Associated Press/ABC News: UNICEF says Pakistan is riskiest country for newborns
“The U.N. children’s agency in a report released Tuesday singled out Pakistan as the riskiest country for newborns, saying that out of every 1,000 children born in Pakistan, 46 die at birth. … The report, with its dismal figures that show South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa as the worst places for a child to be born, is part of UNICEF’s new campaign, launched to raise awareness to bring down neonatal mortality rates…” (Gannon, 2/20).

The Guardian: Newborn survival rates in U.S. only slightly better than in Sri Lanka
“The risk of dying as a newborn in the U.S. is only slightly lower than the risk for babies in Sri Lanka and Ukraine, according to UNICEF. A report by the U.N. children’s agency found that five newborn babies die around the world every minute, or about 2.6 million every year. The figure is described as ‘alarmingly high,’ particularly as 80 percent of these deaths are from preventable causes. A million babies draw their last breath the same day they took their first. … The risk of dying as a newborn, which is closely linked to income level of countries, varies enormously. … But a country’s income explains only part of the story…” (McVeigh, 2/20).

Thomson Reuters Foundation: More newborns dying in West and Central Africa as world “fails poorest babies”
“More babies are dying each year in West and Central Africa even as child health improves overall, aid agencies said on Tuesday, calling the region’s newborn death rate a ‘hidden tragedy.’ Five of the 10 most dangerous countries to be born are in West and Central Africa, with infants there 50 times more likely to die within a month than if they were born in Japan or Iceland, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said in a report…” (Peyton, 2/20).