Sometimes the British overplay their importance in international affairs, but in the humanitarian crisis in east Africa they have contributed more than most.

David Cameron delivered a rebuke to other countries last week for failing to match the UK’s response to famine in the region, while Andrew Mitchell, the international development secretary, who has firmly defended the ringfenced UK aid budget, said: “The world must stop wringing its hands and get on with helping the millions of people in dire need in the Horn of Africa.”

Testing household products on animals would be banned, under efforts to reduce experimentation on animals unveiled by the government on Monday.

Lynne Featherstone, Home Office minister, announced a consultation on plans to prohibit licences on

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is unlikely to receive US approval for its key cervical cancer vaccine until 2010 at the earliest, under a new timetable it released on Monday. After requests for fresh information on Cervarix from the Food & Drug Administration in December, GSK said it had decided to await completion of a pivotal clinical trial to be filed with the US regulator during the first half of next year.