11 white-furred rats are in the final stages of a training program to find landmines that kill or injure hundreds of people each year in conflict-wracked Colombia.

The government project, which began in 2006, trains specially bred rats to detect the metals used in landmines, thousands of which have been laid during the country's decades-long conflict with left-wing guerrillas.

(READ the full Reuters story in MSNBC)