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PANICKED PIRATES DROP RANSOMS AS KENYAN TROOPS MAKE BUSINESS DIFFICULT

Pirates are nothing if not canny businessmen. According Kenya’s Business Daily, Somali pirates have dropped their ransom demands by as much as 50% in the wake of the Kenyan military incursion into Somalia. It’s a bit like a shopping mall sale, with the pirates trying to get rid of their stock before they’re forced to release it for nothing. By SIMON ALLISON.

SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCE MALARIA BREAKTHROUGH

Malaria kills about 800,000 people a year, most of them children in sub-Saharan Africa. And, while researchers haven’t found a cure, they’ve made a huge leap in our understanding of how the disease works – one that could finally lead to an effective vaccine. By SIMON ALLISON.

PALESTINE’S BID FOR UN MEMBERSHIP THWARTED

A leaked draft report from the United Nations Security Council membership committee suggests the Palestinian bid for statehood will fail. By KHADIJA PATEL.

FLOATING LANTERNS ARE POIGNANT SYMBOLS AS THAILAND BATTLES FLOODS ON

On Thursday night Thais celebrated Loi Krathong, the floating lantern festival and the most picturesque of all the Thai festivals. Traditionally, banana leaves are fashioned into tiny boats and filled with food, incense and a lit candle. They’re then set afloat as an offering to Phra Mae Khongkha, goddess of water. The timing of the festival couldn’t be more apt – the water goddess doesn’t seem to be very happy right now. By SIMON ALLISON.

JAMES MURDOCH SURVIVES TO LIE ANOTHER DAY

According to, well, himself, James Murdoch heard no evil, saw no evil, et cetera when it came to the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Which begs the question: did the heir to the Murdoch empire speak no evil when he appeared before Parliament back in June? Apparently not, at least in Murdoch’s version, in which he’s chosen to cast himself as incompetent, rather than malevolent. By THERESA MALLINSON.

In depth

MALEMA RULING: THE WHAT, THE HOW AND THE WHY

We were all expecting some sort of sanctions against the ANC Youth League leaders, but nothing as drastic was announced by Derek Hanekom at Luthuli House on Monday. Julius Malema has been suspended from the ANC and the ANCYL for five years, and League’s Floyd Shivambu has been suspended for three years. That screeching sound you hear is the shifting of tectonic plates in South Africa’s political landscape. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

THE DAY THE ANC CLAIMED ITS SOUL BACK

When the dust settles and the medics come to take away the wounded, lying buried in the ground will be Julius Malema, and with him the threat that he has posed to the ANC, to our future, and to us directly. His agenda is no more. The mines are safe. With him will be the political corpses of Fikile Mbalula, Tokyo Sexwale, and, finally, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

CHRIS VICK: ANCYL REGIME CHANGE TODAY, ANC REGIME CHANGE TOMORROW?

The ANC ruling on Julius Malema and his comrades could have more impact on the future of the ANC than it does on the Youth League leader.

JON QWELANE STILL REPRESENTING SA IN UGANDA – AND DIRCO DOESN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT ALL THE FUSS IS ABOUT

On Wednesday Dirco Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane answered a parliamentary question about why Jon Qwelane hadn’t been recalled from Uganda in light of his infamous homophobic views. (Another question is why he was ever appointed to the position in the first place). She gave the same old line – that the column which caused all the fuss was penned before he took up his duties, thereby skirting the real issue of whether bigots should be accorded the responsibility of representing our country abroad. But the opposition, not to mention gay-rights activists, aren’t going to let this one go without a fight. By THERESA MALLINSON.

NEVILLE ALEXANDER – A LINGUISTIC REVOLUTIONARY

He’s been a Robben Island prisoner and more recently one of South Africa’s most eminent educationists. He’s also a linguistic revolutionary. KHADIJA PATEL lent Neville Alexander an ear.

DAN BROTMAN: A COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION

No one knows what South African Jewry will look like in 50 years, as this will largely be dependent on the direction the country takes. However, what is certain is that the community will not fully transform until it looks deeper at the effects that living in a closed and totalitarian society had on its communal structures and leadership.

GREECE NAMES PAPADEMOS TO LEAD SALVATION COALITION

Greece named former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos on Thursday to head a crisis government, ending a chaotic search for a leader to save the country from default, bankruptcy and an exit from the eurozone. By Lefteris Papadimas and Harry Papachristou (Reuters).

NEW ITALIAN GOVERNMENT SEEN WITHIN DAYS

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti emerged on Thursday as favourite to replace Silvio Berlusconi at the head of an emergency government as Italy’s politicians rushed to ward off a crisis that is endangering the entire eurozone. By Paolo Biondi and Barry Moody (Reuters).

CITIES OF EUROPE HAUNTED BY EUROZONE CRISIS

In the stuffy corridors of Brussels, and on the streets of Poland, Portugal and Paris, the eurozone crisis has left people feeling helpless in the face of a force beyond their control, and fearful of its consequences. (Reuters).

SEX, LIES AND POLITICS IN FLORIDA – A TRAVELOGUE

Perhaps Americans no longer expect their politicians to behave properly, let alone coherently. Perhaps they just shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well, so it goes,” when a politician is caught in the act of straying far – or is accused of doing so by repeated claimants. In that sense, perhaps, Americans have now joined with the British, the Japanese, the French – and the South Africans – in expecting very little from their politicians any more. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

DRC MOVIE VIVA RIVA! AS CLOSE TO KINSHASA AS YOU’LL EVER GET

The DRC is not a country known for its film-making – Viva Riva! is the first film shot there in 25 years. But it was worth the wait. It’s a cracking story about a small-time crook trying to live it up in the not-so- bright lights of Kinshasa. There’s sex, booze and plenty of violence – all to some great Congolese tunes. By SIMON ALLISON.

Sport pages

BRIEFS

BETS ON FOR MASSA AND HAMILTON TO COLLIDE AGAIN

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton kept their Formula One feud simmering on Thursday as bookmakers offered odds on them colliding again in Abu Dhabi this weekend. By Alan Baldwin (Reuters).

SOUTH AFRICA VS. AUSTRALIA, DAY 2: MURDER ON THE GRASSY KNOLL

The second day of the first SA – Australia Test was so bizarre and unearthly that it’s hard to believe it actually happened. During a day when voicemail messages lasted longer than some batsmen at the crease, PAUL BERKOWITZ tried to make sense of it all.

INDIAN GP SUCCESS BOOSTS IPL-STYLE LEAGUE

Organisers of India’s new motorsport league hope a dash of celebrity glitz and glamour will help attract a core following and deliver the same kind of success as the lucrative Indian Premier League cricket tournament. By Sudipto Ganguly (Reuters).

JOHNNY WILKINSON CONDEMNS “NAI?VE” ENGLAND TEAM MATES

Jonny Wilkinson has labelled his England team mates as naive to think their World Cup drinking session would go unreported and believes some of them arrived at the tournament in the wrong frame of mind. By Mitch Phillips (Reuters).