As of 00.01 on the morning of 20 September, gays are officially welcome in the US military. Tuesday saw the official revoking of Defence Directive 1332.14 – better known as the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy. By REBECCA DAVIS.

For the third year running, some of the sharpest business and leadership minds gather in Johannesburg. This year’s line-up includes Al Gore, Nouriel Roubini, Chris Anderson, Ricardo Semler, Dan Ariely and Taddy Blacher. Prior to the conference, a few good men had a brief back-and-forth with media in Sandton. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Apple recently took on more security staff. There’s no comment on whether this has anything to do with the iPhone 5 prototype that went missing in a pub a few weeks ago. The company is far more worried about corporate espionage, it said. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

A new low for Julian Assange, or a canny fundraising move by a heroic whistleblower organisation? However, you look at it, WikiLeaks has put a collection of Assange-related "memorabilia" on eBay. By REBECCA DAVIS .

In China, the Geely LC is called the Panda – a name that suits this cute, rounded, friendly-faced little ultracompact to a tee. Pity then that Fiat already produces an ultracompact called the Panda. Which explains why the Geely is called the ‘LC’ in South Africa – a badge that doesn’t  do this little mite any justice. DEON SCHOEMAN takes it for a spin.

If it is true that behind every successful man there is a woman, Pieter-Dirk Uys is the exception to the rule. Known as the man behind many desperate women, this complex character is also a man of strong opinions. And be warned, Julius Malema, don’t touch him on his democracy. By EMILY GAMBADE.

Is it too soon to tell jokes about 9/11? British comedian Jimmy Carr received an answer to that question in the way of an overwhelming "yes" when he risked a relatively mild September 11 gag last weekend. By REBECCA DAVIS.

In this crazy, strife-torn world there is one global event which gives us an opportunity to come together and stand shoulder-to-shoulder in shared humanity. For a few glittering hours on an evening of pageant, we remember what really matters: deciding who is the hottest 18 to 27-year-old woman in the Universe. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Okay, in truth it was just one line, but we couldn't resist that headline. On the weekend, US pop star Cyndi Lauper showed that it's not only South Africans who have a problem remembering the words to our national anthem. By THERESA MALLINSON.

In many ways Michael Hart was a typical nerd, with typical nerdy quirks, like his penchant for adding sugar to pizza. In other ways, he completely changed the world. If we gently modify Psalm 25:8 to read, “the geek shall inherit the earth,” then along with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and a handful of other early visionaries, the planet belongs to Hart. The founder of the legendary Project Gutenberg, and thus the inventor of the e-book, died this week at the age of 64. He will be remembered as one of the fathers of the information age. By RICHARD POPLAK.

The Australopethicus sediba fossils, found near South Africa's Cradle of Humankind, aren't exactly the missing link – scientists don't give much credence to this layman's term anyway – but do belong to a transitional species. And they could go some way to clearing up “the muddle in the middle” of human evolution. By THERESA MALLINSON.

The UK pro-abortion lobby won the day on Wednesday, when the British parliament shot down a bill which proposed to strip abortion counselling from the abortion process. But the "spirit" of the proposal is being retained in a consultation which will necessitate a further MP vote. By REBECCA DAVIS. 

The Petermann Glacier is in Iceland. Or at least, it was two years ago. A Welsh scientist has taken photos which have shown an incredible amount of the glacier has melted away. Cause for alarm? Not until the Al Gores of this world get their hands on the photos. By SIPHO HLONGWANE

Google have announced the acquisition of restaurant rating site Zagat. It is like they looked at the deal-buying site frenzy and chose to do the exact opposite. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

We know about light emitting diode (LED) lights being used in the headlights of cars, but have a gurn at this: future BMWs will have power-saving lasers in their headlights. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

As reality TV scrapes the barrel, the Netherlands broadcast a quiz show last week called “Weg van Nederlands”. Its unique selling point? The five contestants were all student refugees whose asylum applications have already been refused. By THERESA MALLINSON.

The Mercedes-Benz CLS has always been a car of contradictions. Here’s a big four-door sedan that likes to pretend it’s a sleek coupé. It oozes fat-cat luxury, yet wants to be an athlete too. Mercedes says its new-generation CLS is much better than the first in every respect – and that should be true of the AMG muscle car version. DEON SCHOEMAN slips behind the wheel to find out.

The man who once called the Booker Prize “posh bingo” has just been shortlisted for the fourth time. Below is a list of reasons why he should finally win it this year, and an equally compelling list of reasons why he may not – chief amongst the latter being that, as ever, the Booker is just plain unfair. By KEVIN BLOOM.

This writer never met late photojournalist Anton Hammerl, slain in Libya on 5 April. What is abundantly clear though, is that he was a kind-hearted man who formed strong, lasting friendships. Now his friends around the world have banded together to set up “Friends of Anton”, an online campaign to raise money for his children's education. By THERESA MALLINSON.

San Francisco industrial designer Yves Béhar became the first designer to win the prestigious Index Award twice. Recognising that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, Béhar’s design solutions simultaneously tackle both the stigma and cost involved with wearing eye-glasses for schoolchildren in Mexico, proving that beautiful design can, in fact, solve some of the world’s problems. By CARIEN ELS.

Sushi-and-champagne-guzzling millionaire Kenny Kunene hit the headlines – again - this weekend when comedian Loyiso Gola used the occasion of the launch of his reality show to make some hard-hitting criticisms. It’s just the latest controversy to hit the TV programme before it even airs. By REBECCA DAVIS.

There’s something about 2011. Besides being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it’s the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, the 100th of the neon light, the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, the 400th birthday of the King James Bible – and the half-century mark for Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22”. By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

In 1935, when Allen Lane of Penguin Books built on the idea of an innovative German publisher whose business had been appropriated by the Nazis, a revolution occurred in the publishing industry. Throughout the 20th century and into the first few years of the 21st, cheap paperbacks entertained hundreds of millions of people across the world. But not for much longer, according to a recently released survey. By KEVIN BLOOM.

Klaus Beyer has made it his life's work to record every single Beatles song – in German. Last month, his magnum opus was complete, with the release of “Das Weisse Album” (The White Album). The results are truly disturbing. By THERESA MALLINSON.

In a move that hardly surprised anybody, Vodacom announced that its application store will be launching on 1 September. MTN’s one is “coming soon”. Local app stores were always going to follow in the wake of iTunes and Android’s marketplace. By SIPHO HLONGWANE.

Go big or go home. This is Starbucks’ thinking, now that outlets in the US have introduced the Trenta size. How big, relatively speaking, is the 31oz, or 916ml cup? Bigger, apparently, than the capacity of the average human stomach. By RICHARD POPLAK.

There are certainly more than a few Chinese military, intelligence and cyber-warfare high panjandrums with some egg foo young on their collective faces this week. A video clip of a leading Chinese general discussing sensitive espionage cases has now found its way onto YouTube. This would appear to represent a significant failure of conference management as well as the Chinese version of Internet security by a military establishment that usually follows their version of the famous Sicilian pledge of “omerta.” By J BROOKS SPECTOR.

A recent public panel debate on renewable energy in South Africa confirmed serious misgivings that multi-billion-rand processes during the next 19 years have degenerated from transparent participation to opaque and sinisterly secret. By CHRIS YELLAND.

The rise of Islamophobia in the United States is attributable to the work of a handful of well-resourced groups and people, a new report has found. It claims that over $42 million has been allocated by seven foundations to five people responsible for generating anti-Islamic sentiment. By REBECCA DAVIS.

Why Hurricane Irene and not Hurricane Britney or Hurricane Nomalanga? The choice of names for hurricanes is not merely a matter of meteorologists’ whimsy. By REBECCA DAVIS.