Mount Etna rumbling again

Molten rock was moving up toward the openings of Sicily’s Mount Etna volcano today, but clouds of ash pouring out of the crater were diminishing, experts said.

Etna, which springs to life every few months, burst into activity a month ago with rivers of lava pouring down the mountain and columns of thick ash and smoke a mile high.

Several villages, whose inhabitants work in tourism and in agriculture, dot the slopes, but no town has been threatened by the recent eruption.

Lava flows continued to burn centuries-old forest on the mountainside.