Stanton

WynneKovach

'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 inquiry. 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. But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, said the response by many European and developed countries to the crisis in the Horn of Africa had been "derisory and dangerously inadequate". BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says this marks a considerable change in policy from Washington.

CantuPower

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 Somalia was shocking.

SeymourBowling

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 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. "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 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.

WoodsFuchs

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 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia. In other developments in the phone-hacking saga: Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough".

MadisonSchmitt

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 the humanitarian situation in Somalia's southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle districts had deteriorated rapidly and declared them to be suffering a famine. 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 News of the World in 2007. Families have built their own homes at the camp with tree branches, wood and plastic sheets, he says. An estimated 10 million people have been affected in East Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century. More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia. The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, said the response by many European and developed countries to the crisis in the Horn of Africa had been "derisory and dangerously inadequate".