Philippines' Taal Volcano Erupts

View of a forest fire with Cotopaxi volcano in the background in Latacunga, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Galo Paguay / AFP)
View of a forest fire with Cotopaxi volcano in the background in Latacunga, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Galo Paguay / AFP)
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Philippines' Taal Volcano Erupts

View of a forest fire with Cotopaxi volcano in the background in Latacunga, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Galo Paguay / AFP)
View of a forest fire with Cotopaxi volcano in the background in Latacunga, Cotopaxi Province, Ecuador, on September 27, 2024. (Photo by Galo Paguay / AFP)

The Philippines' Taal Volcano near the capital region has erupted, the country's seismology agency said on Wednesday.
The agency did not immediately provide details on the extent of the eruption but said the alert level remained at the lowest on the scale.
Taal, located about 70 km (45 miles) south of central Manila, is one of the world's smallest active volcanoes and some of its previous eruptions have impacted the capital and air travel.
Despite standing at only 311 m (1,020-feet), it can be deadly and an eruption in 1911 killed more than 1,300 people, Reuters reported.
In January 2021, thousands of people were evacuated after it spewed a 1 km (0.62 mile) high plume of gas and steam.
A year earlier, the Taal volcano shot a column of ash and steam as high as 15 km into the sky, forcing more than 100,000 people to abandon their homes and triggered widespread disruption in the



I Chose Freedom over Justice, Julian Assange Tells European Lawmakers

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
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I Chose Freedom over Justice, Julian Assange Tells European Lawmakers

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (R) and his wife Stella Assage (L) at the Council of Europe to be auditioned in Strasbourg, France, 01 October 2024. (EPA)

Julian Assange, the founder of whistleblower media group WikiLeaks, told European lawmakers on Tuesday his guilty plea to US espionage accusations was necessary because legal and political efforts to protect his freedom were not sufficient.

"I eventually chose freedom over an unrealizable justice," Assange said, in his first public comments since his release from prison.

Assange, 53, returned to his home country Australia in June after a deal was struck for his release which saw him plead guilty to violating US espionage law, ending a 14-year British legal odyssey.

"I am free today after years of incarceration because I pleaded guilty to journalism, pleaded guilty to seeking information from sources, I pleaded guilty to obtaining information from a source and I pleaded guilty to informing the public", he added.

Assange was addressing the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Council of Europe, the international organization best known for its human rights convention.

A report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concluded Assange was a political prisoner and called for Britain to hold an inquiry into whether he had been exposed to inhuman treatment.

Dressed in a black suit with a burgundy tie and wearing a slight white beard, Assange sat between his wife Stella, and WikiLeaks' editor Kristinn Hrafnsson, reading out his initial remarks from sheets of paper.

"I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured," he said, adding: "Isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind."

His wife, whom he married while in a London jail, said last month he would need some time to regain his health and sanity after his long incarceration, as well as to be with their two children who he had never seen outside of a prison.

The most controversial leaks by WikiLeaks featured classified US military documents and videos from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early to mid 2000s that it said highlighted issues such as abuse of prisoners in US custody, human rights violations and civilian deaths.

US authorities said the leaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.