The week in pictures: August 25 – August 31, 2015

Reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, both of WDBJ-TV were shot and killed Wednesday by disgruntled former employee Vester Lee Flanagan II (aka Bryce Williams) during a live on-air interview with Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director Vicki Gardner. Both Mz. Parker and Mr. Ward were killed, Mz. Gardner suffered a gunshot wound to the back and was hospitalized. Flanagan was sought by police but later died from self-inflicted gunshots.

In Austria an abandoned vehicle on the nation’s A4 motorway, just between Parndorf and Neusiedl, was discovered to contain the dead bodies of 71 migrants fleeing the warzones of the Middle East. With 59 men, 8 women, 3 boys under ten and a baby girl of no more than two years of age, the group is likely to have traveled from Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Investigations by authorities into their deaths led to four arrests, three Bulgarians and an Afghan, in neighboring Hungary where the vehicle was registered.

Mohamed Fahmy, Peter Greste and Baher Mohamed, all employees of the news network Al-Jazeera were each sentenced to three years in jail last week accused by Egypt’s ruling military as having operated without a license, broadcasting false reports and colluding with the Muslim Brotherhood. This was seen as yet another attempt by the Army to stifle free speech in the aftermath of their power grab in July 2013 when they seized power from Mohamed Morsi Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

In sport Jose Mourinho’s 100th home league game in charge of Chelsea ended in defeat after Crystal Palace put two past the blues. Palace took the lead early in the second half through Sako with Falcao answering a quarter of an hour later but it was Ward who scored two minutes later to seal the win for Palace. Will Chelsea bounce back from this ghastly loss? You’ll have to read our daily news pages to find out. In the meantime here’s a look at some of the big stories we covered over the last seven days.

1. Pedro has left Barcelona with a blue heart, but was happy to join a strong and ambitious team like FC Chelsea.

Pedro chooses blue jersey (Photo: Chelsea FC )

2. Our intention was to sum up the first round of the Liga BBVA and tell more about the expectations in connection with the greatest derby of La Liga’s second round.

It was a good game (Photo: EP)

3. We collected the most interesting football transfer rumours in connection with the most important European clubs.

Who’s going where? (Photo: clips art)

4. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe received a letter in which they were explained that the regulatory body will decide about their USD 500 million casino project in 30 days.

New plans for a gambling facility (Photo: )

5. The Washington Redskins were expected to try and trade Robert Griffin III, who seemed to be surplus to the team.

RG3 (Photo: )

6. GamingZion looked at the proposal for legalizing the selling of 50%-50% high stakes raffles in California.

High stakes raffle tickets purchasing (Photo: )

7. John Juanda won the European Poker Tour Barcelona EUR 5,300 Main Event for which he received a prize of over EUR 1 million.

Juanda wins EPT (Photo: PokerStars)

Meanwhile in Poland the deputy culture minister, Piotr Zuchowski, confirmed that ground-penetrating radar images did seem to show the existence of a hidden armored train dating back to the second world war that is said to have been concealed as the Nazis fled the Red Army in 1945. Reputed to house a cargo of looted art and gold bullion the authorities will now undertake to recover the train that was only found after the deathbed confession of a man involved in the operation to hide it in the first place.