COLOMBO - AT least three people were wounded in a bomb blast in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo on Saturday, a day after a suicide bomb attack killed two people elsewhere in the city, police said.

The latest explosion was outside a mosque in Colombo's commercial area of Pettah, police said adding three people were taken to hospital.

LUCKNOW (India) - A BITTER, near-freezing cold has killed at least 14 homeless people in northern India since the new year began, a government official said on Saturday.

Beggars or impoverished migrant workers often sleep in the open, with only plastic sheets or jute cloth sacks for cover.

DHAKA - BANGLADESH vaccinated 22 million children against polio on Saturday, in the second round of a fresh drive against the incurable disease that re-emerged in the country nearly three years ago, health officials said.

The first round of the campaign to immunise all children under 5 was held on Nov. 28, with the assistance of the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).