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 - only to realise, when she arrived, that he was dead. She said there had been a "surge of inquiries and requests for assistance from the public and solicitors". Some children look like skeletons…

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. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban…

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 Families have built their own homes at the camp with tree branches, wood and plastic sheets, he says. But US aid officials say assurances must be…

Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia said the ongoing conflict in Somalia had made it extremely difficult for agencies to access communities in the south, which are controlled by al-Shabab.…

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 Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. In Somalia's war-ravaged capital, Mogadishu, the…

Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help. In other developments in the phone-hacking saga: News International's parent company News Corporation has also confirmed it has stopped paying the…

Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. Meanwhile, News of the World owner News International said it had authorised law firm Harbottle & Lewis to answer any questions…

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. 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 firm. "If we don't act now, famine will spread to all…

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. "What we need is assurances from the World Food Programme and from other agencies, the United Nations or other agencies, both public and in the non-governmental sector, who are willing to go into Somalia who will tell…

"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. During Wednesday's House of Commons debate on the phone-hacking scandal, MPs called on News International to publish the…