The Week in Pictures: September 8 – September 14, 2015

There was a plethora of breaking news stories last week so let’s look back at some of the biggest that made the headlines over the last seven days.

In Petlawad, Madhya Pradesh, India and explosion ripped through a restaurant Saturday killing ninety and injuring several dozen more. Illegally stored explosives, of the sort used for mining which is a mainstay of the local economy, were said to be the cause. The shop keeper, named locally as one Rajendra Kasawa, was sought by police who noted he had a license to possess explosives but not store them in a residential area. Nearby buildings were flattened in the blast.

In the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia a large storm has been blamed for the collapse of a crane that fell on the Grand Mosque killing 107 and injuring a further 230 people. The crane was one of several installed as part of expansion construction work at the largest Mosque in the world ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage that begins next week. The Grand Mosque is expanding by 400,000 square meters and will be able to accommodate 2.2 million people at once.

In the UK the opposition Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn as it’s new leader with Tom Watson as deputy leader in a move that sees it swing further left. Mr. Corbyn achieved a massive mandate with 59.5% of the vote, his nearest rival, Andy Burnham, only garnering 19%, but faces an uphill struggle to mix his own brand of ‘old’ Labour with the electability that New Labour under Tony Blair brought. The conservative Prime Minister has already branded Mr. Corbyn “a threat to our national security”.

In sport an all Italian final to the US Open was won by Flavia Pennetta who promptly announced her retirement after beating Roberta Vinci 7-6 (7-4) 6-2. She becomes the second Italian woman to be victorious at a tennis major. The question is will Roberta be able to follow in her footsteps next year having beaten Serena Williams in the semifinals? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out. In the meantime let’s look at some of the big stories we covered in the last seven days.

1. The British Parliament will hold a debate on the legalization of marijuana on October 12th following a petition collecting over 200,000 signatures. The government’s initial response was total rebuttal, maybe they should find a way to chill out a bit.

2. After the fall of the World Cup bronze medalist Netherlands Austria defeated and de facto eliminated Sweden in a shocking match. Euro 2016’s teams list is coming along really unexpectedly so far.

3. As opposed to the amazing upsets of the women’s singles, no. 1 Djokovic beat no. 2 Federer in the US Open Men’s final. As everyone must have suspected he would.

4. Young British player Daniel Tighe won the Dublin stage of the MPN Poker Tour, scoring his biggest success to date.

5. The NFL 2015 Season finally kicked off, with the Deflategate-reprieved Tom Brady leading the Patriots to victory against the Steelers. Not to boast or anything, but we predicted it.

6. Great news who love their sports and their Androids, FanDuel and DraftKings will be available as mobile apps in the Play Store.

7. Princess of pro poker Jason Somerville broke broadcast records when almost 40,000 people followed him play live. He placed only 6th, but people like his style.

Meanwhile there are many threats one might face in Turkey. PKK rebels, Islamic State Terrorists and Sunburn to name just three, but two Finnish tourists, alongside other road users in the western province of Mugla found themselves under attack from swarms of bees that had escaped from an over turned truck. Eighteen people needed hospital treatment after the incident which closed the road for two hours whilst emergency services sprayed suppression foam on the hive left shed on the tarmac.