Hundreds of people flock home as volcano quietens

Many of an estimated 10,000 villagers who fled a volcanic eruption on the Indian Ocean Comoros islands returned home yesterday, encouraged by calm reigning at the summit�s crater, a United Nations (UN) official said.

Another UNICEF official said the agency would begin distributing rice to families sheltering at a village on the southern flank of the volcano, whose crater filled with magma glowing like hot coals during its first eruption since 1991.