The Week in Pictures: February 3 – February 9, 2015

Lots has gone on over the past seven days so lets take a moment to look back at what hit our headlines and those of publications around the world last week

NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams found himself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons as he was forced to take a leave of absence from hosting the popular show following an apology he was required to make for factual errors in a story he told of being shot down whilst in a helicopter during the Iraq war. Members of the military present at the time contradicted his story, confirming he was on a following helicopter rather than the one that came under fire. He has been replaced with Lester Holt.

Newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remained undaunted by EU officials’ rejection of his efforts to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s bailout and repeated his determination to follow through on the pre-election promises his Syriza party made including an increase in the minimum wage, the payment of a pension bonus and the rehiring of public workers. “The bailout failed.” He said flatly. “After five years of bailout barbarity, our people cannot take any more.” Greek debt stands at 320bn EUR.

Gauguin’s painting ‘Nafea Faa Ipoipo’ (“When will you marry?”) from 1892 fetched the highest ever price for a single work of art when Qatar purchased the picture from a Swiss collector for almost $300 million. This tops the previous record held by Cezanne’s “The Card Players” at $259 million which was also purchased by Qatar in 2011. The painting had been homed in Basel’s Kunstmuseum for six decades on loan from the owner, the museum stated “We are painfully reminded that permanent loans are still loans.”

In sport Ivory Coast won a thrilling Africa Cup final against Ghana with the tense game remaining nil-nil at full time and going to a nail biting penalty shootout that left the scoreline 9 – 8 to the boys in orange. Goalkeeper Boubacar Barry saved a penalty and then scored one against his opposite number winning the match. Will Ivory Coast be able to ride this success into the World Cup? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out, in the meantime here’s some of the headlines that cropped up on our pages last week.

1. Singapore passed a new law on Monday that will prevent public access of online and online mobile gambling sites in order avoid the harmful effects of gambling in their society. 

2. The PokerStars 2015 Turbo Championship of Online Poker champion form Russia won record-breaking $400k.

3. We look at Formula 1’s pre-season testing and see how Finland’s Valterri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen are fairing

4. After the last Super Bowl, there is much debate over whether the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act should be replaced.

5. We take a look how NextGen Gaming develops online replicates of land-based games in HTML5 and Flash formats in Lightning Box deal

6. We take a look at perhaps the strangest battle of the UK general election and focus in on the latest candidate to hit the campaign trail

7. NetBet Casino acquires Quickfire in order to further modernize its platforms for better gambling experience

Meanwhile in Brazil 28 inmates escaped from jail after three women rescued them by dressing in “fantasy police uniforms” and seducing the guards who were found naked and handcuffed inside the Nova Mutum jail near Cuiaba having been drugged by tainted whiskey during an orgy they were tempted to participate in. The three officers concerned have been arrested for their laxity, and eight of the fugitives had been recaptured so far. Photos taken by the amused police officers who found the hapless prison guards were leaked online, but will that be enough to stop this happening again? You’ll have to keep up with our daily news pages to find out.