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BBC news with Sumant Gamary
A senior United Nations official says nearly half of the population of Somalia is threatened with malnutrition. The head of the UN humanitarian office for Somalia Mark Bowden says more than 2.5 million people were already in urgent need of aid, and that could rise by another million in the coming weeks. Adam Mynott reports.
Somalia faces the worst crisis than Darfur, according to Mark Bowden, who is responsible for coordinating humanitarian aids for the whole African country. He says a number of factors have come together, a pooling insecurity as rival militias continue to fight, successive droughts, sky-rocketing food prices, and the collapse of Somali currency. Difficulties faced by aid agencies who are trying to get food into Somalia are extreme. And that task is made more difficult because fighting and violence has displaced a million Somalis from their homes.
The British government has announced that a next 230 troops will be deployed in Afghanistan. It will bring the total number of British soldiers there to just over 8,000, most of them are based in the southern Province of Helmand. The British Defense Secretary Des Browne says new tactics by Taliban militants have provided new challenges. Our defense correspondent Coreland Lauyer reports.
British command remains a bit // about the military progress being made in Helmand Province, with the Taliban now being held in //.Being most criticized with suicide bombs, road tank devices, remains a threat. But it's clear that these forces help in // by the slow pace of civil reconstruction efforts, improving daily life of Afghan villages by providing basics, that is, clean water and electricity. It's seen as central to improve stability.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has unveiled a memorial in London to journalists around the world killed in the line of //. In the sculpture, a single beam of light rides a kilometre into the night sky from the roof of the BBC headquarters’ broadcasting house. Mr. Ban says the memorial stood in tribute to foreign journalists.
"This monument stands in tributes for all those who have sacrificed their lives, so that the rest of us could be informed. But it is also for those who survive, those who are out there right now, risking their lives to report what they uncover in the face of deadly threats."
European Union Foreign Ministers have agreed to keep the Lisbon reform Treaty, despite its rejection by Irish voters last week. At a meeting in Luxembourg, Ministers rejected the suggestions that Ireland might be left behind while other countries pressed on with integration. The Irish Foreign Minister said there was no threatening language or any sense of being marginalized. The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he would defend the principles, that the treaty must be ratified by all member states.
World news from the BBC.
The NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says Ukraine bid to join their lines should not be influenced by any third party, in a current reference to Russia's fears of opposition. Mr. de Hoop Scheffer was speaking in Ukrainian Capital Kiev after talks with President Viktor Yushchenko.
"Decision-making in NATO is by the 26 allies and by them only, and that includes decision-making on getting Ukraine close to NATO. Nobody else could take the decision but defend its allies."
The Nigerian government has announced it's investigating the option of oil exploration licenses in the last weeks of President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration. From Lagos Alexlast reports.
Last year all exploration licenses were sold off for 600 million dollars, just based before the day President Olusegun Obasanjo has to leave office. The Obasanjo Administration // did anyone illegally benefit from the sale. It's the latest high-profile probe into the conduct of Mr. Obasanjo's Administration. But the new government is also currently referring the whole oil and gas sector. Its vast revenues drive the economy, but it also remains a source of // and corruption. Finding Merkley Dealing's past is not difficult. Really cleaning up the sector may be a bit harder.
In Romania, a dead man has been re-elected as mayor of the northeast village of //. Residents knowingly voted for the man Neculai Ivascu, who has held the post for 18 years, preferring him to his living opponent. Mr. Ivascu died of liver disease just after voting again. One resident said he was / for the death but he didn't want change.
Germany has qualified for the quarter-finals of the European Football Championships, after edging out the co-host Austria 1-0. Germany was now playing Portugal in the game. In the day after the game Croatia beat Poland by the same score in Klagenfurt. The Croatians are meeting Turkey in the quarter-finals.
