A small volcano in a scenic lake south of Manila erupted on Thursday evening, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.
According to the institute, a "minor phreatomagmatic eruption" occurred at Taal Volcano in Batangas province, over 60 km south of Manila, at 6:06 p.m. local time Thursday. The eruption lasted for five minutes.
The institute said the event generated a dark gray plume that rose 4,000 meters above the crater. The ashfall is expected to affect nearby southwestern regions.
Alert Level 1 is maintained over Taal Volcano, with Level 5 the highest in scale.
Taal Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines. An eruption in January 2020 displaced nearly 380,000 villagers and destroyed many farms, houses, and roads in the province.
The Philippine archipelago straddles the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Small volcano near Philippine capital erupts
China's software and information technology (IT) service industry recorded steady growth in the first eight months of 2026, supported by rising exports and continued expansion in cloud computing and big data services, official data showed.
In the January to August period, software revenue rose 8.8 percent year on year to 10.282 trillion yuan, or about 1.53 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Exports grew faster than overall revenue, climbing 12.5 percent from a year earlier to 45.99 billion U.S. dollars.
The industry also reported steady profit growth in the same period, with total profit rising 1.3 percent to 1.184 trillion yuan, or about 177 billion U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile, information technology services remained the industry's largest segment, with revenue from the segment increasing by 9.6 percent and accounted for 68.7 percent of the industry total.
Within that segment, revenue from cloud computing and big data services grew by 11.1 percent, representing 17.3 percent of information technology services revenue.
In the first eight months, software product revenue rose at a slower pace of 6 percent and accounted for 21.5 percent of overall industry revenue.
China's software, IT service industry logs steady growth in first eight months
