U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information CenterWorld Data Center for Seismology, Denver A major earthquake occurred at 02:25:06 (UTC) on Friday, November 26, 2004. The magnitude 7.2 event has been located in PAPUA, INDONESIA. (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.) Magnitude 7.2 Date-Time Friday, November 26, 2004 at 02:25:06 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Friday, November 26, 2004 at 11:25:06 AM = local time at epicenter Location 3.634°S, 135.477°E Depth 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program Region PAPUA, INDONESIA Distances 95 km (60...

This is an image of Mount St. Helens, taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The Observatory and VolcanoCam are located at an elevation of approximately 4,500 feet, about five miles from the volcano. You are looking approximately south-southeast across the North Fork Toutle River Valley.

The three-day shoot for the video was about to wrap, and director Mark Romanek needed just one more shot from his singer star, Johnny Cash. As Romanek recalls, "I said to John, 'This is the last take. So if you want to get angry or smash something up, this is your last chance.'" Cash didn't get it. He thought Romanek meant this would be the final shot in the ailing star's life, so he had better make it good. Cash wouldn't, couldn't surrender to such defeatism. "I hope it's not the last take," he said in that baritone growl, which...

MIDI - RING OF FIRE You'd be a fool to trust any Democrat...every one is a sewer rat It...isn't hard to see They are worthless as can be They...are traitors, all In our war, they're not standing tall Democrats are such lowlife stinking liars To be spreading bull...not one ever tires May they burn, burn, burn in Hades fires...in Hades fires Stay away from a Democrat...every one is a sewer rat Your mom should have warned you of that...stay away from a Democrat Democrats are such lowlife stinking liars To be spreading bull...not one ever tires May they burn,...