Business week in pictures

Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods group behind brands such as Cillit Bang, Lemsip and Nurofen, agreed a £2.5bn buyout of SSL, the business behind Durex condoms and Scholl shoes, in the latest in a spate of takeover deals Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

An ad for Penguin bars in 1952. Penguin chocolate biscuits could soon be picked up by a new owner, after it emerged that the private equity backers behind United Biscuits had quietly put the business up for sale. United Biscuits owns some of Britain's best-known snack brands, including Hula Hoops, McVitie's and Twiglets Photograph: Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The former Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black has been freed from the low-security Coleman Federal Correctional Institution in Florida, where he has served less than three years of a six-and-a-half year sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice Photograph: Reinhold Matay/AP

Conrad Black leaves the federal building in Chicago in December 2007, after sentencing in his trial. For the time being, the disgraced peer cannot leave the US. But eventually, if his fraud convictions are quashed, the peer has expressed a desire to return either to the home of his birth, Canada, or to Britain, where he could re-take his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour Photograph: Jerry Lai/AP

A man rides past a business offering film props on sale in Hollywood. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warned that the US economy faced 'unusually uncertain' prospects, and said the central bank was ready to take further steps to bolster growth if needed Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

The Bank of England has raised the prospects of a fresh issue of electronic money to shore up the fragile economic recovery and offset some of the pressures from the government's fiscal squeeze Photograph: Getty Images/Image Source

George Osborne and Vince Cable will spell out next week the dangers of a double-dip recession caused by a drying up of bank lending to Britain's hard-pressed small and medium-sized businesses Photograph: Jason Alden/Getty Images

A scene from the film Inception which has gone straight to the top of the British box office. Last year was the best ever in terms of box office takings and the second best year since 1971 in terms of admissions, fuelled by the continuing growth of 3D and the through-the-roof success of Avatar, as well as the enduring, recession-resistant appeal of the big screen Photograph: Stephen Vaughan/Warner Bros. Pictures

A jump in demand for new televisions to watch the World Cup helped high street sales beat expectations in June raising hopes that overall economic growth gathered steam in the second quarter Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A surge of aircraft orders from carriers in the Middle East, Asia and South America has taken the value of deals at this week's Farnborough International Airshow to more than $25bn (£16bn) Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

BP CEO Tony Hayward speaks at a press conference on Fourchon Beach, Lousiana in May. Hayward will next week launch a fight back against the wave of criticism that has engulfed him and BP following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Hayward is set to outline a new corporate growth strategy in a bid to reassure shareholders and, at the same time, cement his position as chief executive Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second-largest drug company, was plunged into the red in the last three months by massive legal bills in settling court cases over the antidepressant Paxil and diabetes drug Avandia Photograph: JB Reed/Bloomberg via Getty Images