The week in pictures: April 8- April 15, 2015

As so much went on in the last seven days we take a moment to check back over the biggest stories from our own site and those of publications around the world

In the US the Presidential election of 2016 has started to heat up with one of the heavyweight candidates officially declaring their campaign. Democratic senator, and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton launched her campaign stating flatly “I’m running for President” in an online video where she also made it clear “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is stacked in favor of those at the top.”

Meanwhile the current US President, Barack Obama, held an unprecedented meeting with Cuban leader Raul Castro during the Summit of the Americas in Panama stepping up the gradual thawing of relations between the two nations. This, the first meeting between the nation’s leaders in fifty years, was held in the Atlapa conference center on the margins of where the summit took place and signals a willingness on both sides to move on from history if not to forget it.

The Pope sparked a furious reaction from Turkey last week when he referred to the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces in 1915 as “genocide”. Speaking at a Mass in Peter’s Basilica the pope’s comments were welcomed by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and prompted the Turks to recall their envoy from the Vatican. “Religious authorities are not the places to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations.” said Turkey’s foreign minister.

In sport Lewis Hamilton cruised to an easy win in the Chinese Grand Prix just ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg and the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in a race that saw a finish behind the safety. Will Lewis keep on winning races this season and run off with the driver’s championship? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime lets look back over the big stories to hit our headlines last week.

1. Manchester United are expected to try sign PSG’s out-of-favour Edinson Cavani.

2. Martin Odegaard’s problems at Real Madrid still remains unsolved.

3. Amaya announces a couple of managerial changes within its subsidiary Rational Group.

4. BetVictor divulges renewed integration with Medialive to furnish live casino product in Malta.

5.Pololo Gaming join with Metric Gaming so they can reach new partners and distribute their innovative mobile wagering products.

6. Kyrgyzstan bans gambling, betting , bookmakers and the advertisement of alcoholic beverages in order to diminish social problems.

7. We look at why the Danes spoke up about those trying to fix their badminton matches as the sport seems beset with scandals.

Meanwhile the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA), funded by the federal government, has admitted in a report that Marijuana can kill some varieties of cancer cells and can significantly shrink others including one of the most serious sort of brain tumors. Used in conjunction with traditional radiation therapies a study using mice demonstrated the marijuana heightened the effectiveness of the treatment in the killing or reduction of cancerous cells.