More than 2,000 people were evacuated by helicopter, truck and boat from the
foot of a volcano in northern Japan that erupted Friday, shooting debris and
plumes of smoke streaked with blue lightning thousands of feet in the air.
Experts warned that further eruptions of Mount Usu on Hokkaido, Japan's
northernmost main island, are possible, but another big explosion seemed
unlikely.
Although no lava gushed from the mountain, rocks and ash continued to fall
after the eruption. The region has been shaken by thousands of tremors since
Tuesday. People said they could taste grit from the ash that was spewed as
high as 2,700 meters (8,850 ft) into the sky and fell to coat surrounding
towns with ash.
Residents ran for cover, holding towels over their mouths as the smell of
sulfur pervaded the air soon after the afternoon eruption.
Mount Usu has terrified residents for days as cracks appeared in the
mountain and in area roads from seismic activity. It last erupted 22 years
ago.

The United Nations is warning that as many as 16 million people are at risk
from the drought in northeastern Africa, where a devastating famine 15 years
ago left nearly 1 million people dead.
As in the mid-1980s, Ethiopia again is most in danger, facing a severe food
crisis because of poor and infrequent rains and continued fighting with
neighboring Eritrea, said Carolyn McAskie, deputy U.N. emergency relief
coordinator.
But six other countries in the greater Horn of Africa region have also lost
food stocks to the drought, fighting and continued instability from refugee
flows, including Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Djibouti, she
told a press conference on Thursday.
In a bid to draw public attention to the crisis and mobilize the necessary
relief operation, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the head of the
World Food Program, Catherine Bertini, to be his special envoy and to travel
to the region in mid-April, McAskie announced.

Volcanoligists have witnessed dramatic rings of steam and gas being blown
out of volcanic vents on the side of mighty Mount Etna in Sicily.
Etna is the tallest and most active volcano in Europe, situated where the
European and African geological plates are colliding.
Dr Jug Alean and Dr Marco Fulle have been investigating Etna's growing level
of activity and in February they saw the ejection of several spectacular
hoops from the Bocca Nuova region of the mountain.

Ash, gases and debris shot spectacularly from Northern Japan's Mount Usu
three more times Saturday, forcing weary evacuees to face more days and
nights in makeshift shelters and forcing officials to widen the danger zone
around the volcano.
No injuries or deaths were reported, and more eruptions were expected,
officials said.
One of the most recent eruptions formed a new crater near the spa resort
area of Lake Toya on Usu's northern side. About seven other craters have
formed as well, the Central Meteorological Agency reported.

A volcano in northern Japan erupted again on Saturday, a day after it roared
to life and sent a spectacular plume of molten rock and ash billowing two
miles above the crater and rolling down the snow-quilted
slopes.
Ash dusted silent, evacuated villages near Mount Usu following the major
eruption Friday afternoon. The only other noise came from sirens screaming
warnings and ambulances and police cars cruising in search of damage.
Farther away from the volcano, people streamed into the streets and climbed
to rooftops to watch the towering cloud that blossomed from the eruption.
Some snapped photographs of debris that rose two miles high for over two
hours.
But those in the nearby city of Date who weren't looking out a window would
barely have known that 2,416-foot Mount Usu was erupting.

Japan's Mount Usu may be running out of steam, but experts remain watchful
in case the volcano -- which rises from a hot-springs spa resort area comes
back to life.
The volcano appeared to calm down Sunday, two days after erupting steam,
smoke and ash across a lakeside resort area on Japan's northernmost island
of Hokkaido. Smoke still emerged from at least two points on the mountain,
but seismic activity dropped sharply.
Monitors reported only 26 tremors Sunday morning, compared with 52 on
Saturday, 299 on Friday and 537 on Thursday, the day before the volcano's
first eruption, according to Takao Sato of the Muroran Meteorological
Agency.

Fresh fighting by separatists to seize a strategic causeway in northern Sri
Lanka left at least 30 guerrillas dead, the country's
defense ministry said Saturday.
The rebels launched a major offensive last week to recapture from soldiers
their former stronghold, Jaffna, which is about 300 kilometers (185 miles)
north of the capital of Colombo. The rebels are trying to capture the
Elephant Pass causeway, which links the northern Jaffna Peninsula with the
rest of the country to the south.
In the latest fighting Saturday, the rebels tried to attack army artillery
positions in Iyakachchi, near the Elephant Pass causeway, but were fought
off by the soldiers, the military said in a statement. Soldiers later found
the bodies of 21 guerrillas in the area, it said.
In another area in the Jaffna peninsula, seven rebels were killed when air
force jets and artillery pounded a rebel armored vehicle in the Nagar Kovil
area. Another two guerrillas were shot dead elsewhere in the north.
The Voice-of-Tiger, a clandestine rebel radio station, said in its news
program Saturday night that 71 guerrillas had been killed in six days of
fighting. The military, however, says 150 rebels were killed and more than
350 guerrillas were wounded.
The Tigers say more than 700 government troops have been killed and wounded
since the attack was launched. The army put its loses at 85 soldiers killed
and 613 wounded.
No explanation for the discrepancies was available Saturday.

  At least 1,000 Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq, apparently the
start of their yearly spring campaign against Kurdish rebel hideouts there,
military sources said Saturday.
Over the past three days, soldiers have gone three miles into Iraqi
territory from the Turkish provinces of Hakkari and Sirnak, Turkish military
and local sources said.
Turkey regularly crosses into northern Iraq to chase rebels of the Kurdistan
Workers Party, or PKK, which have been fighting a 15-year war for autonomy
in southeast Turkey.
Up to 50,000 troops are gathered on the Turkish-Iraqi border, ready to take
part in a large-scale operation, Turkish and Kurdish sources said.
During their operations in northern Iraq, the Turkish army often keeps a
three-mile buffer zone inside Iraq.
Private television NTV reported that the troops crossed the border after
receiving information that the rebels were re-establishing camps close to
the border. No serious clashes have been reported, NTV said.
Kurdish rebels retreated into bases in northern Iraq before the winter after
announcing a cease-fire and a withdrawal from Turkey. They later announced
an end to armed struggle and say they are ready to surrender if Turkey
grants cultural rights to its 12 million Kurds.
The operation would come as Turkey is under increasing pressure from Europe
to find a peaceful solution to the war and grant more rights to Kurds, who
are not recognized as an official minority.

Russian officials have reportedly refused to take United Nations Human Right
Commissioner Mary Robinson to any of the detention centres she had asked to
see during a brief trip to Chechnya.
Mrs Robinson, who is investigating allegations of human rights violations
during the Russian military operation to Chechnya, had presented a list of
detention centres she wanted to visit to check on accusations of torture and
rape against Chechens.
But reports from Grozny say Mrs Robinson was only allowed a brief glimpse
inside a few cells at a district military headquarters.
The UN chief's meetings with residents of Grozny who lived through the
Russian bombardment of the city were also said to be brief.
Some of the detention centres Mrs Robinson had asked to visit were last week
criticised by international human rights group Amnesty International.
These included PAP-1 and PAP-5 centres said to be located in a car factory
in the Leninsky district of Grozny, the existence of which Russian officials
have denied.
It was only recently that former detainees brought them to the attention of
human rights monitors.

Several people have been injured in an explosion in the capital of the
southern Russian republic of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya,
according to the Interfax news agency.
The Russian news agency, quoting interior ministry officials, said the
explosion took place in Makhachkala at 1727 GMT.
A bomb blast in the capital on 27 March wounded Dagestan's Deputy Prime
Minister, Ilias Umakhanov, and his driver, as they sat in their car.
A man was also killed in a car bomb in the capital on 29 February.

South Korea is taking emergency measures to contain an outbreak of
foot-and-mouth disease in the nation's cattle, the first on the peninsula in
almost 70 years.
The authorities confirmed the outbreak on Sunday as plans were drawn up to
destroy 350,000 cattle and pigs in affected areas to contain the spread of
the fatal disease.
More than 93 cattle suspected of having the disease were slaughtered over
the weekend in the country of Hongsong, south of Seoul.
Last week, 105 cattle were slaughtered in Paju, a village north of Seoul,
where the first cases of the disease were diagnosed.
South Korean authorities have called for preventative measures to be taken
in other provinces of the country.
Foot-and-mouth disease can be fatal and is highly contagious. It affects
cows, pigs and other cloven-hoofed animals. Humans can not catch the
disease.
If it spreads widely, it could have a devastating impact on the country's
livestock industry.
The Korean peninsula has been free of foot-and-mouth since the last outbreak
in 1934 - an outbreak in Taiwanese pigs three years ago wiped out almost all
of the country's pig population.
Japan, Taiwan and Australia suspended beef and pork imports from South Korea
when reports of disease among Korean cattle first surfaced last week. Hong
Kong and Singapore have followed suit.

A study of the impact of climate change on Arctic breeding water birds
suggests that some species could be more than halved.
The authors used climate models to predict problems will include both
habitat loss and impaired breeding ability.
As the climate warms, the treeline is expected to move further north, with
forests replacing the tundra where millions of water birds breed.
The study says this could mean a loss of habitat by 2100 for between four
and five million geese and 7.5 million Calidrid waders, birds of the
sandpiper family.
The study, funded by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-UK, says one of the
worst-affected species will be the red-breasted goose, which is already
critically endangered.

Fierce fighting between government troops and Tamil rebels over a strategic
causeway in Sri Lanka left 78 fighters dead and thousands of residents
stranded, a senior official said Sunday.
K. Shanmuganathan, the highest-ranking civil official in the Jaffna
peninsula, said more than 12,500 people living near the Elephant Pass
causeway were trapped as they tried to flee the Pallai area, 180 miles north
of the capital, Colombo.

Severe drought is gripping many parts of Ethiopia, and the effect is already
being felt in an emerging humanitarian crisis.
One of the hardest-hit areas is the Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia.
In the village of Denan, local elders say that at least six children under
five years of age are dying every day from severe malnutrition.
In their weakened condition, they are unable to withstand the onset of
diseases like tuberculosis and measles, and there are no facilities for the
children - no feeding-centres, doctors or medicines.
The region is home to more than a million people, most of them nomads, but
it has not rained for three years and the pasture land for
their livestock is now barren and dry.  Thousands are now migrating to towns
and villages in a desperate search for water.
With the help of its international partners, the local agency, the Ogaden
Welfare Society, is bringing some food and water into Denan for the 24,000
people living there in makeshift camps - but it is not enough.

The powerful cyclone Hudah is heading towards flood-hit Mozambique, after
hammering the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar on Sunday evening.
The cyclone, which measures about 400 kilometres across, was accompanied by
winds of up to 300 kph.
The eye of the cyclone crossed near the north-eastern town of Antalaha at
approximately 2100 local time (1800 GMT) on Sunday.
Waves as high as 8 metres have also been battering the coastline.
It is not yet known if cyclone Hudah has claimed any lives, but residents of
northern Madagascar said it caused a great deal of damage to property.
Latest reports say the winds have weakened slightly, but the rain is still
heavy.
Alerts have been announced along the northern and eastern coasts as well as
in the capital, Antananarivo.
Cyclone Hudah is the third cyclone to hit Madagascar in the space of a
month. Cyclones Gloria and Eline struck the island at the beginning of
March, leaving about 200 people dead and more than 100,000 people badly
affected.
Hudah left Madagascar about 0900 local time on Monday, bound for the
Mozambique channel.
Meteorologists have warned that there is a distinct possibility that the
cyclone could threaten Mozambique, which is still recovering from last
month's devastating floods.
The BBC weather centre says the storm may well intensify again during the
week as it heads westwards towards Mozambique.

At least seven people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir after
police fired on a protest march.
Police in the town of Anantnag, 50 km south of Srinagar, say they opened
fire after protesters hurled stones at them.
A separatist political leader, Shabir Shah, who was leading another, smaller
march in Anantnag, was arrested.
The protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations in the area
following the massacre of 35 Sikhs last month.  Local Muslims allege that
after those killings, a number of young men were picked up by Indian
security forces searching for those who massacred the Sikhs.
The men have not been seen since. Later, five people were killed in what the
authorities said was an encounter with militants involved in the Sikh
massacre.
However, local people suspect they may be the missing men, and are demanding
the exhumation of their corpses so they can be identified.

MEXICO. The huge Popocatepetl volcano spewed ash and gas a mile high above
its crater in a brief eruption, monitors said Monday.
The 17-886-foot high volcano calmed after two bursts Sunday evening,
according to the National Center for the Prevention of Disasters. No ash
plume was visible on Monday.
Officials in February expanded the recommended no-enter zone around the
volcano to 4 miles from 3 miles because of increased activity, including the
formation of a new lava dome within the crater.
The volcano, about 40 miles southeast of Mexico City, has been spewing
vapor, ash and rock intermittently since December 1994 after lying largely
dormant since 1927. It had been relatively quiet over the past year, but
produced minor eruptions in October and November.

Hudah, downgraded from a cyclone to a tropical storm, threatened to hit the
coast of flood-ravaged Mozambique Wednesday after devastating northern
Madagascar, where it left 13 people dead and 100,000 homeless.
The storm fed off ocean waters as it headed toward northern Mozambique, an
area of the impoverished African nation that escaped the worst of this
year's devastating flooding.
Hudah is the third cyclone in a month to target Mozambique and Madagascar.
It was expected to bring heavy rains and winds of up to 85 mph (130 kmh),
the South African Weather Bureau in Pretoria said Tuesday evening.

At least 17 Marxist rebels died in a clash with an army patrol in mountains
in central Colombia on Tuesday, the army said.
Troops attacked the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia unit during a
routine search-and-destroy operation in the Andes mountains in Boyaca
province.
The clash came a day after the smaller National Liberation Army rebel force
blocked and bombed four major highways across northern Colombia.
The military had regained partial control of those routes on Tuesday but the
guerrillas were still reported to be setting up hasty roadblocks and holding
up traffic.
The FARC, Latin America's largest surviving 1960s rebel army, is due to hold
the latest round of peace talks with the government this weekend. The
year-old negotiations are going ahead without any prior cease-fire deal.
The three-decade-old war has cost more than 35,000 lives in just the past 10
years.