Week in pictures: January 11

A Taser gun with music player holster is unveiled at the Las Vegas electronics show. (Read the article) Photograph: PR

J Sainsbury has ducked the gloom in the retail sector and posted half-year profits towards the top end of forecasts, after poaching customers from more upmarket rivals Waitrose and Marks & Spencer Photograph: David Devins/Newscast

Marks & Spencer chief Sir Stuart Rose called on the government to do all it could to restore consumer confidence as the high street giant unveiled dire Christmas trading, the closure of 27 stores and confirmed more than 1,200 staff were to be axed in a bid to cut costs Photograph: Newscast

Monday: Bob Diamond, the highest-paid director on Barclays' board, defended the bonus culture in the City as the former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, started on online campaign to stop the Royal Bank of Scotland paying out £1bn in bonuses Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

Coffee giant Starbucks has reported its first ever quarterly loss but said it will press ahead with its recently announced deal to open 150 Starbucks outlets in the UK and elsewhere in western Europe Photograph: David Parry/Newscast

Department store group John Lewis is to open its first store outside the UK with a £40m investment in a new outlet in Dublin Photograph: PR

British Airways issues a profits warning, saying it would miss its 10% profit targets next because of a surge in fuel costs and the economic slowdown.(Read the article) Photograph: PR

Apple is ditching its policy of charging UK consumers more than other Europeans when they buy songs from its iTunes service, following an EU antitrust investigation. (Read the article) Photograph: Getty

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has written an open letter to every member of staff at Sainsbury's, apologising for an outburst in which he criticised the supermarket over its involvement on his upcoming show exposing the standards of battery bred chickens. (Read the article) Photograph: PR

Danish luxury TV and sound system maker Bang & Olufsen ousted its chief executive a day after a disappointing sales update hammered its shares. (Read the article) Photograph: Daniel Lynch/Newscast

Pending home sales in the US fell sharply in November, data showed, but the previous month's figures were revised up, leaving the picture of a soft housing market broadly unchanged. (Read the article). Photograph: Mike Groll/AP