The Week in Pictures: October 13 – October 19, 2015

With so much having gone on over the last week perhaps we should take a moment to look back over some of the big stories to hit the headlines.

Last week saw Typhoon Koppu make land fall in the Philippines near Casiguran on the island of Luzon. With winds of up to 200 kph and causing severe flooding the storm is approximately 650 kilometers across and has already created widespread damage and forced 15,000 people from their homes. The military are assisting with relief efforts in a crisis unlikely to end quickly as the storm is forecast to lessen but not leave for a few days yet.

Egypt went to the polls last week for the first time since the court ruling in 2012 that ended the previous parliament. Results aren’t expected till December but observers have already noted that the current President, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, (who led the military coup against Islamist President Morsi in 2013) is unlikely to face much opposition in parliament given many candidates are known supporters of his. Voters elect the 596 members of the lower house, the house of representatives.

Last week saw the first debate for Democratic candidates in the race for the White House in 2016. Five presidential candidates took to the stage in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it was Hillary Clinton who kept her cool and polling lead as Bernie Sanders failed to land a knockout blow and indeed rescued his rival from prolonged questioning about her emails. The debate also highlighted that beyond Bernie and Hillary the Democratic candidates are as bland and hopeless as the entire Republican field.

In sport leading German football officials had to deny reports of a slush fund being employed to buy votes in its bid for the 2006 World Cup last week after allegations were printed in Der Spiegel. Franz Beckenbauer, head of the committee at the time, denied the claims as did Wolfgang Niersbach the current German Football Association president. Are they just as corrupt as everyone else involved with FIFA? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out but in the meantime here’s the big stories we covered over the last seven days.

1. Asian players can expect great new experiences as Asia Gaming enlists the help of developers XIN Gaming to strengthen their strategic position.

2. After the forced hiatus, PokerStars is back in the States, getting a foothold in the East.

3. bwin.party is in New Jersey now, giving Americans access to the best of European casino gambling.

4. The established and popular Genting Casino’s website got a trendy new makeover, for the players’ pleasure.

5. The greatest story of this transfer season was not a star striker, but Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s new coach. He had his debut on the Reds’ bench against Tottenham last week, but had to settle for a goalless draw. Will it calm the hype around him?

6. In a strange turn of events Romanian authorities added bet365 to the list of providers forbidden and blocked in the country. It comes as a surprise since bet365 had already applied for the license the new Romanian gambling laws require, and was promised to get it.

7. Microgaming slots just can’t seem to stop giving away money, the second million-pound progressive jackpot was taken in a short period of time.

Meanwhile NASA’s Kepler space telescope has revealed a new mystery, scientists announced last week. The telescope that discovers planets by registering the dip in light from distant stars when they pass in front of their respective suns noted that KIC 8462852 dims by up to 20%, meaning the object passing before it is half the size of its sun, already 1.5 times the size of our own, and does so at random intervals which has caused some scientists to think it could be a vast alien mega structure rather than a naturally occurring cosmological phenomena.