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



Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
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Stolen Shoe Mystery Solved at Japanese Kindergarten When Security Camera Catches Weasel in the Act

This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)
This image made from security camera video released by Kasuya Police shows a weasel with a shoe at a kindergarten in Koga, Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Nov. 11, 2024. (Kasuya Police via AP)

Police thought a shoe thief was on the loose at a kindergarten in southwestern Japan, until a security camera caught the furry culprit in action.

A weasel with a tiny shoe in its mouth was spotted on the video footage after police installed three cameras in the school in the prefecture of Fukuoka.

“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told The Associated Press Sunday. Teachers and parents had feared it could be a disturbed person with a shoe fetish.

Japanese customarily take their shoes off before entering homes. The vanished shoes were all slip-ons the children wore indoors, stored in cubbyholes near the door.

Weasels are known to stash items and people who keep weasels as pets give them toys so they can hide them.

The weasel scattered shoes around and took 15 of them before police were called. Six more were taken the following day. The weasel returned Nov. 11 to steal one more shoe. The camera footage of that theft was seen the next day.

The shoe-loving weasel only took the white indoor shoes made of canvas, likely because they’re light to carry.

“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.

The children got a good laugh when they saw the weasel in the video.

Although the stolen shoes were never found, the remaining shoes are now safe at the kindergarten with nets installed over the cubbyholes.

The weasel, which is believed to be wild, is still on the loose.