Five things you need to know about SA today

1. The M&G continues to peel the onion that is the intelligence community in SA. The paper says that a covert operation called "Operation Destroy Lucifer” (I kid you not)  not only got President Jacob Zuma off the hook but has been fiddling in other investigations across the country,  including that against Chinese syndicates linked to Glenn Agliotti and Western Cape gang bosses. Read the story here.

2. While the cops are on Venus, all eyes are on  Mars.  New images from the red planet now suggest that there was once a huge lake there. Click here to read the AP story and check out the supercool artist’s impression of the lake in a canyon. 

3. Business Day an entertaining piece of erudite frippery by  a Wits law professor on John Hlophe taking issue with Latin. One doesn’t get this kind of  Smart Alec writing in SA newspaper’s very often. More’s the pity. Read it here. 

4. News24 has an entertaining interview with a Canadian author who has taken to writing novels on Twitter who attended the "140 Characters Conference" in New York this week. Click here to read.

5. And if you’re thinking that Santana is most unloved person in SA, think again. The Times has an interview with the father of Dirk Prinsloo, Advocate Barbie’s ex-boyfriend, who is sitting in a Belarus jail. Best place for him, says Pops.

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