Sep 9, 2015 3 min read

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The rate of child deaths around the world dropped by more than half since 1990 – but not enough to reach the United Nations goal of a two-thirds reduction by 2015, according to a new report released Tuesday evening.

New estimates show under-5 deaths fell from 12.7 million per year in 1990 to 5.9 million this year, the first time the figure has gone below 6 million.

Despite the decline, 16,000 children under the age of 5 still die every day, according to the report by the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Bank Group and the U.N.’s Population Division.

Based on the data, UNICEF reported 48 million lives of under-5 youngsters were saved since governments committed to achieve the U.N. goal in 2000.

World leaders are expected to adopt a new set of goals for the next 15 years at a U.N. summit later this month. UNICEF said 38 million more lives of young children can be saved if progress to reduce child mortality is accelerated.

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) – Authorities in Colombia said they seized more than 1 metric ton of cocaine disguised as printer ink and bound for Mexico.

The police said officers at Bogota’s El Dorado airport were tipped off when a drug-sniffing Labrador named Mona detected the narcotics hidden in 48 boxes of a 1-metric ton cargo shipment bound for a company in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. There were no arrests and police wouldn’t say on which airline the illegal cargo shipment was stashed.

The police in a statement Monday said as soon as the black powder tested positive for cocaine they alerted their Mexican counterparts leading to the bust of a similar amount of so-called “black cocaine” at Mexico City’s airport on a flight that had departed Bogota hours earlier.

MOSCOW (AP) – Iran granted permission for Russian planes to fly over its territory en route to Syria, Russian news agencies said Wednesday, a bypass needed after Bulgaria refused overflights amid signs of a Russian military buildup in Syria that has concerned the U.S. and NATO.

The news agencies quoted Maxim Suslov, spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Tehran, as saying it received Iranian permission for Syria-bound flights. After Bulgaria rejected Moscow’s overflight request for Sept. 1-24, a path via Iran and Iraq appeared to be the only one left, as Russia apparently sought to avoid flying over Turkey, which in 2012 grounded a Syria-bound plane carrying radar parts from Moscow.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Warplanes bombed two boats carrying 20 Indian crew members as the vessels traveled between Somalia and Yemen, India’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the Yemeni coast guard said a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemeni Shiite rebels bombed boats off the war-torn country’s coast.

Thirteen crew members are alive and seven are missing, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said in a statement. He said authorities are trying to gather more information. He didn’t elaborate on who may have carried out the attack.

Yemeni coast guard officials said a Saudi-led coalition attacked more than five boats off the Yemeni coast.