In an interview, Anton S Pambud, head of the volcano observatory on the coast of Banten, admits that real-time monitoring is hardly possible because the seismic station is not working and needs repair or replacement, which in turn will only be possible once the eruption has calmed down... [less]

According to the Japanese Meteorological Agency monitoring the volcano, the eruption poses no thread to the population and a 2 km exclusion zone is established around the volcano. [less]

(Source: Tokyo VAAC) [less]

Some residents of Miyazaki city had been evacuated according to news, kindly forwarded by a reader of the excellent eruptions blog.
A great time lapse video compiled from the webcam (http://www.seisvol.kishou.go.jp/vo/32.php, select ??? ????????= Kirishima volcano) was posted at: www.youtube.com/watch [less]

The ash plume is about 1.5 km high according to Japanese news, and the Tokyo VAAC issued an ash warning for Kirishima to elevations up to ~7.6 km / 25,000 feet.
It appears the latest eruption comes from Shinmoe-dake vent of Kirishima volcano, whose last eruption started in 2008. [less]

The eruption followed renewed, initially week strombolian activity from the collapse pit on the E side of the SE cone. This activity increased gradually during the evening of 12 Jan and turned into continuous fountaining between around 10pm and 11:45 pm. A lava flow from the same vent travelled east down into the Valle del Bove and reached an elevation of ca. 1630 m. Ash fall occured in a narrow sector to the SSW down to Sicily's south coast. Explosive activity ceased rapidly at the end of the eruption.
If Etna's past behaviour is taken as comparison, such as the series of lava fountains from the SE crater in 2000 and 2001, it seems likely that more such explosive phases could follow in the coming days or weeks. [less]

The latest GVP/USGS report summarizes information from the INGV Catania about the recent activity: An explosion from the Bocca Nuova's western pit crater on 22 Dec produced an ash plume a few kilometers high and caused ash fall as far as Linguaglossa 17 km to the NE. A day later, hot sulphur dioxide indicating magma near the surface was visible from the large pit crater at the base of the SE crater. Bright incandescence was intermittently visible and on 29 December, small amounts of lava could be observed being ejected from the crater. The activity increased on 2 January with a phase of vigorous strombolian activity from the same crater and decreased later. Possibly, other eruptive phases occured but were undetected due to the frequently bad winter weather conditions. [less]

Although too early to send an eruption warning, the Icelandic authorities are monitoring the activity under Katla carefully. [less]