World

A major study published in a British medical journal, The Lancet, says pollution kills at least 9 million people a year and costs nearly $5 trillion annually.

The study, released on October 20, says one out of every six premature deaths in 2015 could be attributed to exposure to toxins in the air, water, or soil.

Although the estimate of 9 million deaths was described as "conservative," it is more than three times the number of people killed annually by AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined and more than 15 times the number of people killed by wars and other forms of violence.

The Lancet study is the first of its kind to assemble data on disease and deaths caused by air, water, and soil pollution.

"Pollution is a massive problem that people aren't seeing because they're looking at scattered bits of it," epidemiologist Phillip Landrigan, a lead author of the study, told AP.

India was the country with the most premature deaths caused by pollution, with an estimated 2.5 million in 2015.

China was second, with some 1.8 million deaths by pollution-related causes.

Pakistan, Bangladesh, North Korea, South Sudan, and Haiti were also featured in the report.

With reporting by AP, BBC, and The Guardian

A new United Nations report says more than 8,000 children were killed or injured in armed conflicts throughout the world last year, a number that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called "unacceptable."

The UN said in a statement that its annual Children and Armed Conflict report, presented to the UN Security Council on October 5, found that Afghanistan had the highest number of verified child casualties since the 192-nation body began documenting civilian casualties in 2009.

The report said that 3,512 children in Afghanistan were killed or maimed in 2016, up 24 percent from the previous year. In Syria the figure was 1,299, and in Yemen it was 1,340.

The report also found that hundreds of children were victims of sexual violence, targeted in attacks on schools, or recruited as soldiers.

The report included a blacklist of organizations deemed responsible for abuses against children, including groups based in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's government in its conflict against Huthi rebels was also included in the list for the first time.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last year removed Saudi Arabia from the list following pressure from Riyadh. Human Rights Watch said Guterres did "the right thing" by adding the coalition to the list.

With reporting by AP and AFP