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.