The South African government has called for a peaceful resolution to the impasse surrounding Iran’s nuclear programme, following a meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and Iranian Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday, the government news agency, BuaNews reported on Thursday.

”With one fluid movement, Mabele’s assistant heaves the bleating goat over his shoulder and into the open boot of the car. He then repeats the process with the second goat, which seems more stoical about its fate. The goats soon settle down and two satisfied clients drive off. Goats are famously obliging.” The divide between town and country, urban and rural, is by no means clear-cut.

In Beslan, they are filling in the holes. The cemetery on the road from the airport is a sprawling mass of upturned earth, each fresh grave marked out from the surrounding mud by a perimeter of red bricks. The flowers and bare wooden stick crosses jut out from the rough grazing pasture.

Four of South Africa’s leading apparel retailers — Edcon, Foschini, Truworths and Woolworths — have announced the establishment of a trust fund to help research and implement solutions to sourcing in the local apparel manufacturing industry, as well as confirming their commitment to local sourcing.

‘First it was the fags, now it’s the drink,” came the murmur from the street corners outside Ireland’s pubs this week. With smoking banned from bars, drinkers are braced for a different government crackdown after statistics revealed a country killing itself with alcohol.