Declare national crisis in education – Jansen – Professor Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State has called on government to declare a national crisis in education. Jansen was speaking at the 5th annual Imam Haron Memorial Lecture in Cape Town last night. Jansen says it is especially children from poor schools who suffer and that it can no longer be tolerated. The professor did not mince his words. He says people in political and professional classes do not have a sense of how urgent it has become to give quality education at poor schools, since their own children go to wealthy institutions. [sabc]

R5bn lifeline for SAA – Government has granted South African Airways (SAA) a R5bn guarantee for a period of two years starting from September 1 2012. Mayihlome Tshwete, spokesperson to Minister of Public Enterprises Malusi Gigaba, said the guarantee will enable SAA to borrow from global financial markets. “This guarantee will ensure that the airline continues to operate as a going concern.” [fin24]

AB: We let our country down – Proteas captain AB de Villiers says his team, who lost all three games in the World Twenty20 Super Eights, “didn’t click” and let their country down. India beat South Africa by one run Tuesday to hand the Proteas their third successive loss. Pakistan and Australia went through to the semi-finals from the group. India made 152-6 in their 20 overs and needed to restrict South Africa to 121 runs or less to reach the last four at Pakistan’s expense. In the event they bowled their opponents out for 151 in a narrow but academic victory. [sport24]

Moody’s follows SA’s credit rating cut with municipal, parastatal downgrades – credit ratings agency took action against three South African entities and subsovereign ratings, which includes 12 local governments and one government-related issuer, after last week’s sovereign downgrade by the agency. On Tuesday Moody’s announced a downgrade of the senior unsecured bond rating of Eskom, by one notch to Baa3 from Baa2. The outlook on the rating remains negative. [bdlive]

Gold Fields tells miners to pack and go – A leading gold mine in South Africa started evicting thousands of its striking workers from company dormitories on Tuesday as work stoppages spread to more gold and platinum mines. Gold Fields ordered 5 000 workers who have been on strike for three weeks to vacate the mine hostels, saying striking workers there were intimidating their fellow employees. Workers at another mine, belonging to Anglo American Platinum, downed tools on Tuesday, and the firm held disciplinary hearings for the strikers. [iol]

Farlam Inquiry to hear from Marikana community – The commission probing the shooting at Lonmin’s Marikana mine and sporadic violent attacks in August has completed a series of inspections at crime scene areas in Marikana ahead of the judicial hearings on Wednesday. The inspections formed part of the investigation aimed at uncovering the truth about what lead to the bloodbath. The commission, headed by retired judge Ian Farlam, toured the Marikana area for two days where scenes of violent attacks and killings were pointed out. [ewn]

Department to probe Nkandla documents leak – Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi will investigate how City Press obtained documents revealing the R203-million budget for Zuma’s Nkandla upgrade. City Press reported that R203-million of state funds would be spent on the upgrade, with Zuma paying only 5% of the bill – around R10-million. Speaking for the first time after Sunday’s exposé, Nxesi defended the expenditure, but refused to confirm the amount of state funds spent on the project. [mg]

Greece to spend almost €100m on building F1 track – Greece has ‘unblocked’ €30m so it can build a motor racing circuit capable of hosting a Formula One Grand Prix. Despite data showing Greece is heading for its sixth year of recession, the government is pushing ahead with constructing the track in Xalandritsa, near Patras. The total cost of the project will be €94.6m (£75.6m) and it is hoped the circuit will be able to host a Formula One race in the future. [telegraph]

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

Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape case dropped in France – A prosecutor in northern France says officials have dropped a preliminary investigation into allegations of rape in a Washington, D.C., hotel by former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. State prosecutor Frederic Fevre in the northern city of Lille said Tuesday that the supposed victim, an escort girl, went back on her original account and now says no rape was involved, the Sipa news agency reported. [nydaily]

The presidential debates: how to make them even more fun – Guide to talking the talk about Obama and Romney before and after the debates – with added drinking game. This is quite an exciting week in US politics. It’s been a long slog but the conclusion has been reached, with all the narratives of the past few months – years, really – dovetailing into one beautiful and inevitable conclusion, one that all US citizens can gaze upon and sigh, “Ah, yes: this, yes this, is America.” [guardian]

Australia admits neglect of Great Barrier Reef – The Australian government admits the Great Barrier Reef has been neglected for decades after a study showed it has lost more than half its coral cover in the past 27 years. Environment Minister Tony Burke said research released Tuesday by scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Wollongong should be setting off alarm bells across the country. [afp]

The World’s Wildest Skydive Requires the World’s Biggest Balloon – Late Sunday night, 15 men will clear every last stick and stone from a runway in the New Mexico desert as 10 more men wearing cotton gloves and protective suits unfurl and inflate the world’s largest helium balloon. This is no ordinary balloon. But then, this is no ordinary mission. The balloon will carry “Fearless Felix” Baumgartner to the edge of the stratosphere for his record-setting skydive from 120,000 feet. [wired]

Mobile devices reshaping the news – Half of American adults own a smartphone or tablet computer and most of them use these devices to access news, a study shows. The study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism with The Economist Group concluded that the move to mobile devices has major implications for the news industry. It found 22% of US adults now own a tablet device, twice as many as a year ago, and another 3% use a tablet owned by someone else in their home. 44% have smartphones, according to the survey, up from 35% in May 2011. [timeslive]

Sorry, Microsoft: Android and iOS are still the only operating systems that matter – To little surprise, Android has not only remained the most popular smartphone operating system in the United States by a wide margin, but Google’s (GOOG) platform continues to see impressive growth in an over-saturated market. In a three-month study ending in August 2012, research firm comScore found that Android was on more than half of all smartphones in the U.S., increasing from 50.1% in May to 52.6%. [bgr]

The Sexiest CEO’s Alive – Yes, CEO’s are chosen for their grit, determination, vision, smarts, competence, and professionalism. But it doesn’t hurt when they’re also endowed with a certain, well, je ne sais quoi. So who has the most of that? We’ve scoured the world to find the CEOs who are tops in this special attribute. And of course, as anyone who has ever been attracted to anyone knows, it ain’t just about looks. [bizinsider]

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COMING UP TODAY

The Rolling Stone Chart – 2ov Radio has teamed up with Rolling Stone magazine to bring you the weekly charts at 12h45 each Wednesday – live to your radio / car / mobile phone on the Just Josie Show! [justjosie]

Gay Pride In The Melrose Arch Studio – Get your glitter on as reps from Gay Pride join Bailey Schneider from 14h00-15h00 today to chat about the festivities taking place this Saturday in JHB. [baileyschneider]

FRESH PODCASTS 

Chronic Stress And It’s Effects On Your Immunity –  With the end of the year approaching, and fast, there’s an all round push to maximise productivity, which leads to stress levels being higher than normal. If you don’t address your stress properly, you immunity takes such a nosedive that your actually open to every single infectious disease. Find out how to establish your type of stress and how to go about treating it, before it deteriorates your immunity. [podcast]

Pool Safety For Your Tot On Mommy Matters – It’s almost time to whip out the sun cream, put on the hats, and head out to the swimming pool for the summer, so last night on the Mommy Matters show They talked about pool safety with Lindsay Jonas from Lindsay’s Swim School, and Andrew Reed from AquaNets. They discussed when the best time to get your tot pool aware, to start with swimming lessons, and sharing a few pool safety tips to avoid your child becoming one of the horrible drowning statistics this summer. [podcast]