The Week in Pictures: July 28 – August 3, 2015

There was no shortage of big news stories in the last seven days so let’s look back at those covered both by us and other publications over the last week

In Guinea a trial of a vaccine against Ebola has been reported as being 100% percent effective against the deadly disease. Involving 4,000 people and funded by various organizations including the World Health Organization as well as the Norwegian and Canadian governments the trial found no cases amongst those 2,014 people inoculated immediately and only 16 cases in 2,380 people who had a delayed vaccination. The trial will now be expanded to cover as many people as possible exposed to the disease.

In Zimbabwe there were calls last week for US dentist, Walter Palmer, to be extradited back to the African nation in order stand trial for his killing of Cecil the Lion just outside the Hwange national park early this month. A petition has been lodged by the Zimbabwean government with the White House who have a month to respond. On Thursday Palmer wrote to his patients to apologize for killing the beast saying that hunting was his passion and that he had no idea the lion was famous.

The host city for the 2022 Winter Olympics was chosen last week as the Chinese capital, Beijing, beat out Kazakhstan’s Almaty to take the honor. After Krakow, Oslo and Stockholm all withdrew their bids, citing a lack of public support and the massive costs involved, the only two contenders left were Almaty and Beijing and the latter winning has proved somewhat controversial, not because of the Chinese human rights record, although that is a concern, but more because the Chinese capital lacks snow.

In sport the waters to be used in Rio’s 2016 Olympics for rowing and canoeing have been reported as being polluted with raw sewage to such a degree that the International Sailing Federation will be conducting tests for viruses on the waters. The question is what will Rio do if the water is too dirty? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out what their response will be. In the meantime, however, lets look back at the big stories we covered from around the world in the last seven days.

1. PokerStars and Prostate Cancer UK launched a campaign for awarewness and prevention among the male population. Before you start playing again, don’t forget to wash hands after the checkup though!

2. Rapper Snoop Dogg was temporarily detained in Sweden on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs. Turned out this time he wasn’t, and his over-the-top indignation makes him imagine he is the new MLK.

3. The Serbian state lottery made themselves targets of ridicule and outrage, as a terrible blunder happened live on air during the pulling of the numbers. An investigation has been launched to determine if they are a fraud, or just that clumsy.

4. The NFL didn’t even try hard to prove malice on the Patriots QB’s part in Deflategate, instead they gave him a four-game ban for obstruction of the inquiry. #12 since appealed.

5. Just to show not all lotteries are rigged, a Virginia truck driver won over 90 million dollars with a lottery ticket he got in Pennsylvania. ‘Cause you never know, that’s why.

6. It has kicked off! With a huge party EPT’s season 12 started in Barcelona. After all, it’s supposed to be about having fun.

7. The referee literally had to pick up and pull the furious Ronda Rousey off the trash-talking Bethe Correia after she had destroyed the Brazilian in just 34 seconds.

Meanwhile in Texas a man was hospitalized last week after being hit in the head by a bullet he’d fired at an armadillo which had ricocheted back. According to the local sheriff’s department the man was airlifted to hospital after the incident that took place at around 3am on Thursday. It is unknown if the Armadillo survived. This is the second incident of bullets bouncing off the creature and hitting someone just this year. Armadillos are seen as a pest in the Southern states of the US.