Janes

KrugerMoll

The UN has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as the region experiences the worst drought in more than half a century. 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 firm. He said discussions with al-Shabab about the safe distribution of food aid were taking place at a local level, and that responses were expected to differ depending on the locality. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking.

MccallisterVaught

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has recently allowed limited access. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the move came after a "significant increase in the workload" over the past fortnight. "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 us affirmatively that they are not being taxed by al-Shabab, they are not being subjected to bribes from al-Shabab,

WhitworthWaite

"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. The deputy administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Donald Steinberg, said the aid must not benefit al-Shabab. She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help. Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News of the World phone-hacking inquiry. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would provide an extra $28m in emergency aid to counter the famine. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking.

TiradoLynn

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. 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 The US considers al-Shabab a terrorist group and last year stopped aid to the large area of Somalia it controls. The deputy administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Donald Steinberg, said the aid must not benefit al-Shabab. But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that "with hindsight" he would not have hired ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief, in the closest he has come to an apology.

EliasWilt

The UN has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as the region experiences the worst drought in more than half a century. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough". Some children look like skeletons while others have swollen legs and hands, he adds. 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 - only to realise, when she arrived, that he was dead. The deputy administrator of the US Agency for International Development, Donald Steinberg, said the aid must not benefit al-Shabab.