Thousands flee homes in Indonesia

Villages on Mount Merapi were left virtually empty, although some residents returned to its slopes Sunday to tend their animals and crops. More than 4,500 people living in villages closest to the crater, or next to rivers where hot lava is more likely to flow down, had been evacuated.

"My feeling is it will not blow at this time," said Budi, a 30-year-old farmer, who came back to cut grass to give to his cows. Like many other Indonesians, he goes by only one name.

Police manned roadblocks Sunday preventing vehicles from getting within six miles of the volcano's crater, but allowed villagers to return to tend to land and animals, advising them to leave again by nightfall.