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. Nearly half the Somali population - 3.7 million people - were in crisis, he said, with most…

"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," said the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden. "What we need is assurances from the World Food Programme and from other agencies, the United Nations or other agencies,…

She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough". News International's parent company News Corporation has also confirmed it has stopped paying the legal fees of former private detective Glenn Mulcaire, who was convicted of phone hacking on behalf of the…

The protester accused of throwing shaving foam at Rupert Murdoch is charged with a public order offence 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. Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that "with…

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. Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. Families have built their own…

'Dangerously inadequate' He said the goal was to save lives, "not to play a game of 'gotcha' with a UN agency or any other group that is brave enough to go in and provide that assistance". Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News of the World phone-hacking…

She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help. that they can operate unfettered," Mr Steinberg told the BBC. Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in…

But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. She said there had been a "surge of inquiries and requests for assistance from the public and solicitors". Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine. Prime Minister David Cameron told…

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. An estimated 10 million people have been affected in East Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century. More than…

Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily. 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. The UN said…