Mitt Romney’s Olympic Blunder Stuns No 10 – Mitt Romney handed Barack Obama a potential gift for the US presidential election campaign when the presumptive Republican nominee blundered on his first diplomatic outing by questioning whether London was capable of staging a successful Olympic Games. [guardian]

ABSA Reports Drop In Earnings – Absa Group, South Africa’s third-largest banking group, on Friday reported an expected 6 percent drop in first-half earnings, hit by a spike in bad debts in its home loans business. [reutaf]

Staff Want To Buy Independent Newspapers From ‘Troubled’ Owners – Staff at Independent Newspapers are establishing a workers’ trust in order to buy at least 25% of the local operations, a trustee said on Thursday. “There is a great deal of support among staff for the idea,” said Cape Times editor Alide Dasnois, one of the three provisional trustees. [fin24]

Kim Jong Un Jols With New Wife – Rides Rollercoasters Etc. – North Korea’s young leader tours a new amusement park with his new bride on his arm, smiling and waving to adoring crowds. An everyday image of domestic bliss in high places? These pics are AWESOME! [natpos]

African Olympic Athlete Claims Asylum In UK – An Olympic athlete has walked into a police station and asked for asylum in the UK, before the games have officially begun. The unnamed male competitor is thought to have turned up at Bridewell Police Station in the centre of Leeds after legitimately entering Britain as an Olympic athlete. [skynews]

Facebook Belly-Flops Into Its First Earnings Report – The social network reported second-quarter revenues of $1.18 billion. Marketing and sales expenses quadrupled to $392 million, share-based compensation swelled, and margins fell to 43 percent. Wall Street hated a lot of that and at one point during after-hours trading, the stock hit $23.75, an all-time low. [businessweek]

Mad Rush For Online Tickets As Lottery Jackpot Sits At R1.33 Billion – Today sees a mad scramble for tickets to the Euromillions draw, which takes place tonight. After a number of rollovers the jackpot is sitting at EUR135 Million. Get your tickets now. [here]

Smartphones Power Record Samsung Profit Of $5.9 Billion During Apple Lull – Samsung Electronics Co, the world’s top technology firm by revenue, reported on Friday a record operating profit of $5.9 billion for the June quarter, as rampant Galaxy S handset sales helped stretch its lead over Apple Inc. [reuters]

Mad Men: Peggy Returns For Season 6 – Will she or won’t she? Matt Weiner has finally confirmed the “Mad Men” question on everyone’s mind — Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) will indeed be coming back for Season 6. [huffers]

Why It’s So Ridiculously Hard For Mobile Advertisers To Reach Teenagers – People aren’t multitasking these days — they’re “hypertasking.” If you can’t catch a millennial’s attention within several seconds, then you’ve already lost them. Watch this. [businessinsider]

Robert Pattinson Has Packed His Bags – Following Kristen Stewart’s public apology for having a fling with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders, the 26-year-old actor has left the Los Angeles home he shared with Stewart. Oh dear. [people]

Ian F Show From 8am To 10am – Are you sitting at your desk? Why don’t you try our new radio player? It starts with JUST ONE CLICK! Just click the ‘2oceansvibe Radio TUNE IN’ button on the top right of your screen. Go on – give it a bash. It eats only 20mb/hour and will keep you happy at your desk. [2ov.fm]

eBay Will Let Kids Shop Very Soon – The Internet company may allow consumers who are under 18 years old to set up accounts and access the eBay.com website to buy vintage T-shirts, jewelry, school supplies or other products, said Devin Wenig, eBay’s president of global marketplaces in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. [wallstreetjournal]

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

Michael Jackson’s Son Gets Involved In The Drama – Janet Jackson is emerging as a new villain in the Jackson family saga, with a text message revealing she tried to stop her brother Michael’s kids from seeing their grandma Katherine. [msn]

Yo-Landi Vi$$er Goes Topless For FHM – FHM’s gone zef. The South African edition of the men’s magazine features zef rapper Yo-Landi Vi$$er on the cover of their August edition. Yo-Landi is seen wearing tight blue shorts and just a pair of boxing gloves covering her breasts. [channel24]

District 9 Actor Is Tapping Tanit Phoenix – South African director and actor Sharlto Copley and his model and actress girlfriend Tanit Phoenix were welcome guests at the reception for Team SA at the South African Embassy at Trafalgar Square on Thursday afternoon. [sport24]

Meet Ivan Boesky, The Infamous Wall Streeter Who Inspired Gordon Gekko – Ivan Boesky is the money-loving inside trader whose behavior in the 1980s inspired the famous fictional Wall Street character Gordon Gekko. [businessinsider]

Japanese Women No Longer The World’s Longest Living – Japanese women are no longer the world’s longest living, their longevity pushed down in part by last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, according to a government report Thursday. The top of the global life expectancy rankings now belongs to Hong Kong women. [globemail]

Lady Gaga Makes Acting Debut – Lady Gaga will make her acting debut in Machete Kills, the 2013 sequel Robert Rodriguez’ bulletsoaked ode to exploitation cinema. [insidemovies]

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COMING UP TODAY

The Premier Show With Seth And Bruce 10h00 to 13h00 – Easing you into your Friday, Seth and Bruce discuss the topics of the day, with a smattering of sport, entertainment and finance. Powered by Jack Daniels! [2ovfm]

Shotgun Tori Acoustic Session – Shotgun Tori joins 2 Girls 1 Mic for an in studio from 13h00-15h00. They also chat to fashion designer Thula Sindi and it’s the Shift_Ctrl Session with moneysmart.co.za. [2girls1mic]

FRESH PODCASTS

Where To Invest In High Risk Markets – In order to beat inflation, you need to invest in growth assets. Growth assets are able to grow faster than inflation and consist of shares listed on stock exchange and property. Depending on your time horizon, your saving decisions will be very different. Find out which investment decisions will work for you, according to what you are saving towards. [podcast]

Enter Shikari On The Rock Dimension – Gary Cool called up British music quartet and chatted about their SA tour where they’ll be performing at Oppikoppi. They discussed topics ranging from the history of Enter Shikari, what the turning point of their band was, how they feel about other DJs and bands do mixes of their tracks and even their take on political issues. The band was quite suprised when they realised what their following in South Africa is! [podcast]