The week in pictures: January 6th-12th, 2015

Last week saw one major news story dominate the headlines so lets look back at the terrible events that unfolded

In the most deadly terrorist attack on their soil in fifty years Wednesday saw two armed men, later identified as the Kouachi brothers, gain entrance to the offices of satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in central Paris, France, and in a brutal attack they killed 12 and wounded 11 more. The dead included the editor, several well known cartoonists and two policemen, the attackers claiming they had “avenged the Prophet Muhammad” as they made their escape.

World wide outrage at this attack on free speech, Charlie Hebdo had consistently published cartoons that made jokes at the expense of religion and authority (the Islamic religion being no exception), mounted nearly as fast as the manhunt for the suspects. French police finally surrounded them on Friday in a print works on the outskirts of Paris where they had taken the manager hostage. At the same time, in a coordinated move, an associate of the brothers, Coulibaly, took hostages at a large kosher supermarket in eastern Paris during which four people were killed.

Both hostage situations were resolved with force and all three gunmen were slain. In the aftermath of this devastating attack widespread support for the victims, Charlie Hebdo and the principle of free speech was registered around the world with the adoption of the phrase “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) and by mass demonstrations and marches. The largest march was held on Sunday in Paris where well over a million people showed their disgust with the attacks and the motives behind it. Charlie Hebdo will, in response, up its usual 60,000 print run this week to 1,000,000 copies because humor cannot be silenced by threat, violence or repression. Nous sommes tous Charlie.

Thankfully not everything was doom and gloom so lets look back at the stories that hit our headlines in the last week.

1. Mayor Guardian declares the upcoming year one of healing as he tries to salvage revenue from tax liens and by spending cuts in order to avoid layoffs in the public sector.

2.
The Mayor of Boston has filed a 75-page suit against the gambling commission for it’s granting of a license to Wynn Resorts allowing them to start their 1.8 million dollar casino project in Everett.

3. New Year to herald in a series of likely new openings in secondary Asian casino markets

4. We take a look at Russia’s new regulations that ban “pathological gamblers” from being able to get a driving license.

5.
Indian and Japanese professional poker players are being sponsored by PokerStars in the “Aussie Millions”, in order to promote the game in Asia.

6. The Indian government doesn’t like gambling. Which is a damn shame, because citizens sure seem to. GamingZion.com recalled the story of Murkha Nyanar, Tamil Nadu’s patron saint of gambling.

7. Romania passed legislation that will allow them to regulate online gambling which will protect online gambling operators and online gamblers.

Meanwhile French authorities, and indeed law enforcement agencies the world over, are still hunting for Hayat Boumeddiene an associate of the perpetrators who may have been instrumental in the attacks but made her escape on Friday. She is believed to be heading for Syria. Will they catch up with her? Keep up with all the news on this story and others as it happens on our daily news pages.