Sutherland

CopleyGantt

"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. Some children look like skeletons while others have swollen legs and hands, he adds. The US considers al-Shabab a terrorist group and last year stopped aid to the large area of Somalia it controls. 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". Mr Cameron said the public inquiry would be widened to examine broadcasters and social media and named the panel "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. Labour MP Nick Raynsford said that, when Mr Coulson was at Downing Street, the cabinet secretary was alerted to evidence of illegal phone hacking, covert surveillance and hostile media briefing against a senior government official - the cabinet secretary later denied it. BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says this marks a considerable change in policy from Washington.

RazoSeale

"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. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would provide an extra $28m in emergency aid to counter the 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. Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking. 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.

RayBustamante

Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News of the World phone-hacking inquiry. 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 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. She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help.

MadridBuford

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the move came after a "significant increase in the workload" over the past fortnight. But US aid officials say assurances must be given that the insurgents will not interfere with its distribution. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough". 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. 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.

SampsonBorden

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. She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough". She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help. Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine. Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News of the World phone-hacking inquiry.