A good week for ...

Mohamed bin Hammam

Asia's football chief won his appeal against Fifa's life ban from all soccer-related activity over bribery allegations. The Geneva-based Court of Arbitration for Sport found that soccer's international governing body had not investigated the claims thoroughly enough. Bin Hammam, who played a key role in securing the 2022 World Cup for his home country, Qatar, still has a long way to go to clear his name. The Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation has just suspended him for 30 days over new allegations of corruption.

Ann Sherry

The cruise-ship executive and former head of Westpac New Zealand bank became the first woman appointed to the board of the Australian Rugby Union, in a move ARU officials said would help the game reach out beyond its traditional fan base. 'It's always a very strong signal of change in organisations that have not had women involved before,' Sherry said. 'It just flags that rugby is fit for the 21st century.'

Marissa Mayer

The Google vice-president was chosen by struggling internet company Yahoo to be its new chief executive - the third in a year. Mayer, who is credited for being 'instrumental in the birth of a major technological innovation - Google's search engine', also announced she was pregnant with her first child, and is due to give birth in October. The 37-year-old - Google's 20th employee and first female engineer when she joined in 1999 - said she had informed Yahoo of her pregnancy last month.