Politicians and the navy blamed for illegal fishing

Nearly two thousand fishermen from Kalpitiya peninsular protested today against the use of illegal methods of fishing. They say the use of Dynamite, and triple nets are destroying marine life and their livelihood in the region.

	Protesting fishermen (Photo - Prasad Purnimal)

"From what we hear, high officials of the Navy own some of the boats that use the illegal nets for many years. Politicians and the police are all corrupt. That is why it had not been stopped for over five years." one of the protesters told the BBC.

Roads closed

The protestors cordoned off roads in the area with burned tyres to disrupt the traffic. Police and the army were deployed to contain the demonstrators.

	Police had to call the Army to contain the protest. (Photo - Prasad Purnimal)

Sanath Nishantha, fisheries minister of Wayamba Provincial council, gave an assurance to the protesting fishermen that he will call a meeting of the officials on Tuesday to make arrangements with the Navy and the Police to take necessary steps to stop the usage of illegal methods of fishing,

The practice had continued without the enforcement of the law, due to "certain difficulties some officials had to face", said the minister.

Pakistan NATO blockade to continue

Prime minister says suspension may remain in place for several weeks, as tensions between Islamabad and US remain high.

The US military has left a Pakistani airbase as tensions with Islamabad continue to remain high [AFP/ISPR HANDOUT] Pakistan may continue a suspension of NATO supply routes into Afghanistan for several weeks, the country's prime minister has said. Speaking to the BBC, Yousuf Raza Gilani also refused to rule out closing Pakistani airspace to the US military. Pakistan suspended the passage of NATO supplies on routes that run through the country into Afghanistan in protest against a strike by NATO forces on Pakistani border posts last month that killed 24 soldiers, an attack the government termed "a deliberate act of aggression". Gilani said that there was a "credibility gap" in the relationship with the US. His government is currently carrying out a review of Pakistan's "terms of engagement" with Washington. "[The suspension of supplies] has already entered its 17th day. Hundreds, if not thousands, of containers are parked on the borders, whereas many more are now waiting at the Karachi port," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said. "The chief minister of Balochistan province is even warning that he wants all these tankers and containers to go back, because they're coming under attack: they're sitting ducks. "This is indeed a serious crisis, because most of the aviation fuel which is going into Afghanistan is going through strategic corridors, which both go through Pakistan. Continue reading...

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.....