Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine. The law firm had said it was being prevented from responding to "inaccurate" comments made by News International chairman James Murdoch because the company would not allow it breach its duty of client confidentiality. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large…

The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says the emotive word "famine" is used rarely and carefully by humanitarian organisations, and it is the first time since 1992 that the word has been applied to a situation in Somalia. "What we need is assurances from the World Food Programme and from other agencies, the United Nations…

that they can operate unfettered," Mr Steinberg told the BBC. In April 2010 US President Barack Obama issued an executive order naming al-Shabab a terrorist organisation, meaning no US aid could go to areas under its control, our analyst adds. Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News…

Downing Street confirms that the prime minister received and responded to a letter from Labour MP Tom Watson last October, in which he had raised concerns about Mr Coulson During Wednesday's House of Commons debate on the phone-hacking scandal, MPs called on News International to publish the full exchanges about e-mails examined by the legal…

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the move came after a "significant increase in the workload" over the past fortnight. Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with…

Nearly half the Somali population - 3.7 million people - were in crisis, he said, with most of them in the south. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough". "The overall requirement is $1.6bn (�990m) for Somalia, roughly $300m…

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said new funds to help the country were desperately needed. One woman he met arrived after a long trip, much of it on foot, carrying her one-and-a-half-year-old son on her back -…

'Dangerously inadequate' In April 2010 US President Barack Obama issued an executive order naming al-Shabab a terrorist organisation, meaning no US aid could go to areas under its control, our analyst adds. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that "with hindsight"…

"The overall requirement is $1.6bn (�990m) for Somalia, roughly $300m is needed in the next two months to provide an adequate response to famine-affected areas. Children and adults are dying at an appalling rate," Mr Ban said. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa,…

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says the emotive word "famine" is used rarely and carefully by humanitarian organisations, and it is the first time since 1992 that the word has been applied to a situation in…