Week in pictures

At the beginning of the week, Wall Street fell as investors nervously awaited further news about the US government's plan to buy $700bn (£380bn) in banks' mortgage debt Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

The proposed bail-out received a rancorous hearing in Congress as politicians demanded safeguards, extra details and more time to scrutinise the way the Treasury intends to spend the money Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, US president George Bush made a personal plea for Congress to approve the plan without delay or face panic and economic chaos. Markets reacted positively Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

US lawmakers came close to reaching a final agreement on the bail-out, but an emergency White House meeting between Bush, Congressional leaders and presidential candidates descended 'into a contentious shouting match,' according to a statement from the John McCain campaign on Thursday night/Friday morning Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP

B is for Bail-outs: In March, the investment bank Bear Stearns became the first US investment bank to face collapse – but in a last-ditch rescue it was bailed out by JP Morgan, with federal guarantees. JP Morgan also bought Washington Mutual after it was seized by the authorities in September – the largest US bank failure. Faced with this meltdown, government pumped billions of pounds, euros and dollars into their national banking sectors in a co-ordinated attempt to restore order Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

In Britain, HSBC axed 1,100 jobs worldwide, including 500 in the UK. Bradford & Bingley announced it is cutting 370 jobs, with the closure of its mortgage processing centre in Borehamwood Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Newscast

Warren Buffett agreed to invest $5bn in Goldman Sachs, giving the bank a strong vote of confidence Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty

In Hong Kong, police were called in after customers crowded the entrance of a branch of Bank of East Asia after rumours believed to be related to its exposure to assets linked to failed investment bank Lehman Brothers and insurance giant AIG were reported in the local press Photograph: Mike Clarke/AFP

At the Labour party conference in Manchester, chancellor Alistair Darling pledged action to deal with the 'extraordinary turbulence' in the financial system Photograph: Lipin Garcia/EPA

Britain's plans for a new generation of nuclear power stations received a major boost when French energy giant EDF finally agreed to buy British Energy in a £12.4bn deal Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Google is taking on the might of Apple and the world's largest mobile phone maker Nokia in a three-way battle for the Christmas market with its first handset, the G1 Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

Some of the biggest and most controversial companies in the online poker industry could be stripped of their internet domain names after state officials in Kentucky won a seizure order from a US court Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty

Directories publisher Yell suspended its dividend amid concern that the company's £3.7bn debt mountain was putting a severe strain on finances Photograph: VisualMedia/PR

A 36-year old former RAF pilot and his financial backers have placed the biggest ever order for Learjets - worth £815m - in the belief that the global credit crunch will not affect high net worth individuals and their need to travel around the world on private aircraft Photograph: PR

Shell became the first western oil company to win significant access to the energy sector in Iraq since the 1970s, in a $4bn move which could bring liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Britain Photograph: Atef Hassan/Reuters