Week in pictures: February 1

Y is for Yahoo: It was a busy year for the internet search engine Yahoo: a controversial $800m advertising deal with the rival company Google collapsed; the co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as chief executive, and 1,500 jobs were slashed Photograph: Don Ryan/AP

Shell has run into trouble over another big oil project in the former Soviet Union with the government of Kazakhstan halting development of the Kashagan field alleging environmental violation Photograph: Tengku Bahar/Getty

Further cuts in US interest rates looked a near certainty after figures showed the sales of new homes tumbled in January for the third successive month to a 13-year low and demand for durable goods also slumped. The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, acknowledged the persistent downside risks to growth. Read the article Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP

America's biggest sub-prime mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, and its chief executive Angelo Mozilo, were slapped with a prosecution for unethical business practices just hours before its shareholders were due to vote the company out of existence Photograph: Rick Francis/AP

The Bank of England, headed by governor Mervyn King, has been lobbied by high street banks to extend the special liquidity scheme, put in place this spring to help free up money markets which have been frozen by the credit crunch. The Bank said the scheme was going according to plan and some of the urgency had diminished in terms of banks needing to access it. Read the article Photograph: Bruno Vincent/Getty

Hornby Railways was created in 1901 by Frank Hornby, who also created Meccano. Its Duplo range of model trains, launched in 1938, helped to bring the 00 gauge to carpets across Britain Photograph: Newscast

Scandal-hit Société Générale suffered a fresh blow to its shrunken credibility when the governor of the Bank of France said it had failed to spot and deal with 'malfunctions' in its internal risk controls during the run-up to announcing €4.9bn (£3.6bn) losses. Read the article Photograph: Fred Tanneau/Getty

Opportunistic bidders have begun stalking Mitchells & Butlers a day after the pub operator announced £422m of losses and likely losses linked to its failure to secure a lucrative property deal. Read the article Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian

Nissan is to add a third shift at its Sunderland plant to cope with booming demand for its British designed and developed Qashqai model. The company said the move would mean an extra 800 jobs at the north-east factory and estimated it could create a further 400 jobs in the local supply chain. Read the article Photograph: PR

WH Smith brought the festive retail reporting season to a close with news of a special dividend for shareholders. Announcing that Christmas trading was 'absolutely in line with expectations', chief executive Kate Swann said that the company plans to hand back £90m to investors. Read the article Photograph: David Lynch/Newscast

Monday: Land of Leather revealed it had been approached by several potential bidders Photograph: Jonathon Hordle/Rex Features