United States warplanes unleashed two air strikes and ground fire on the restive city of Baquba on Monday, in a morning of violence that left about 20 insurgents dead. Violent clashes also erupted in the town of Buhruz, and a convoy of aid from Iraq’s Red Crescent withdrew from the main hospital on the outskirts of Fallujah.

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.