Labourers from the fertile farms of South Africa’s northernmost province regularly take their grievances to a modest office in Musina’s Nancefield township, just south of the Zimbabwe border. Most labourers tell of abuse by farm owners, ranging from physical violence to illegal evictions. But behind every labourer’s dispute is a single issue: land.

It was, as Boy George said, as if everyone had deflated their egos for the evening when the biggest stars in British pop music squeezed into a London studio and recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas? on a chilly November day in 1984. The first Band Aid single raised £8-million in aid for Africa and kick-started Live Aid, the global pop concert which raised more than £60-million for charity.

Iran announced on Sunday night that it was freezing all operations connected with uranium enrichment in a diplomatic victory for the European Union and a move that should spare Tehran being sent to the United Nations security council. The Iranian announcement followed 10 days of brinkmanship after marathon negotiations in Paris between Iran and the EU troika of Britain, France and Germany.

The new Palestinian leadership on Sunday set January 9 for elections to choose a successor to Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. But in a sign of the potential upheaval the ballot could cause within the occupied territories, gunmen opened fire in protest at the arrival of Mahmoud Abbas, the former prime minister who is thought likely to win the election.

Once famed for their white-sand beaches, the islands of the Pacific are threatened by a waste mountain. Rubbish now clogs streams flowing into the harbour in Samoa’s capital Apia, and floats through the mangrove forests of Fiji. Every part of the region is affected. And one of the biggest battles in many island societies, say experts, is raising awareness of the problem.