Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief, and News of the World editor, is enjoying a sabbatical in Cape Town. Cutting a notably different appearance from the fiery redhead we’re used to, the media mogul has been escaping the phone hacking and corruption scandal that’s followed her around for months.

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French clothing company, La Redoute has been left red-faced regarding an ad on their website. In the foreground of the advertisement in question, four young children play happily on a beach. In the background, a naked guy is going for a relaxing, pants-free stroll. Pic after the jump.

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Five days into 2012 and we’ve already got fancy new technology. A team from Cornell University have developed a light-distortion device that can mask events as if they hadn’t happened; they managed to use light distortion to hide an event for 40 picoseconds. Which, granted, is 40 trillionths of a second, but the research is groundbreaking in the extreme.

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South Africa’s much awaited IEB Matric results are in, and while there is a noticeable increase in the overall pass rate, commentators have aired concerns over some of the trends emerging. Here’s the Sparks Notes version. Pay attention, there may be a test later.

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Following on the heels of the now infamous Swedish Pirate Party – a political group that holds a seat in parliament and lobbies for file-sharing rights – recognition has now been given to a new religion. This is the Missionary Church of Kopimism, which holds Control-C and Control-V as their sacred symbols.

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Scientists researching previously unexplored deep-sea vents in Antarctica stumbled upon a host of new species, including hairy-chested crabs, ghostly octopus and predatory starfish, in what has since been dubbed a “lost world”.

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Yesterday we brought you an update on the news of the hunter who has paid nearly a million rand to shoot an endangered trophy white rhino. But where rhinos are poached, there are even more far reaching implications, not least finding the resources to care for their orphaned young.

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A public and media outcry followed the release of information that a KZN businessman, who has not been identified, made a winning bid of R969 150 for the right to hunt a male white rhino in Mkuze Game Reserve. Rhino hunting permits are actually issued far more often than you might think.

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This is rather spicy. When you’re in the spotlight a lot, like the Royal Family of England tends to be, it can be a little tricky to explain why the body of a murdered woman has been found on your estate. This is what has happened to the Her Royal Majesty herself, at her Royal Estate in Sandringham.

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Tomorrow will mark what many Saudi women will consider a small milestone in personal shopping. From this week, only female staff will be allowed to sell lingerie, relieving the embarrassment of buying underwear in the highly conservative Muslim nation. This is by order of the king, incidentally. The new law provides a rare opportunity for the employment of women, which was previously outlawed.

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An advertising campaign addressing anti-obesity among children has come under fire in America. Many parents feel Strong4Life and their “Stop Sugarcoating” campaign blames the victims. One advert sees a chubby, young girl who stands with her arms crossed facing the camera. The tagline reads: “WARNING: It’s hard to be a little girl if you’re not.”

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In one of the closest candidate-selection ballots in US history, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney won out over Rick Santorum at the Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first major electoral event of the year. Santorum and Romney switched between first and second frequently during the night, but a last-minute eight-vote tie margin put Romney ahead.

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South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has reported that approximately 39 people were killed on South Africa’s roads between December 1 – 31, 2011, and it’s not over yet as the holiday season draws to a close this week.

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Earlier this week it was revealed that there are literally hundreds of bloggers who were bribed to promote Google Chrome and to claim that their blog’s were “sponsored by Google”. Google’s response has been to point the finger at ad agencies.

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France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy announced today that Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek will become a Chevalier – or Knight – of the Legion of Honour for her services to the French Republic. The news was not too well received by all, with some labeling the country’s honours system “a laughing stock.”

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We covered the Shell Oil Spill when it happened almost two weeks ago. The facts are this: Royal Dutch Shell operates an offshore barreling facility 120km from the Nigerian coast. This was shut down by a spill on the 20th of December. Shell sent out five ships to contain the spill. Oil is now washing up on the Nigerian coast.

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Apple is holding a product event later this month in New York – and since the Christmas buy-a-palooza is just past, it’s looking unlikely that they’re going to be announcing any new hardware just yet. Instead, Apple seems set to refurbish iBooks, their eBook retail platform, with a couple of new publishing options.

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Super-volcanoes are a scary reality, capable of spewing billions of tons of ash and boiling hot magma upon eruption, it’s a good thing they only pop every 10 to 12 thousand years. Except when it’s been 12 900 years since its last eruption, which is currently the case.

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Iran’s army has warned that it will take action against America if a particular US aircraft carrier, which was moved due to naval exercises, returns to Iranian waters. The threat sounds far from empty, too.

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As South African cricketing legend, Jacques Kallis makes his 150th Test match appearance during the third Test against Sri Lanka at Newlands this week, another international South African cricketer faces a court appearance in Australia for failing a roadside breath test on New Year’s Day.

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2011 may be remembered as the year that news and social media tied the knot. Check out a great visual recap of the 2011, as seen on Twitter, after the jump.

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When you think of an airport you’re likely to conjure up images of wide open spaces, cordoned off for kilometres, free of any midair obstacles, and normally you’d be right on the money. However, perched between two 6km mountains, Paro Airport in Bhutan is anything but normal.

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Partyrockers LMFAO are currently touring through Latin America, and had a show in Honduras last night. This show unfortunately had to be stopped after a fire broke out, right in the middle of their set. Click continue for the full gallery of the devastation.

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The Presidency in Pretoria has released our own Dear Leader’s message to the nation on the (almost) eve of the new year. It appears we can give ourselves a collective pat on the back. Read the whole thing after the jump.

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Every year, DJ Earworm releases an epic mix of the top Billboard tracks for that year’s pop tracks. This is known as the “United State of Pop”, and 2011’s version is nothing short of incredible. This year sees no less than 25 songs mashed together, in what is being called “World Go Boom”. Full video and track listing after the jump.

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Despite rumours of his resignation as SA’s test cricket captain, which spread like wildfire yesterday in social media channels following the Proteas’ resounding defeat to Sri Lanka, Graeme Smith is not resigning. While a comment on Twitter alluded to him possibly stepping down as skipper, he has confirmed that this “is not the case at all”.

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Social media feeds, especially Twitter feeds, started buzzing with a rumour that Nelson Mandela had been admitted to hospital a few hours ago. It appears a DJ just happened to watch a programme airing on E-TV about the year that’s passed, and saw old visuals that prompted him to think Madiba had in fact been hospitalised.

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Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant scientists of our lifetime, and author of “A Brief History of Time”. And he is currently shopping around for a new assistant. His website features a picture of his wheelchair, complete with wires and complex electronics. The caption reads “STOP PRESS: Could you maintain this?”

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It’s the 29th of December, which means we are all now sick of Top 10 lists. There are Top 10 lists of Top 10 list. Except this particular Top 10 list is actually pretty informative, collating the year’s illegal torrent data to tell us which films people wanted to see but weren’t willing to pay for. #1 is really awful.

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