In brief: Volcano erupts in Japan, spurring evacuation

TOKYO – A volcano erupted on a small island in southern Japan today, spewing black clouds of ash and rock towering into the sky and prompting authorities to tell residents to evacuate the island.

No injuries were reported after Mount Shindake erupted about 10 a.m. in spectacular fashion, sending dense pyroclastic flows of rock and hot gases seaward, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported.

The agency raised the volcano alert level for Kuchinoerabu island, where Shindake is located, to five, the highest on its scale. Shindake also erupted in August last year for the first time since 1980.

A military helicopter was sent to survey the island and assess damage. Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo that the Coast Guard had dispatched a ship to help evacuate the residents.

Nobuaki Hayashi, a local village chief, said about 120 of the island’s 137 residents were gathered at an evacuation facility.

Hayashi said a few people on the island were still unaccounted for.

Kuchinoerabu is 50 miles southwest of the main southern island of Kyushu. A heavily forested, mountainous island bordered mostly by rocky cliffsides, it is a national park supported mainly by tourism and fishing.

‘Alarming level’ of boat people

BANGKOK – Thailand’s Foreign Minister said today that the upsurge of boat people in Southeast Asia has reached an “alarming level,” and called for governments in the region to address the root causes of the crisis – a reference to the swelling number of refugees who have fled persecution in Myanmar.

Speaking at the opening of a regional meeting in Bangkok aimed at tackling the issue, Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said that “no country can solve this problem alone.”

Asian nations have been struggling in the face of growing waves of desperate migrants who are landing on the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in growing numbers. In the last few weeks alone, at least 3,000 people have washed ashore or been rescued by fishermen and several thousand more are believed to still be at sea after human smugglers abandoned boats amid a regional crackdown.