If there hadn't been an announcement about anyone else being disciplined just before the weekend, we’d probably all have been concentrating on the machinations behind the appointment process of the Chief Justice, which is turning into a huge political story.  The Judicial Service Commission met over the weekend, and decided on its way forward. And the way forward is going to be slower than President Jacob Zuma would have liked, but he’ll probably have to accept it. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

It ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. The Pope's trip to Spain concluded on Sunday with rain washing out his address to a million young Spaniards at a Madrid airfield, bringing to a close a visit that the Vatican will struggle to see as a success. By REBECCA DAVIS.

ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe warned the Constitutional Court against acting “in opposition to government” in an interview with Sowetan on Thursday.  PAUL BERKOWITZ examines some of the Bills recently drafted by Parliament and finds out that the problem lies with the legislature, and not with the judiciary. 

Double-D-day has arrived for ANC Youth League firebrand Julius Malema. He has been slapped with charges that could see him lose his position if found guilty, while the Public Protector will be probing the tenders given to a company he’s linked to. And Floyd Shivambu isn't escaping censure either. CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports.

Shepard Fairey's peace mural in Copenhagen is right next door to a Youth House that was demolished back in 2007. When local media erroneously reported that Fairley was being funded by the same city council that tore down the house, this led to his mural – and himself – being attacked. By THERESA MALLINSON.

It surely doesn’t need a political expert to understand that “Jobs!” is the official ur-word for the US 2012 general election. With unemployment around 9%, it seems that almost every conversation in America – except where the participants are baying at the moon over the iniquities of the Federal Reserve Bank – ends up at unemployment. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

The single Euro bond market may not have sparked the robust support of Angela Merkel or Nicolas Sarkozy, but it is definitely going to happen someday, market analysts said. The idea is supposed to insulate weaker economies from downturns, but will definitely enrage Euro-sceptics all over. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

The Land Bank isn't doing too badly, for a bank in the middle of a financial crisis, and not badly at all as a parastatal trying to claw its way back from rampant corruption. But as its annual results showed on Thursday, it's doing little to nothing for emergent black farmers, besides sitting on much-needed government development money instead of spending it. Even if the President doesn't realise it. BY PHILLIP DE WET.

The Press Council report into media regulation in South Africa has come out strongly in favour of continued self-regulation, with a few tweaks here and there. Whether this is enough to finally and completely dissuade the ruling party from looking into setting up a media appeals tribunal is arguable. By THERESA MALLINSON.

Protesters trashed the main square at the University of the Free State on Wednesday apparently unhappy about the banning of political activity on campus. The SRC elections later this month should prove interesting. By THERESA MALLINSON.

UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld died in a mysterious plane crash almost exactly 50 years ago. Now new evidence has been uncovered which seems to implicate the British in his death. By REBECCA DAVIS.

It's been a bad week for the Murdochs and News Corp. James Desborough, News of the World's US editor, has been arrested in London on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. By REBECCA DAVIS.

As the ANC’s national executive meeting (NEC) kicks off in Pretoria on Friday, nobody’s talking about the Youth League elephant in the room. At least not to bladdie agents like CARIEN DU PLESSIS.

It may sound like an ancient tale: two sovereign states that start an armed conflict over an insignificant speck of dirt. Not possible anymore? Think again. A tiny island in Lake Victoria is the object of a tug of war between Kenya and Uganda. By KHADIJA PATEL.

The global economy's going to pot, Julius Malema is still allowed to say things in public and the Springboks are rubbish. But here, finally, is a story guaranteed to restore your faith in human nature. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Here we go again. On Wednesday, the UN-backed, Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon published a 47-page indictment of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Unsurprisingly, the indictment implicates four members of Iranian- and Syrian-funded Hezbollah, and becomes the latest powder keg in an already smouldering Middle East. By RICHARD POPLAK.

The DA got a jump on the ANC during the 2011 municipal elections, launching their campaign months ahead of the ruling party’s. Not resting on their laurels, they’ve now begun preparations for their 2014 national campaign, with the promise of developing an alternative economic policy that will deliver economic growth of 8%. By OSIAME MOLEFE.

The chorus calling for the resignation of Syrian President to step down is in full cry. First it was Saudi Arabia. Then the United States sounded the clarion call for Bashar Al Assad to leave office. Soon Germany, France, Great Britain and Canada had all chimed in with their own calls for the Syrian President to bow out of office. By KHADIJA PATEL.

Disgruntled municipal workers in Gauteng have so far stayed away from Samwu’s stay-away, but leaders hope Friday’s march will restore the union’s infamy. Police are ready to douse possible flames, CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports.

For much of this year, the Arab-Israeli conflict has been wrestled out of the news by the Arab Spring. As popular uprisings took root in North Africa and spread across the Arabian peninsula, portending both revolution and brutal wars to Arab people, the conflict that has characterised the region for decades has been overshadowed by more compelling stories of peaceful uprisings met with the military might. On Thursday, just as Gaddafi looks to be on his way out and Assad receives his marching orders, the Middle East conflict has been prised open again. By KHADIJA PATEL.

It was always predictable. President Jacob Zuma’s announcement that he was going to nominate Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng to the post of Chief Justice was going to end up with at least the threat of a legal challenge. That’s what happens when you overlook people who are qualified and who regarded as “fiercely” independent (the ANC would argue independence is relative). And it was also predictable that into this heated atmosphere would step ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, raising the blood pressure of those testy legal types who believe in independence, precedent and all that. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

Just days after Standard & Poor’s announced a downgrade of the cherished AAA rating for US credit, Fitch kept the US in the top drawer, saying the outlook for the US economy was “stable”. Eyes are now on Moody’s, the other big ratings agency, to see whose side they will pick. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Kgalema Motlanthe delivered a history lesson rather than a rousing speech on Wednesday, as he helped remember the life of a struggle icon. But at least he doesn't think that demonising anyone who points out the failings of government is a winning strategy. BY PHILLIP DE WET.

As the establishment this week erupted in surprise and disappointment over the nomination of Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng as the new ConCourt chief, talk in high places seems to suggest that he wasn’t President Jacob Zuma’s first choice. CARIEN DU PLESSIS tapped into the rumour mill.

The Sunday Times was led on by someone who has an axe to grind. That is the gist of the sizeable ream of documents on the communications tender handed over to the media by Western Cape Premier Helen Zille. This “leak” is an example of the sort of factional battle that her government is trying to stop by consolidating communications under one company, it seems. By SIPHO HLONGWANE and OSIAME MOLEFE.

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema is by all accounts a little bit down this week, what with the ANC planning to discipline him and the Hawks hovering around his financial affairs. His revolutionary “friends” in the Young Communist League rubbed it in – nicely. CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports.

Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde’s no-show at a meeting with MPs, set up at her request, added fuel to the fire in the row between the opposition and the ANC in Parliament over the Public Protector’s report on dodgy police leases worth R1.7 billion. CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports.