Indonesia: Mount Sinabung - Volcano warning raised to highest level

Indonesian officials have raised the alert for the Mount Sinabung volcano in North Sumatra to the highest level.

The status was raised from "stand-by" to "caution" - the highest alert for volcanic activity - on Sunday.

People have also been warned to stay at least 5km (3 miles) from the crater.

Mt Sinabung has been showing signs of life since September, after being dormant for three years. Over the weekend, it shot ash and rocks far into the air, prompting the alert move.

More than 15,000 villagers in the area had already been moved to temporary shelters, disaster management officials said in a statement.

Airlines have also been advised not to fly near the area.

The disaster management agency said they had changed the alert level because they anticipated there would "more eruptions and because the intensity of eruptions has been increasing".

A local official told Agence-France Presse agency that "loud thunderous sound and vibrations" accompanied the eruptions.

No casualties have been reported so far.

When the volcano last erupted in 2010, at least two people were killed and 30,000 others were displaced.

Before 2010, Mount Sinabung had not erupted in 400 years. It is one of around 130 active volcanoes in the country.

Volcano raises new island far south of Japan

Smoke billows from a new island off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, far south of Tokyo Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. 

The Japan Coast Guard and earthquake experts said a volcanic eruption has raised the new island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo. 

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. 

AP Photo/Kyodo News JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, the Japanese coast guard and earthquake experts said.

Advisories from the coast guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency said the islet is about 200 meters (660 feet) in diameter.

It is just off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, which is also known as the Bonin Islands.

The approximately 30 islands are 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Tokyo, and along with the rest of Japan are part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire."

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. Television footage seen Thursday showed heavy smoke, ash and rocks exploding from the crater, as steam billowed into the sky.

A volcanologist with the coast guard, Hiroshi Ito, told the FNN news network that it was possible the new island might be eroded away.

"But it also could remain permanently," he said.

The last time the volcanos in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s. Much of the volcanic activity occurs under the sea, which extends thousands of meters deep along the Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench.