Pakistan PM: No more "business as usual" with U.S.

(Reuters) - Pakistan's prime minister ruled out "business as usual" with the United States on Monday after a NATO attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and the army threatened to curtail cooperation over the war in Afghanistan.

Saturday's incident on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan has complicated U.S. attempts to ease a crisis in relations with Islamabad and stabilize the region before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan.

"Business as usual will not be there," Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told CNN when asked if ties with the United States would continue. "We have to have something bigger so as to satisfy my nation."

While the NATO strike has shifted attention from what critics say is Islamabad's failure to go after militants, Gilani's comments reflect the fury of Pakistan's government and military - and the pressure they face from their own people.

"You cannot win any war without the support of the masses," Gilani said. "We need the people with us."

The relationship, he said, would continue only if based on "mutual respect and mutual interest." Asked if Pakistan was receiving that respect, Gilani replied: "At the moment, not."

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Farc leader Timochenko new top target in Colombia

29 November 2011 Last updated at 04:06 GMT Help

The Colombian leader will now be counting on Venezuela to help capture the leader of the Farc guerrillas, Rodrigo Londoño, alias "Timochenko" following the arrest of one of Colombia's most-wanted men, Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos praised his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, for the arrest.

The news came on a visit to Caracas by President Santos , as he and President Chavez cemented their rapprochement after years of mistrust between the neighbours.

Jeremy McDermott reports from Colombia.

NASA launches new Mars rover

An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket carrying a $2.5bn NASA Mars probe has lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Mars Science Laboratory, a nuclear-powered rover as big as a compact car and nicknamed Curiosity, is scheduled to touch down on the 'Red Planet' on August 6, 2012, and will search for signs of whether it is or ever was suitable for life. It is powered by a nuclear-driven electrical system and is equipped with 10 of the most intricate scientific instruments ever sent into space. Quest for water Curiosity, has 17 cameras and 10 science instruments, including chemistry labs, to identify elements in soil and rock samples to be dug up by the probe's drill-tipped robotic arm. The base of the crater's mountain has clays, evidence of a prolonged wet environment, said planetary scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology and the mission's lead scientist. Water is considered to be a key element for life, but not the only one. Previous Mars probes, including the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, searched for signs of past surface water.

Rice containing radioactive caesium found in Japan

The rice came from an area outside the exclusion zone around Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant

The sample came from a Fukushima city farm about 60km from the plant.

The government is considering banning shipments from the area it was found.

There have been a series of scares over radiation in food in Japan in recent months - in beef, mushrooms and green tea among other products - but never before in the country's staple, rice.

Now caesium in concentrations above the official safety limit has been detected in a sample from a farm in Fukushima city.

The rice was being prepared for market, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said none had been sold.

The discovery highlights the difficulty of tracking the radiation which has been spread across eastern Japan by wind and rain.

Local governments in rural areas have set up testing centres to try to ensure contaminated products do not get into the food chain.

Last week the Tokyo Metropolitan Government also began testing samples bought at shops in the capital in an attempt to further reassure anxious members of the public.

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More deaths in Indonesia ship sinking

An unidentified survivor of Tuesday's sinking carries a child after being brought ashore in Pangandaran town [AFP] Up to 20 more people are feared dead after an overcrowded wooden ship apparently carrying Australia-bound migrants sank off the coast of Java, according to Australia's immigration minister. About 70 people were aboard the boat which left the southern Indonesian port of Cilacap early on Tuesday, local police say, and seven have so far been confirmed dead. "There are around 20 missing and tragically I think we need to brace ourselves that many, if not most or all of those people, will not be rescued alive," Chris Bowen said on Wednesday. The bodies of seven people including two young boys and three women had been recovered, police said, adding that more were still inside the capsized vessel. "The dead have been identified as being from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ones that survived are mostly from Iran," the chief said. "We have found the location of where the ship capsized. But we haven't turned it. We think there are more dead bodies inside." Migrant swap cancelled Last month, Australia's government abandoned a migrant swap deal , the so-called 'Malaysia arrangement', with the Malaysian government because of a parliamentary impasse. But Bowen said the government remained of the view that the best way to prevent asylum seeker deaths at sea was the now defunct swap agreement. "All the expert advice to us is that the Malaysia arrangement would break the people smugglers' business model," said Bowen. Cotinue reading.....