Indonesia volcano kills scores

At least 58 people have been killed in the last 24 hours after clouds of blistering gas erupted from Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano, prompting the country's president to call the eruptions a "national disaster". Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised on Friday that his government would take "extra-ordinary measures" to respond to the ongoing crisis. Many villagers suffered severe burns from the searing hot dust and debris that spewed out of the country's most volatile volcano. The deadly clouds raced down the mountainside at more than 100km an hour, forcing villagers to flee. Volcanologists said Friday's gas eruption was not only the largest since the the volcano first erupted on October 26, but the worst in a century. Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from the capital, Jakarta, said the gas eruption was still under way. "It has not stopped erupting for the last 40 hours. Last night there was a huge eruption," she said. "Villages were on fire, houses burned. Lots of people had to flee. Many wounded and many dead, but there are still people living on the slopes of Merapi."