SARS silent on Malema assets swoop – The SA Revenue Service would say nothing yesterday about reports that axed ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s assets had been seized. This is the latest in a string of woes that Malema is facing. He is facing criminal charges in Polokwane for a number of dodgy dealings involving state contracts. Trade union Solidarity last month laid a charge of incitement against him, alleging that his speeches at mines had led to violence. Now SARS has come knocking – for R16-million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. [timeslive]

Venezuela’s Chavez re-elected to extend socialist rule – Venezuela’s socialist President Hugo Chavez comfortably won re-election on Sunday, quashing the opposition’s best chance at unseating him in 14 years and cementing himself as a dominant figure in modern Latin American history. A fist-pumping Chavez led throngs of supporters in celebration from the balcony of the presidential palace – just months after cancer treatment had taken him out of the public eye and left him fending off rumors he was dying. [reuters]

Hope for more negotiations as mine strikes continue – The situation at Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine remained the same on Sunday, where about 300 wildcat strikers staged a sit-in, the company said. “Nothing much has changed since Saturday. At the moment we are not negotiating but we can’t have them wondering around in the mine,” spokesperson Gert Schoeman said. “It is all about safety. At the moment our priority is to normalise the situation and we need them to leave the mine. We also can’t start blasting and drilling when they are moving about inside – that is not safe.” [mg]

SpaceX Dragon’s liftoff begins the new normal for NASA – SpaceX’s commercial cargo ship rocketed into orbit Sunday in pursuit of the International Space Station, the first of a dozen routine supply runs under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. It was the second liftoff of a Dragon capsule to the orbiting lab staged by California-based SpaceX. The first launch was for a test flight in May, which carried a token amount of non-essential supplies. [msnbc]

Beaches closed after sharks attack whale – A 30m southern right whale carcass has been spotted offshore near Capricorn beach in Cape Town, the city disaster risk management centre said on Sunday. “The whale carcass is approximately three kilometres past Sunrise Circle after Capricorn beach and can been seen from Baden Powell Drive,” said spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes. “It has been established that the whale has been bitten several times by Great White sharks, and the bay is covered in a lot of blood and pieces of blubber are afloat at sea.” [news24]

Video shows Israeli fighter jets shooting down drone – Israel’s air force shot down a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) after it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the country’s military said, but the origins of the drone remain unclear. The Israeli military released a 10-second video clip of what it said was the mid-air interception. In the video, a small, unidentified aircraft is seen moments before being destroyed by a missile fired from a fighter jet. The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean Sea in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. [telegraph]

Warcraft game sparks political row – You can lie, cheat and steal, and still be elected in America. But don’t you dare play a game like World of Warcraft, or your political career might be over. Colleen Lachowicz, a Democratic candidate for the Maine state senate, is under attack by Republicans for being an avid Warcraft player. These are more than the usual condescending remarks about goofy Dungeons & Dragons players. The GOP actually created a Web site that quotes Lachowicz’s posts about she enjoyed stabbing and shooting, and how “I can kill stuff without going to jail”. [forbes]

Vettel wins in Japan to close up on championship leader Alonso – Sebastian Vettel boosted his hopes of a third straight world championship title with a commanding drive from pole to win the Japanese Grand Prix Sunday. Felipe Massa of Brazil finished a distant second in his Ferrari with Kamui Kobayashi sending the home crowd at Suzuka into a frenzy by taking third place. Red Bull’s Vettel made a clean start to avoid the first corner chaos which saw championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari spin out of the race after being clipped by Kimi Raikkonen in his Lotus. [cnn]

ReDigi fights for right to sell used digital music – A New York court is hearing legal arguments that will decide if there can be a legal market in second-hand digital music, an idea strongly opposed by record companies. ReDigi, a Boston, MA startup, opened its virtual doors last year with a scheme to allow the resale of people’s digital music collection if it has been bought on iTunes. Users download ReDigi’s software, which checks if a track has been legally bought, transfers it to the new owner, and ensures that the original is deleted from the seller’s system, all for a fee of around 5 to 15 per cent of the song’s cost. [register]

Steve Jobs’s High School Girlfriend to Publish Memoir – Chrisann Brennan was one of Steve Jobs’s first serious loves, his high school girlfriend and the mother of his daughter Lisa. Now Ms. Brennan will tell the story of her relationship with Mr. Jobs, the Apple co-founder who died in 2011, in a new memoir to be published next year. St. Martin’s Press, part of Macmillan, said on Thursday it had acquired the rights to an untitled memoir by Ms. Brennan, who is now a painter based in the San Francisco Bay Area. [nytimes]

iPhone 5: Supply Fears After Factory ‘Strike’ – A Chinese factory that produces the iPhone 5 for Apple is denying that a workers’ strike “paralysed” production of the device. Production of Apple’s in-demand iPhone 5 may have been hit after thousands of Chinese factory workers went on strike. Up to 4,000 workers were reportedly involved in a dispute over quality control standards and being forced to work a national holiday, leaving production lines “paralysed” for a day. Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Foxconn denied claims from US campaigners and Chinese state media that production had been halted by the row. [sky]

North Korean Soldier Shoots Officers Before Defecting – In what is apparently the first such incident in nearly two-and-half years, a North Korean soldier has defected across the heavily armed land border with the South. South Korean military officials say a soldier from the North claims he shot and killed his platoon and squad chiefs while on guard duty before defecting across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. The incident occurred at noon Saturday along the western section of the DMZ. [voa]

Did you know you can now listen to 2ov Radio on News24?

Facebook Likes automatically being added – Facebook ‘Likes’ are automatically being added to web pages even if a user has not clicked a like button, or even visited the page in question, it has been revealed. A security researcher site found that simply sending a web address to a friend using Facebook’s private messaging function would add two Likes to that page. [timesofindia]

Pope’s ex-butler Paolo Gabriele jailed for theft – Pope Benedict’s ex-butler Paolo Gabriele has been found guilty of stealing confidential papers from him and sentenced to 18 months in jail. Prosecutors had called for a three-year sentence but it was reduced because of “mitigating circumstances”. Ahead of the verdict, Gabriele said he acted out of love for the Church and did not see himself as a thief. He had denied the theft charge but admitted photocopying documents and “betraying the Holy Father’s trust”. Gabriele’s lawyer Cristiana Arru said she did not intend to appeal against the verdict, Reuters reported. Her client would serve his sentence under house arrest in his Vatican apartment while awaiting a possible papal pardon, she said. [bbc]

Steve Hofmeyr in Twitter spat – The two entertainers have crossed swords frequently on their blogs. Now Afrikaans pop idol Steve Hofmeyr has made death threats against comedian John Vlismas on Twitter, but denies he’s engaged in hate speech. Hofmeyr this week told City Press he wasn’t joking when he stood up at the Comedy Central Roast and shoved a page of Vlismas’ script in the edgy comedian’s mouth. [channel24]

US Speedskater Admits Sabotaging Rival’s Skate – The problems within the U.S. short track speedskating program seem no closer to resolution. Investigators announced Friday they found no evidence to conclude definitively that U.S. short track speedskating coach Jae Su Chun had asked one of his skaters, Simon Cho, to tamper with a rival’s skates or that Chun or his assistant, Jun Hyung Yeo, had engaged in a pattern of physical or emotional abuse toward the athletes. [chicagotribune]

Bond movie mistakes highlighted on 50th anniversary – As fans around the world celebrate 50 years of 007 on the big screen on Global Bond Day (05Oct12), movie errors experts at MovieMistakes.com have chosen to mark the occasion by showing film fans that the superspy isn’t perfect. Editor Jon Sandys and his team have clocked 1,000 bloopers from all 22 Bond films dating back to 1962. The majority are continuation errors involving missing items of clothing and car parts, but three mistakes really stand out: Bond’s sports car in You Only Live Twice switches from right hand drive to left hand drive in back-to-back scenes; the film crew can be seen in a mirror in The Man With the Golden Gun, and the crew and onlookers can be seen reflected in a window in Casino Royale. [hollywood]

Christina Aguilera’s New Album: Singer Poses Nude On The Cover Of ‘Lotus’ – Christina Aguilera took to Twitter yesterday to share the cover art for her new album, Lotus. And let’s just say, she pretty much shares everything. On the cover, Aguilera is nude, with her long blonde locks draping over her chest while special effects disguise her bottom-half. It appears she’s emerging out of a lotus flower. “#LOTUS album cover. Here it is! Album out Nov 13. XoXtina,” Aguilera tweeted. This record will be “The Voice” star’s seventh studio album and features her new hit single, “Your Body.” [huffpo]

50 Cent undergoes anger management – Hot-tempered rapper 50 CENT regularly attends anger management classes in a bid to curb his fury. The In Da Club hitmaker publicly admitted to struggling with “anger issues” on Wednesday when he opened up about what inspired him to end his long-running feud with rap rival Fat Joe last weekend. He even confessed his lack of control over his emotions could have caused their eight-year war of words to end in tragedy. [express]

Nigella’s ‘all you can tweet’ diet: How TV-chef ate to lose weight – As revealed in her fabulously sensual Twitter food diary. She was once as well known for her curves as her calorie-laden recipes and famously claimed to ‘never deprive herself’ of food, so when Nigella Lawson slimmed from a size 16 to a size 12, many wondered how she had managed it. Now, in a series of photographs the celebrity chef has shared on Twitter, her secret is revealed – the simple but effective formula of limiting herself to smaller portions. Nigella, who has more than 218,000 followers on the social network, regularly tweets photographs of her own meals along with culinary tips. [dailymail]

Rihanna’s Dad Gives Chris Brown His Blessing To Date His Daughter Again – Rihanna father, Ronald Fenty, has given his blessing to Chris Brown, saying he has no problem if the two stars want to get back together. He says he has always respected Brown. Yesterday Brown confirmed that he split from girlfriend Karrueche Tran, citing that his recent reconciliation with Rihanna and their growing friendship and implying that he doesn’t “want to see her hurt over [his] friendship with Rihanna.” [starpulse]

Jay-Z Concert Will Stream Live on New YouTube Channel – Jay-Z may have 99 problems, but streaming his concerts through YouTube sure ain’t one. The rapper will live-stream the finale of his eight-performance concert series at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET, from his new YouTube channel, Life and Times. The channel is part of a YouTube initiative to bring more original programming to the site. As of now, the page has more than 116,000 subscribers. Featured video playlists already up include “Leisure,” “Decoded” and “Roc Nation Artists,” among others. [mashable]

24 Touching Photos That Make Instagram Great – Instagram just celebrated its second birthday. In just 24 months, the filter-filled photo-sharing service has gone from an iOS-only app to becoming Facebook’s $735 million baby. It’s now so popular that last month, Instagram passed Twitter in daily active users on mobile for the first time. We looked to our readers to commemorate Instagram’s big day. Because, after all, it’s the users who catapulted the app to fame. Here’s how you snapped, cropped, filtered, tilt-shifted and uploaded the last 24 months. [mashable]

Kanye West Returns from Twitter Hiatus to Honor Steve Jobs – Kanye West made a triumphant return to Twitter yesterday and did something very out of character for him … pay his respects to someone else’s accomplishments. The rapper — who made a dramatic exit from the site Thursday and deleted ALL his previous tweets — came back a day later to honor the legacy of Apple founder Steve Jobs, who passed away one year ago. [tmz]

Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ helps calm cranky babies – From Appalachia to England, Psy’s hit single ‘Gangnam Style’ has been revealed to have the surprising side effect of calming down some pretty cranky babies, if evidence found on YouTube is to be believed. Turns out babies also go gaga for “Gangnam.” Two new viral videos on YouTube show South Korean rapper Psy’s hit single “Gangnam Style” has the surprising side effect of calming down some pretty cranky babies. [dailynews]

Male Model Murders Older Lover, Wears His Severed Testicles As a Bracelet – Renato Seabra, a 21-year-old Portugese model, is currently on trial for the castration and murder of former lover Carlos Castro, 65, a society journalist, gay activist and television personality in Portugal. Last year, Castro took Seabra on as a sugar daddy, flying him to Manhattan and providing financial support and modeling gigs, but dumped him after he discovered that Seabra was out partying with women. [jezebel]

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COMING UP TODAY

Long Time Citizen Acoustic Session – Long Time Citizen is a music project by Cape Town musicians Greg Donnelly and Anton Marshall. Both also occasionally play solo and with their other bands. LTC is in some respects a songwriting project for retired rock stars. Tune in to their acoustic set at 13h00 on the Just Josie show. [justjosie]

Tones Of Note – Hosted by Rus Nerwich, SA saxophonist, composer, writer and actor, this show will wire you into the the musical mainframe. Exploring Jazz and all its branches, exploring modern neo-soul and hip hop, and its roots in blues, reggae and folk music. Tune in from 20h00-22h00. [tonesofnote]

FRESH PODCASTS

Swedish Hottie Ola In Studio With Bailey Schneider – Swedish singer Ola (born Ola Nils Håkan Svensson – yes, it’s a mouthful, so let’s stick to Ola) will be one of the star attractions at this year’s Fireman’s Ball, the Gay Pride After-Party. He joined The Bailey Schneider Show to chat Gay Pride, Gay Pride and er, Gay Pride, and play all of his music of course! [podcast]

Biz Takeouts – Google Products In South Africa – The Biz Takeouts Marketing & Media radio show featured Jonathan Ratcliffe, agency lead for Google South Africa, on the range of products offered by Google SA. In the podcast, they chat display and the Google product range. [podcast]