Returnees flee as Indonesia volcano spews more ash
Date: 10/31/2010
Thousands of evacuees who risked a trip home near a deadly Indonesian volcano fled in panic as the mountain spewed more searing ash clouds Sunday, while rescuers finally resumed aid to tsunami victims in the country's other unfolding disaster.
The number of people killed in the twin catastrophes climbed to almost 500 on Sunday, as dozens more bodies were found in the tsunami-ravaged Mentawai islands.
Indonesia, a vast island nation of 235 million people, is prone to earthquakes and eruptions because it straddles a series of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire."