Rolls-Royce sales hit new record

8 January 2012 Last updated at 19:05 ET

The Ghost has helped to lift Rolls-Royce sales from about 1,000 cars in 2009

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has reported a 31% rise in sales during 2011 to 3,538 cars.

The growth rate was weaker than that seen last year, when sales rose 150%.

The year's sales nevertheless marked a fresh record for the BMW luxury marque.

Rolls-Royce's £165,000 Ghost model, which is smaller and less ostentatious than the £235,000 Phantom models, has been the main driving force behind the company's sales growth.

"We had an outstanding year in 2011 and we should take a moment to reflect on this Great British success story," said chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos.

Rolls-Royce's strong performance last year was more than matched by rival ultra-luxury car company Bentley, which sold 7,003 cars during 2011, marking a 37% rise that returned it to pre-recession levels.

Further expansion

Rolls-Royce said last year's sales were the highest in the marque's 107-year history, beating the previous record set in 1978 when 3,347 Rolls-Royce models were sold.

At the time, the Bentley and Rolls-Royce marques were both parts of the same company.

The two brands went separate ways a decade ago, when the German automotive giant Volkswagen Group took over the Crewe factory in Cheshire, where Bentleys are still being produced.

BMW acquired the right to use the Rolls-Royce brand and built a brand new factory on the edge of the Earl of March's Goodwood estate in West Sussex where it started manufacturing new models.

That factory has been expanded in line with a broadening of the model line-up, which currently includes four Phantom models and one Ghost model.

The expansion is set to continue as the product range is developed further, Mr Muller-Otvos said.

Industry insiders predict that a convertible Ghost could hit the road in a couple of years.

Global markets

The market for Rolls-Royce models grew particularly fast in Germany and Russia, where sales more than doubled last year.

Sales in the Asia Pacific region rose 47%. In the UK they were up 30%, while in the Middle East they rose 23%.

The US and Chinese markets are the most important ones for the company, though it has not released detailed figures about how many cars it sold in individual markets.

Looking ahead, the carmaker will further develop its global network of dealerships, and will enter new markets in South America, Mr Muller-Otvos said.

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Apps hit record high in December

3 January 2012 Last updated at 07:38 ET

Christmas saw a frenzy of app downloads

For the first time in a single week, more than a billion apps have been downloaded, according to a study.

Analytics firm Flurry said 1.2 billion apps were downloaded in the last week of December.

Activity was buoyed by the facts that many users received new devices for Christmas and firms offered discounted apps over the holiday period.

The US was responsible for nearly half of the downloads, followed by China and the UK.

With 81 million downloads, the UK easily surpassed Canada (41 million), Germany (40 million) and France (40 million).

It was beaten to second spot by China with 99 million downloads. The US was out ahead with 509 million.

Flurry thinks this level of download activity will become more standard.

"Looking forward to 2012, Flurry expects breaking the one billion download barrier per week will become more commonplace," the firm said in its blog..

"While [Apple] iOS and [Google] Android growth continues to amaze, the market is still by all measures relatively nascent."

Unsurprisingly, Christmas proved a boom time for device makers. Flurry estimated that nearly seven million Android devices and iPhones were activated on Christmas Day.

Apple does not disclose such figures but Google confirmed that more than 3.7 million Android devices were activated over the Christmas weekend.

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Russia slams US for its human rights record

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Foreign Ministry has attacked America's human rights record in its first report on injustice elsewhere in the world, offering examples such as the Guantanamo Bay prison and wrongful death row convictions to paint the U.S. as hypocritical for lecturing other nations on the subject of rights.

"The situation in the United States is a far cry from the ideals that Washington proclaims," says the report released Wednesday.

Moscow has previously reacted angrily to the accusations of human rights breaches that the U.S. State Department has leveled at Russia in its annual reports. The State Department has expressed concern about the violent attacks on rights activists and journalists in Russia, most of which go unpunished. It also has criticized abuses in Russia's Caucasus, including extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and torture.

The 90-page Russian report slams EU nations, Canada and Georgia, but reserves its longest section of 20 pages for what it says are violations by the United States. The report does not cover Asia, Africa or the Middle East, other than a five-page section criticizing the NATO operation in Libya.

Moscow laments the ongoing operation of the "notorious" prison in Guantanamo Bay, where terrorism suspects have been held since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and criticizes President Barack Obama for "legalizing indefinite and extrajudicial custody and the return of court martials."

The report accuses the U.S. of prying into citizens' personal lives and violating the rights of Muslim Americans in the fight against terrorism. It also points to errors made by American courts.

"Judicial errors are the Achilles heel of American justice as concerns capital punishment," the report argues. It notes the roughly 130 people sentenced to death in the past 30 years who were later cleared of the charges, some after they were executed.

The Foreign Ministry also struck back at international criticism of Russia's recent parliamentary election, which independent observers said involved widespread fraud. Outrage over the vote set off a spate of protests led by citizens unhappy with Vladimir Putin's rule.

The report accuses the U.S. of blocking independent candidates from elections and criticizes the practice of allowing governors to nominate senators when a Senate seat is vacated, as when Obama became president. It refers to the conviction this year of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was accused of trying to auction off Obama's Senate seat.

The State Department is reviewing the Russian report, spokesman Mark Toner said. He said such reports can be a "useful mechanism provided that they are produced using objective methodology."

"We certainly don't regard it as interference in our internal affairs when foreign governments, individuals or organizations comment on or criticize U.S. human rights practices," he said, adding later, "In terms of our human rights record, we're an open book."

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Tracker NORAD Santa ayant des vacances record

Tracker du père Noël au NORAD est fielding 4 000 appels l'heure, le rythme pour battre un record : http://t.co/YgkhlJba

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Michelle Obama helps break world record for jumping jacks

Michelle Obama sets the world record for jumping jacks (AP)

Michelle Obama has earned her family another place in history. This time, Mrs. Obama will share the honor with more than 300,000 other participants on Sunday who set the record for most people doing jumping jacks in a 24-hour period.

The previous world record was just 20,000.

In a video from the White House, seen below, Mrs. Obama thanked National Geographic Kids and the Guinness Book of World Records, who helped organize the event as part of Obama's Let's Move! initiative to promote physical fitness and healthy eating for children. She also said she hopes that physical fitness will be a priority for the kids who participated.

"More than anything, I want to say, thanks to every single young person who showed that exercise isn't just good for you, but that it's fun too," Mrs. Obama said.

On Sunday, Mrs. Obama led about 400 kids from elementary and middle schools in the Washington area on the South Lawn of the White House. Other jumping jack events were held around the world to reach the world-record mark.

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