The giant township neighboring Johannesburg has been at the centre of xenophobic violence in 2008, 2015 and 2017.

The attacks on the shops are believed to have been sparked by a Johannesburg newspaper reporting that foreign businesses are selling fake and expired goods to local consumers.

The first death occurred after a Somali shopowner owner fired a pistol in self defence.

A police spokesperson said one person has been arrested for murder and another for attempted murder.

Officials have  appealed for calm and warned people to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.

The police spokesman confirmed the targets of looting were foreign-owned businesses.

The ANC government, with its history of having  neighbors offer shelter and support to South African refugees during the struggle against apartheid, is particularly embarrassed by outbreaks of xenophobia.

The worst of these was in 2008 when 62 people died and special camps had to be erected to shelter  foreigners outside Johannesburg.

In 2015 at least seven people died  when gangs hunted down foreigners in Johannesburg and the east coast port city of Durban.

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Delegates at the COP22 climate change conference in Morocco are hearing 2016’s global temperatures are about 1.2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

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The  World Meteorological Organization says temperatures spiked in the early months of the year because of the powerful El Niño event of 2015-16.

Preliminary data for October indicates that they are at a sufficiently high level for 2016 to remain on track for the title of hottest year on record. This would mean that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have been this century (1998 was the other one).

Long-term climate change indicators are also record breaking. Concentrations of major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to increase to new records.

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