“With nearly one and a half million people in need of food assistance in Malawi, the United Nations, the government and other partners have launched a relief operation to meet growing needs owing to bad weather and high food prices,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “It is widely believed that this figure could increase significantly during coming months, the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a news release,” the news service notes (10/2). “While addressing this year’s U.N. General Assembly in New York, Malawi’s President Joyce Banda said her country may not be able to attain the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on hunger and poverty reduction,” Deutsche Welle writes, adding, “She cited continuing drought as an impediment to achieving the goal of halving the number of those going hungry.” The news agency writes, “Malawi’s government has said the country does not have enough maize in its silos,” and notes the price of a bag of maize has doubled since May 2013 (Mhango, 10/1).