Business week in pictures

The Greek crisis escalated this week as the market took fright at the costs of the EU/IMF bailout. On Tuesday communist protesters stormed the Acropolis as the euro and world markets plunged on concerns about the debt-choked country's huge bailout from the EU and the IMF
Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

A bank employee rescued from a fire that broke out when her bank was attacked during anti-government protests in Athens. The economic crisis enveloping the debt-stricken country not only claimed its first lives: it shifted from bewilderment into violence
Photograph: Iakovos Hatzistavrou/AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel waits for the beginning of a parliamentary group meeting of Germany's conservative CDU/CSU parties. In Berlin, where Merkel faces a groundswell of hostility to sending the Greeks a €22bn lifeline, leaders issued stark warnings about the prospects for the EU and insisted on a tough new regime for the 16 eurozone countries if the monetary union is to survive
Photograph: Axel Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Traders talk at Madrid's Stock Exchange. Financial markets tumbled after a warning from the European commission that the turmoil in Athens was in danger of spreading to other countries, including the UK. The commission said mounting government debts could trigger widespread panic among investors and threaten the EU's economic recovery
Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

Models dressed up as characters from the film Avatar pose during the launch of Avatar on Blu-ray and DVD in Sydney. The collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi hit sales of DVDs last year, according to new figures, while cash-strapped consumers are increasingly deciding to rent the latest movies rather than buy them
Photograph: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

James Cayne, former Chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns, prepares to testify at a hearing held by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington. The bridge-playing, cigar-smoking Cayne accepted that the defunct Wall Street firm's liabilities were too high on his watch, although he suggested a conspiracy may have contributed to rumours that caused a run on the 85-year-old Wall Street bank
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Peter Mandelson on an election campaign visit to Johnson Tiles in Stoke-on-Trent. Strong demand from abroad continued to bolster the manufacturing sector's recovery last month, according to a closely watched survey which showed the fastest pace of factory activity growth in more than 15 years
Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A couple tours inside the Bank of China Tower opposite the AIA Central building in Hong Kong. Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of Prudential, was fighting to keep his job after City regulators forced the insurer to pull details of how it planned to raise the cash for its £24bn takeover of Asian rival AIA
Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters

Strikers wave unite union flags from the top of a double decker bus near Heathrow in March. The Unite trade union has indicated support for a sustained strike by British Airways cabin crew - of up to 10 days - if they reject a peace deal in an online ballot
Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters

Employees work at a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd (TSMC) 8-Inch Wafer Fab laboratory in Hsinchu. The boom in smartphones – mobile phones that can access the internet and download applications – has helped British-based microchip designers CSR and Wolfson Microelectronics report strong first-quarter results
Photograph: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co/Reuters

Warren Buffett appears in a video message to shareholders prior to the start of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha. Buffett declared that he saw nothing wrong in an allegedly fraudulent $1bn mortgage deal by Goldman Sachs and suggested that losers in the transaction, including Royal Bank of Scotland, had only themselves to blame for exercising 'dumb' judgment
Photograph: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Farms are dwarfed by a plume of ash rising from a volcano erupting under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland. Travellers in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were left stranded by the cancellation of hundreds of services after the Civil Aviation Authority closed airspace due to a new cloud of volcanic ash drifting south from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland
Photograph: Brynjar Gauti/AP

Houses are reflected in the window of an estate agent in south London. High street banks were forced to fend off fresh attacks that they are obstructing first-time buyers and throttling the housing market, after data showed mortgage lending has fallen almost 90% since its peak three years ago
Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters