Week in pictures: September 14

Associated British Foods, the company behind Primark, said a 1% rise in comparable sales at the cheap clothing chain was a 'fantastic performance' after dismal summer weather triggered heavy discounting across the high street, with retailers struggled to clear poor-selling stock lines. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian

Dame Anita Roddick, the ethical beauty pioneer and environmental campaigner who founded the Body Shop and turned it into a global brand, died suddenly after a brain haemorrhage at the age of 64. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA

Chancellor Alistair Darling faced accusations of dithering as the crisis intensified. As the political pressure mounted, he announced late on Monday that the government would guarantee all deposits. This helped to calm the immediate panic, but left the bank's future in doubt Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

The John Lewis Partnership has underlined the scale of the problems facing retailers by unveiling a 27% fall to £107.3m in first-half profits, but denied it was too upmarket and said its co-ownership structure allows it to weather the consumer downturn better than its competitors Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

The first signs that Britain's long-running housing boom could be over have begun to appear, with prices across England and Wales falling last month for the first time in nearly two years. Five interest rate rises in the past year have made it increasingly difficult for first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder, according to a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

The James Bond effect helped keep Aston Martin at the top of the latest list of the UK's coolest brands. However, new media darlings such as MySpace and Bebo failed to win top spots in consumer's hearts, according to the latest CoolBrands ranking. Photograph: Shaun Curry/Getty

Nipper the dog has got off lightly. The little terrier listening to His Master's Voice over a gramophone has survived an overhaul of HMV that promises to ditch old technology and bring in the new. Out will go old-style promotions using posters and cardboard cut-outs, and crammed racks of DVDs, and in will come digital download hubs, sleeker shelves, gaming stations and smoothie bars. Photograph: PR

The oil price rebounded after Opec announced a surprise cut in production in an attempt to halt the recent decline in the cost of a barrel of crude. Having fallen by almost 30% in the last two months to the fringes of the symbolic $100 mark, US crude jumped back above that level Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian

European car makers set themselves on a collision course with the EU by rejecting plans for a 2012 target for cutting carbon-dioxide emissions from all new cars to 120 grams per kilometre. Outside the Frankfurt motor show, Greenpeace members dressed cars to look like pigs. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

Shares in Northern Rock plummeted more than 20% and there were heavy losses among other banks as the crisis-hit mortgage lender issued a profit warning and confirmed it had received emergency funding from the Bank of England. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP