Nairobi, July 20
The United Nations declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia today and said it could quickly spread unless donors took action. Mark Bowden, humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had been hit by the worst famine in the region for 20 years.

The UN is proposing “exceptional measures” of providing cash relief while it finds ways of getting larger volumes of food aid into southern Somalia, Bowden said. The UN is also appealing for $300 million over the next two months for Somalia. “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,” Bowden said.

“Every day of delay in assistance is literally a matter of life or death for children and their families in the famine-affected areas.”

The UN said 3.7 million people across the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country, or almost half the population, were now in danger. Of them 2.8 million are in the south. In the worst affected areas, half the children are malnourished. “It is likely that tens of thousands will already have died, the majority of those being children,” Bowden said.

Years of drought, that have also affected Kenya and Ethiopia, have hit harvests and conflict has made it extremely difficult for agencies to operate and access communities in the south of the country.

The south is controlled by al Shabaab Islamist insurgents, affiliated to Al-Qaida, who are fighting to topple the Western-backed government. The group also controls parts of the capital Mogadishu and central Somalia.

In early July, the rebels lifted a ban on food aid which they had said created dependency. Some analysts say they are allowing aid in because they fear a public backlash if they do not. Others say the rebels want bribes.

The UN has said the inability of food agencies to work in the region since early 2010 because of the ban had contributed to the crisis. “If cash is made available, that will enable the market to continue to function,” said Luca Alinovi, head of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organisation in Somalia.

The UN is working to improve its access to airstrips in al Shabaab-controlled territory so that it can import large volumes of food into the country, Bowden said.

Nearly 135,000 Somalis have fled since January, mainly to Kenya and Ethiopia. An average of 1,700 and 1,300 Somalis are arriving in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively each day. The UN defines famine as at least 20 percent of households facing extreme food shortages, a crude mortality rate of more than two persons per 10,000 per day and malnutrition rates of above 30 per cent. — Reuters

Islamabad, July 20
The laptop, mobile phone and email records of slain Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad have gone missing. This was disclosed to the media by officials of an inquiry commission probing the murder.

The panel chaired by Supreme Court Justice Saqib Nisar, which met in the apex court building yesterday, directed the police chiefs of Punjab province and Islamabad to continue their investigation into the crime.

Police officials presented the FIR and other records regarding the crime to the commission. Senior journalist Hamid Mir and Zafar Shaikh, a friend of Shahzad, recorded their statements.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Pervaiz Shaukat, a member of the commission, told reporters that authorities had approached companies for information on Shahzad’s e-mail data. He said the commission was fulfilling all its legal requirements and efforts were being made to trace Shahzad’s cellular phone and laptop.

The commission will meet again shortly and four journalists, including Najam Sethi and Mehar Bukhari, are expected to record their statements, he said.

Shahzad was abducted while driving from his house to a TV station in Islamabad on May 29, two days after he alleged in an article that Al-Qaida had infiltrated the Pakistan Navy. His body, bearing marks of torture, was found the next day in a canal in Punjab province. — PTI 

Cape Canaveral, July 20
On the eve of NASA's historic, wheel-stopping end to the shuttle programme, the four astronauts making the final journey said today they're starting to feel a rush of emotions.

"You know what? I really do feel like it's coming near the end," said the commander of the homeward-bound space shuttle Atlantis, Christopher Ferguson.

Among the highlights noted today by the four-member crew as well as flight controllers: the 180 satellites deployed into orbit by the space shuttle fleet and the construction of the International Space Station, a nearly 1 million-pound science outpost that took 12½ years and 37 shuttle flights to build. — AP

BRIEFLY

Humans walked upright far earlier than previously thought: Study
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Saudi woman to be tried for driving
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Remains of Hitler’s bomber found
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