The Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali erupted Monday evening, ejecting a 2,000-meter-high (6,560-foot-high) column of thick ash and hurling lava down its slopes. The Indonesian geological agency's Agung monitoring post said a loud explosion from the mountain began just after 9 p.m. and lasted more than 7 minutes. "Flares of incandescent lava" reached 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the crater, AP reported. It said the alert level for Agung has not been raised and the exclusion zone around the crater remains at 4 kilometers (2.5 miles).
