Business week in pictures

The 2009 Female FTSE report from Cranfield School of Management shows that corporate Britain is failing women. There were only 15 female executive directors in the top 100 companies this year, down from 16 last year, and the number of boards with more than one female director has dropped from 39 to 37. Pictured: Burberry's CEO Angela Ahrendts Photograph: Kevin Mazur/WireImage

The embattled Cadbury confectionery empire faced a takeover siege on multiple fronts as Italy's Ferrero and the US chocolate firm Hershey declared that they were considering competing with Kraft's £9.8bn takeover offer for the 185-year-old maker of Dairy Milk bars, Creme Eggs and Trident chewing gum Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

Marc Bolland, the chief executive of supermarket chain Wm Morrison, has been appointed as the next chief executive of Marks & Spencer Photograph: Rex Features

Three officials at a subsidiary of the mining company Vedanta Resources have been arrested in India following the collapse of a chimney in one of its power stations which killed 41 people Photograph: Gurinder Osan/AP

VT, the shipbuilder turned service provider, is preparing to cash in on a boom in outsourcing in the wake of future cuts in public spending. Paul Lester, VT's chief executive, said that it was interested in buying the Met Office, one of the state-owned assets which the Treasury has said it will auction off Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

A £1bn buyout of blue-blooded City firm Cazenove was confirmed in a move that will unleash multimillion-pound payouts for its former partners, including chairman David Mayhew (foreground) Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland. Inflation in the UK jumped from a five-year low to 1.5% in October, with analysts predicting it could hit 3% in the coming months. Transport costs were largely behind the rise in consumer price inflation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

World stock markets rose strongly again to record highs for the year, buoyed by rising optimism about the world economy. The price of gold and other key commodities also rose, with the precious metal continuing its recent surge by reaching a new all-time high of $1,150 Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters

Construction work continues on the $3.9bn Cosmopolitan Resort Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Deutsche Bank's gamble on the casino has already cost it nearly half a billion pounds in writedowns‚ but now the development is well and truly underwater. The blighted project on the city's glitzy Strip, which the bank inherited when the original developer went bust, reached a new low point when builders hit the city's natural water aquifer Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The Majestic discount drinks warehouse in Calais, France. Britain's largest wine warehouse chain said that drinkers were switching to more affordable New World wines and Prosecco to beat the credit crunch Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

The retail adage 'stack 'em high and pack 'em tight' is to be introduced to airlines after plans were announced for economy-only flights carrying a record-breaking 800 passengers in Airbus A380s Photograph: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

A protester at a demonstration by employees of Lloyds Banking Group in Madrid against plans by the bank to slash 169 jobs in Spain. Brussels has cleared the way for a dramatic shakeup of high street banking by formally approving the restructuring of Lloyds Banking Group, which will sell off 600 branches in return for state aid Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

Britain's shoppers are being urged to keep faith with fair trade Caribbean banana growers as Europe and Latin America prepare to declare a ceasefire in the 16-year 'banana wars', one of the world's longest-running trade disputes Photograph: Owen Franken/Corbis

The Bank of England's monetary policy committee was split three ways over its decision to extend its policy of quantitative easing (QE) by £25bn. The minutes of this month's meeting showed that seven of the committee's nine members had voted for the extension while external member David Miles pushed for a ¬£40bn rise and chief economist Spencer Dale voted against any increase from ¬£175bn Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Fear of youth unemployment rising above 1 million in the new year prompted Gordon Brown to use the last Queen's speech of the parliament to promise more money to ease the impact of the recession on the young Photograph: David Moir/Reuters