This Week in Pictures: April 19 – April 25, 2016

There were plenty of big breaking news stories last week so lets take a moment to look back at some of the biggest to hit the headlines over the last seven days.

Last week the world of music was rocked by the death, at just 57 years of age, of Prince, the iconic figure in popular music famed for such notable tracks as “Purple Rain”, “Kiss” and “1999”. Prince, who rose to fame in the early nineteen eighties was found dead at his Paisely Park compound in Minnesota early on Thursday morning, the cause of death was not immediately obvious and an autopsy was arranged. Tributes from fellow musicians and members of the public flooded social media.

Last week the world of comedy was saddened by the death of iconic British comedienne Victoria Wood who passed away last week after a short illness exacerbating her battle with cancer. She was 62. Leaving behind a body of work including some of the best comedy of the last forty years, notably the stunningly well written “Dinnerladies” and her sketch-based series “Victoria Wood As Seen On TV” that featured the legendary “Acorn Antiques” sketches with Julie Walters and Celia Imrie.

Last week the world of film learned of the death of famed director Guy Hamilton who was instrumental in the development of the world famous “James Bond” franchise with his work on four of the films starring two of its most iconic exponents, Sean Connery and Roger Moore, including The Man With The Golden Gun, Diamonds Are Forever and Goldfinger. He was said to have died in hospital at the age of 93 on the Spanish island of Mallorca. No cause of death was released with the announcement.

In sports professional wrestling was shocked by the death of WWE legend Joanie Laurer, better known as Chyna, “the Ninth Wonder of the World”. Rising to fame in the late nineties she teamed up with Triple H and Shawn Michaels to create Degeneration X, and topped her career by becoming the only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship, but who will take up her mantel? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, in the meantime here’s some of the big stories we covered last week.

1. GamingZion assembled a list of the tallest players in NBA history.

2. 129-year- old church was moved to make way for $1 billion MGM Casino in Springfield, Massachusetts.

3. Stoke City have announced new stadium sponsorship deal, with Bet365.

4. Over 300 poker players registered for the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monaco.

5. Last weekend provided the opportunity to bet on the London marathon and GamingZion came up with a guide on how you can do that.

6. GamingZion discusses the impact that the legalization of internet poker in California will have on the horse racing industry.

7. GamingZion assembled a list of famous football players that are still active and also love to play poker.

Meanwhile a company in the US working on “repair and reanimation” technologies has said that death may no longer be irreversible. Ira Pastor head of healthcare company Bioquark is part of the ReAnima Project. “We come to technological point,” He said, ”where we are able to ‘push the envelope’” and perhaps reverse the process. “We are combining certain biologic regenerative tools with other existing medical devises typically used for stimulation of patients with other severe disorders of consciousness.” Pastor hoped to be able to find suitable patients upon which to trial the procedure immediately.