Industrial output rises in December but utilities slump

Industrial output rose in December and motor vehicle assembly picked up, suggesting the manufacturing sector continues to expand at a moderate pace.

Industrial production increased 0.3 percent last month after a 1.0 percent increase in November, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. The gain was in line with economists' expectations.

Manufacturing production increased 0.8 percent in December after advancing 1.3 percent the prior month. Automobile assembly increased from November's pace.

For the fourth quarter, industrial production rose at a 1.0 percent annual pace. Manufacturing output increased at a tepid 0.2 percent pace during the October-December period.

Factory activity has cooled in recent months and the industrial production report supported views that the sector, which carried the economy's recovery from the 2007-09 recession, was not heading for a hard landing.

Last month, mining production gained 0.6 percent after rising 0.3 percent in November. Utilities output slumped 4.8 percent as unseasonably warm weather held down demand for heating.

Last month, the amount of industrial capacity in use edged up to 78.8 percent from 78.7 percent in November.

Industrial capacity utilization - a measure of how fully firms are using their resources - was 1.5 percentage points below its long-run average.

Officials at the Fed tend to look at utilization measures as a signal of how much "slack" remains in the economy, and how much room growth has to run before it becomes inflationary.

Was Einstein wrong - or was the cable loose?

The world of science was upended last year when an experiment appeared to show one of Einstein's fundamental theories was wrong - but now the lab behind it says the result could have been caused by a loose cable.
Physicists at the CERN research institute near Geneva appeared to contradict Albert Einstein's 1905 Special Theory of Relativity last year when they reported that sub-atomic particles called neutrinos could travel fractions of a second faster than light.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which underpins the current view of how the universe works, says that nothing can travel faster than light, and doing so would be like traveling back in time.
James Gillies, a spokesman for European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, said on Wednesday the lab's startling result was now in doubt.
Earlier on Wednesday, ScienceInsider, a website run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported that the surprising result was down to a loose fibre optic cable linking a Global Positioning System satellite receiver to a computer.
Gillies confirmed that a flaw in the GPS system was now suspected as a possible cause for the surprising reading. Further testing was needed before any definite conclusions could be reached, he added.
The faster-than-light finding was recorded when 15,000 neutrino beams were pumped over three years from CERN to an underground Italian laboratory at Gran Sasso near Rome.
"A possible explanation has been found. But we won't know until we have tested it out with a new beam to Gran Sasso," Gillies told Reuters in Geneva.
Physicists on the experiment, called OPERA, said when they reported it last September that they had checked and rechecked over many months anything that could have produced a misreading before announcing what they had found.
A second test whose results were announced in November appeared to provide further evidence that neutrinos were travelling faster than light. But many experts remained skeptical of a result that would have overturned one of the fundamental principles of modern physics.
Edward Blucher, chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, said the original finding would have been breathtaking if it had been true. As it was, the research inspired many spirited discussions, if few believers.
"I don't think I met anyone who said I bet it's going to be true. I think the people on the experiment worked as carefully as they could and I think they ran out of ideas of what could be wrong and they decided to present it," he said.
"Maybe they should have waited a few more months," he added.
Gillies said CERN would be issuing a full statement early on Thursday.

Sikkim quake: 7 casualties, damage reported

New Delhi: One child succumbed to injuries after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Sunday in Sikkim, Chief Secretary of Sikkim Karma Gyatso said. One person was reportedly dead in Bhagalpur district of Bihar in a stampede following the tremors. Five people were reported dead in Nepal.

An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the richter scale hit North India on Sunday at 6:10 pm and the epicentre was 64 km from Gangtok in Sikkim, causing major damages in the area. Mild tremors were felt in Delhi and other parts of North India. Tremors were felt in Patna, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal also. 

Aftershocks measuring 6.1 and 5.3 on the richter scale were also felt around Sikkim 20 minutes after the earthquake. 

Speaking to CNN-IBN, the DGP of Sikkim said that many buildings were damaged. He also said that roads were blocked and people were stranded on roads. He said that the Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has called for an emergency meeting.

Arvind Kumar, Principal Resident Commissioner of Sikkim said that there was excessive damage in the northern parts of Sikkim. He also said that the rescue operations had started in the area. 

There were also reports of landslides following the earthquake in areas around Sikkim and also Darjeeling.

The Prime Minister also spoke to the Sikkim Chief Minister and offered all help. The Prime Minister also directed the Cabinet Secretary to call for an emergency meeting.

There were reports of damages from Bihar. Two buildings collapsed in Katihar in Bihar. The NTPC power plant in Kahalgaon in Bihar has also been shut down because of the earthquake following which North Bihar was under power crisis. 




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Sikkim quake , earthquake