The Week in Pictures: October 20 – October 26, 2015

The last seven days saw some massive news stories hit the headlines so let’s spare a few moments to look back at some of the biggest from last week’s news coverage

In the US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was treated to an 11 hour marathon grilling by a congressional committee led by Republicans hoping to use the tragedy of the Benghazi consulate attack in 2012 to damage her chances of election. Taking full responsibility, she was Secretary of State at the time of the attacks, Hillary’s performance was calmed and measured in the face of extremely hostile questioning as Republicans attempted and failed to derail her shot at the White House.

In Mexico thousands of residents and tourists were evacuated from coastal areas in the face of Hurricane Patricia which, with winds measured at up to 200mph, has been described as one of the strongest ever recorded in the western hemisphere. The category 5 storm weakened as it made landfall and despite twenty inches of rain bringing flooding and some power loss in rural areas, no casualties were reported, although the government warned the risk of mudslides still remained.

In Sweden a 21 year old named as Anton Lundin Pettersson entered a school armed with a sword dressed in a helmeted costume, posed for photos with students who thought him dressed up for Halloween, and then attacked pupils and staff, killing two. “He marches through the corridor with his weapons – a large sword and a large, sharp knife. He chose his victims. Those with dark-skin were attacked. He met with lighter-skinned people who were not attacked.” Said a police investigator.

In sport Luis Suarez put the bite on Eibar as a Barcelona team reduced to 10 men came from behind to win 3-1 as the best known teeth in football scored a hat-trick of goals to put his team on equal footing with La Liga leaders Real Madrid. The question is can they ease by the big boys from the capital in the games to come? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, but in the meantime here’s a look back at some of the big stories we covered over the last seven days.

1. Latest South Korea eSports match fixing scandal upset the industry, led to the arrests of twelve individuals linked to an allegedly corrupt StarCraft II team.

2. US attorney Preet Bharara, prosecutor of the Black Friday indictments, launched a daily fantasy sports investigation into the industry to see whether they are violating US gambling laws.

3. We look at the battle between the Finns in formula one and try and understand why Valtteri Bottas is just so disappointed for the media.

4. Unibet Open poker tournament 2015 held in Antwerp for the first time.

5. Bet365 considered to challenge the decision of Romania’s National Office for Gambling to put them on their blacklist.

6. Japanese baseball gambling scandal hit the country amid the sport’s consideration for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and just days from the start of Japan’s World Series.

7. The federal government in Bern proposed a new bill that would end Swiss online gambling ban, legalize online casinos and private poker, and exempt winnings from all gambling from tax.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist party issued a new edict to it’s 88 million members that bans them from “extravagant eating and drinking”, participating in “improper sexual relationships with others” and playing golf. Part of Xi Jinping’s austerity and anti-corruption drive, the new rules also include a prohibition on nepotism although critics have pointed out that development of golf courses was banned in 2004 and yet since then the number within China has increased from 200 to over 600.