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The pentavalent or the five-in-one vaccine that has been recommended in India by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization actually killed children in Sri Lanka and Bhutan, warns an article in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The report by a group, including paediatricians, professors, health activists and a former Indian health secretary, cautions against the introduction of the five-in-one vaccine that combines antigens against five diseases - diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus (DPT), hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenzae type B (HIB) - in a single shot. “Our article describes how the World Health Organisation (WHO), in an elaborate cover-up, changed its own criteria for classifying adverse effects to say the vaccine was not responsible for the deaths in Sri Lanka,” Jacob Puliyel, head of paediatrics at St Stephen’s Hospital in Delhi and key author, told IANS. Former union health secretary K.B. Saxena, professors of community health in Jawaharlal Nehru

Army has found an array of prohibited items in the Marudamadu Rehabilitation Camp in Mannar yesterday, said Army Spokesman Major General Udaya Medawala speaking to Ada Derana today. These items included 17 mobile phones, 14 sim cards, 30 phone batteries and 21 phone chargers. He added that these items had been kept illegally and then buried underground after being used.

Mahela Jayawardena broke the world record which he jointly held with Sir. Donald Bradman for the most number of test centuries at a single venue with his 10th century at SSC a short while ago. Jayawardena achieved this feat during the second day of the second test against India today.

A combined operation by the Sri Lanka Railways commercial division and Security division has netted 83 ticketless travellers in a single day, said Railways Commercial Director Wijaya Samarasinghe. Fines totaling Rs. 110,260 had been collected on Friday alone from the Maradana station, said Mr. Samarasinghe. The Railways would step up further checking operations within the next few days too, he added.

Sri Lanka cruised to victory in the first test against India after Muttiah Muralitharan became the first bowler to take 800 test wickets in the final ball of his career. Sri Lanka scored 96 runs in their second innings to register the first win in series.

In her last act at the United Nations, the organization’s chief anti-corruption official blasted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a bureaucratic weakling who has reduced the U.N. to a “sad” and perilous state of irrelevance by destroying accountability in his own house. Inga-Britt Ahlenius, the departing undersecretary general for the Office of Internal Oversight Services, dispatched an end-of-assignment report at the close of her 5-year tenure on Friday that accused Ban of undermining her work to make the world body open and accountable. Though Ban has frequently touted his own projects to that end, Ahlenius wrote that under his watch, “There is no transparency, there is lack of accountability” at the U.N. Ahlenius charged that Ban has allowed the U.N. Secretariat — the executive body he controls — to “decay” and “[drift] into irrelevance,” reducing the capacity of the U.N. to respond to international humanitarian crises. “Rather than supporting the internal oversight which is the

President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited the Army Hospitalin Colombo a short while ago to inquire into the health of Minister Wimal Weerawansa. Mr. Weerawansa was taken to hospital after he gave up the fast unto death near the UN office in Colomboyesterday.

Minister Wimal Weerawansa’s mother has died aged 79 at the National Hospitalin Colombo last night, says former Parliamentarian Jayantha Samaraweera. Funeral arrangements are to be notified later.

Diego Maradona's team, among the favorites after four successive wins at the tournament, had only brief spells of control in the quarter-final from the moment Thomas Mueller headed Joachim Loew's Germans into a third-minute lead. Much was expected from Lionel Messi, who was still looking for his first goal at the finals, but Argentina hardly threatened Manuel Neuer's goal as they were easily knocked off their close passing game. It was Argentina's worst World Cup defeat since the 1958 finals in Sweden when they lost 6-1 to Czechoslovakia, as their reliance on a sometimes naive passing game was exposed by a fast European side with precision passes and running into space. Rather than avenging a defeat on penalties by Germany at the same stage of the 2006 finals, Argentina were definitely second best at the Green Point stadium. "Today our team was incredibly convincing in our defensive play to totally neutralize Messi," Loew told a news conference. "What the

The General Assembly today voted unanimously to create a new body for accelerating gender equality and women’s empowerment, crowning four-years of tough negotiations to streamline and raise the profile of the United Nations activities to promote the rights of women and girls. Diplomats erupted in rousing applause as the Assembly adopted a consensus resolution on system-wide coherence that would place four existing United Nations bodies dealing with gender issues under a single umbrella; it will be known as “UN Women”. The resolution calls for the appointment of an Under-Secretary-General to head up the new body, and the establishment of an executive board to provide intergovernmental support to and supervision of its operational activities. Praising Member States for creating a much stronger voice for women and for gender equality at the global level, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the move “historic”, and declared: “It will now be much more difficult for the worl