The World Health Organization (WHO) postponed on Saturday the planned destruction of the world's last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to allow more research into vaccines against the bioterror weapon.Two years ago, the United Nations top health body set 2002 as the deadline for getting rid of remaining stocks amid hopes that the killer disease, officially declared eradicated in 1977, would never return. Once one of the world's most feared diseases, smallpox kills about 30 percent of its victims and leaves others disfigured. There is no effective treatment once somebody falls ill, but administering the vaccine in the days following exposure can prevent the disease developing.

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