Int'l flights resume to volcano-affected region

Mount Merapi, Indonesia (AP):

Indonesia's deadly volcano spit out towering clouds of ash but with clear skies over the capital, hundreds of miles (kilometres) to the west, international airlines resumed flights yesterday.

The official death toll from Mount Merapi, meanwhile, was revised upward this week to 194 as authorities included those who died from respiratory problems, heart attacks and other illnesses. The notoriously unpredictable mountain, located in the heart of Java island, roared back to life two weeks ago, spewing searing clouds of grey soot and debris up to four miles (six kilometres) into the air almost daily, with lava and rock cascading down its slopes. More than 350,000 people have been evacuated to cramped emergency shelters.

President Barack Obama, now in South Korea for the Group of 20 summit, sliced several hours off his whirlwind tour to Indonesia and several international airlines cancelled flights to Jakarta on Wednesday over concerns about volcanic ash being carried by westerly winds. Yesterday, ash spreading over western Java was falling just short of the capital, said Gordon Jackson, a meteorologist with the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin, Australia.