‘Crisis not over’ as eruptions at Indonesia volcano go on

AFP :
The threat from an Indonesian volcano that has erupted more than half a dozen times this week is not over, the archipelago’s top volcanology official told AFP, as the crater belched another ash tower on Saturday.
Mount Ruang, located in Indonesia’s outermost region of North Sulawesi province, started erupting late Tuesday, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands on islands near the stratovolcano and closure of the nearest international airport.
The volcano erupted again before midnight Friday and again on Saturday afternoon, spewing an ash column 250 metres (820 feet) above its peak, the latest of a wave of volcanic activity, the volcanology agency said.
That forced the country’s volcanology agency to warn that major eruptions could still take place.
despite the crater calming since it stirred a spectacular mix of lava, ash and lightning earlier in the week, raining down molten rocks on nearby villages.
“With volcanic earthquakes recorded, this crisis is not over yet,” agency head Hendra Gunawan told AFP.
“It indicates magmatic fluid supply is still moving from the depth to the surface. So it’s not surprising if eruptions still occur.”
The volcano, with a peak 725 metres above sea level, is currently the only one of Indonesia’s more than 100 volcanos at the highest alert level of a four-tiered system.
Authorities have kept a six-kilometre (3.7-mile) exclusion zone around the volcano.
More than 6,000 residents of neighbouring Tagulandang island, home to around 20,000 people, were evacuated outside the exclusion zone, a local official said Friday.
Authorities previously estimated more than 11,000 people would need to be evacuated because of the volcanology agency’s warning of volcanic rocks, hot clouds and lava flows.
Residents were advised to wear masks to avoid respiratory problems, the agency said in a statement.
The stratovolcano’s latest activity also prompted authorities to extend the closure of Sam Ratulangi international airport in the provincial capital of Manado, more than 100 kilometres away.
The airport, initially set to reopen Saturday, will remain closed until Sunday as volcanic ash from Mount Ruang was detected around it, Ambar Suryoko, head of the Manado region airport authority, said in a statement.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.
Venezuelan opposition picks diplomat as stand-in for election
BSS
Venezuela’s political opposition on Friday ratified the candidacy of a little-known diplomat as its stand-in for July presidential elections in which President Nicolas Maduro will seek a third term.
Former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia will challenge Maduro as the opposition’s candidate in the July 28 vote, replacing a popular leader who has been sidelined by courts loyal to Maduro.
The decision to back Gonzalez Urrutia was made “by unanimity” of the opposition alliance’s leaders, general secretary Omar Barboza told media.
“It is a historic decision for the people of Venezuela,” Barboza said. “We have chosen the next president of the Republic.”
Gonzalez Urrutia, 74, was not present at the announcement.
A political analyst who formerly was Venezuela’s ambassador to Argentina and Algeria, Gonzalez Urrutia will serve as a place holder for Maria Corina Machado, who swept opposition primaries last year, garnering more than three million votes.
Machado has been banned from public office for 15 years by courts under the Maduro government.
She tried to register a proxy, planning to keep fighting from the sidelines and eventually step in and run in the election at the last minute, but electoral authorities blocked that candidate as well.
In the end, the opposition managed to register Gonzalez Urrutia as a “provisional” candidate, although Machado has not given up on her aspiration to run in July.
Another last-minute candidate, Governor Manuel Rosales of the oil-rich state of Zulia, whose party is a member of the opposition alliance, pulled out of the race.
Rosales said he had signed up provisionally to prevent the opposition from being completely left out of the July vote.
Many alliance supporters saw Rosales as jockeying to serve as a palatable rival in Maduro’s eyes, raising concerns.
“We want to acknowledge Governor Manuel Rosales, he is a man who keeps his word… who decided to decline his candidacy to join the candidacy of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia,” Barboza said.
Many countries, including the United States, refused to accept the results of Maduro’s 2018 victory, alleging fraud and a lack of transparency. That vote was boycotted by the opposition.
The United Nations estimates that almost eight million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2014 — the year after Maduro took office.
The past decade has seen a severe economic crisis marked by runaway inflation and food and medicine shortages, plunging the population into misery.