“Because we live in a seismically active region, PG&E takes care in all its operations, especially at Diablo Canyon, nike cheap mens acg sandals to analyze and address seismic risks,” he said. “In the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and the resulting tsunami, we are working even more closely with various governmental permitting agencies to accelerate the plant’s advanced seismic research.”
A number of faults exist near the plant, including the Shoreline Fault, which was discovered in 2008. The company maintains that the plant has an adequate safety margin to withstand any seismic activity that might occur from faults in the region, including the Shoreline Fault.
According to its statement, the company will undertake offshore 3-D studies of the Shoreline Fault’s deeper regions as soon as it obtains necessary permits from various regulatory agencies, including the State Lands Commission, the California Coastal Commission and San Luis Obispo County.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to send a letter to PG&E urging the company to nike cheap mens acg sandals delay relicensing until seismic studies had been completed and independently reviewed.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, said she was pleased that the company had agreed to suspend licensing, but said that a number of seismic issues still need to be addressed.
“There is simply no need to rush through relicensing until we have all the information we need to ensure Diablo nike cheap mens acg sandals Canyon can be run safely and that the plant is prepared to deal with the inevitable seismic activity the area is known for,” Capps said in a statement issued Monday. “The people of the Central Coast deserve to know that everything is being done to ensure their health and safety.”
Capps testified Tuesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and renewed her call to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stay the relicensing process. State Sen. Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, also testified before the committee, offering his perspective as a state elected official and scientist with a Ph.D. in seismic studies.
There was no chance of a tsunami, agency officials added, according to AFP.
Meanwhile at the troubled Fukushima Fivefingers Kso-Vibram fivefingers Kso nuclear power plant where workers are battling to contain a nuclear crisis, a fire broke out Tuesday morning at reactor No. 4, Reuters reported. It was not clear whether the blaze was linked to the latest quake.
The complex suffered a series of Fivefingers Kso-Vibram fivefingers Kso explosions after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck off the coast of northeast Japan on March 11.
Oil fell Monday after Libya's Moammarnike running shoes online Gadhafi appeared to accept a cease-fire plan and the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. growth this year. Here's how energy contracts traded.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange:
Crude fell $2.87 to settle at $109.92 per barrel. nike mens acg sandals 2011
Gasoline lost 6.02 cents to settle at $3.2005 a gallon.
Heating oil gave up 6.72 cents to settle at $3.2525 a gallon.
Natural gas rose 6.7 cents to settle at $4.108 per 1,000 cubic feet.
On the ICE Futures exchange:buy Reebok ZigTech online
Brent crude dropped $2.70 to settle at $123.42 per barrel.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest carmaker, lost 1.5 percent in Tokyo, leading Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average towards its biggest decline in three weeks. Tohoku Electric Power Co. fell 2.6 percent after power was cut in some areas following the 6.6. magnitude earthquake hit Japan yesterday. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, dropped 1.4 percent after crude oil and copper prices declined.
“After yesterday’s quake, investors are likely to wonder whether there’s more to come,” said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, a strategist at Tokyo-based SMBC Friend Securities Co. “That’s likely to weigh on sentiment.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 1.1 percent, cheap nike mens acg sandals 2011 the most since March 15, to 135.05 as of 10:45 a.m. in Tokyo. About seven stocks fell for each that rose in the index. The gauge has risen for three straight weeks as Japanese companies resumed production after last month’s earthquake, and as an improving U.S. economy bolstered optimism the global recovery can be sustained.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1.6 percent, the most since March 23. As well as the 6.6 temblor yesterday, a magnitude-6.3 earthquake struck Chiba, the prefecture east of Tokyo, this morning, according to the Japan weather agency.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.7 percent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index was little changed. South Korea’s Kospi index retreated 0.8 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index sank 1.1 percent, the biggest drop since March 17.
U.S. Futures
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.3 percent today. In New York yesterday, the S&P 500 dropped 0.3 percent, after oil dropped from a 30-month high as the International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for the world’s largest economy.
In Tokyo, Toyota dropped 1.1 percent to 3,225 yen, the third-biggest single drag on the MSCI Asia Pacific Index. Honda Motor Co., Japan’s No. 2 carmaker by market value, declined 1.3 percent to 2,864 yen. Sony Corp., Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics, retreated 2.8 percent to 2,505 yen. In Sydney, James Hardie Industries SE, the largest seller of home siding in the U.S., fell 1.7 percent to A$5.79. In Seoul,Reebok ZigTech online Samsung Electronics Co., which receives 20 percent of its revenue from America, lost 0.6 percent to 889,000 won.
IMF Forecasts
The U.S. economy will expand 2.8 percent this year, slowing from 2.9 percent last year and less than a 3 percent growth rate for 2011 forecast in January, the IMF said. The Washington-based fund also cut its estimate of Japan’s growth to 1.4 percent from 1.6 percent in the previous forecast after the nation’s earthquake and tsunami.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent this year through yesterday, compared with gains of 5.3 percent by the S&P 500 and 1.9 percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 13.2 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 13.6 times for the S&P 500 and 11.3 times for the Stoxx 600.
Egyptian shares fell the most in more than two weeks after a demonstrator was killed and dozens were injured as Buy nike running shoes onlinesecurity and military forces cleared protesters from downtown Cairo yesterday.
Commercial International Bank SAE, the country’s biggest publicly traded lender, retreated to the lowest level since March 24. Ezz Steel (ESRS), the North African nation’s biggest steel producer, slumped 2.1 percent. The EGX 30 Index (EGX30) dropped 1.4 percent, the biggest decline since March 24, to 5,349.02 at the 2:30 p.m. close in Cairo.
One person was killed and 71 were wounded after the army dispersed overnight protesters in Cairo’s Tahrirnike mens acg sandals Square early Saturday, state-run Middle East News Agency reported, citing the health ministry. Thousands of people gathered April 8 in the downtown square demanding prompt trials for former president Hosni Mubarak and his top officials.
“The weekend caused a lot of confusion and investors are beginning to think the market was overbought,” said Teymour El- Derini, head of Middle East Sales at Cairo-based Naeem Brokerage. “We expect weakness in the market over the next few days.”
InflationEgypt’s benchmark stock index has gained 8 percent since reaching this year’s low on March 24. Trading resumed March 23 after an almost two-month halt as protests led to the ouster of the North African country’s president.
Inflation in Egypt accelerated in March on rising food prices, one of the causes of the unrest that toppled Mubarak. Reebok ZigTech onlineThe inflation rate in urban parts of Egypt, the gauge that the central bank monitors, rose to 11.5 percent from 10.7 percent in February, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics said on its website today.
Commercial International fell 2.3 percent to 30.85 Egyptian pounds. Ezz retreated to 10.46 pounds, the lowest level this month.
She hopes there will be some way to get her family out of Egypt.nike running shoes online,
She hopes speaking up will raise awareness of problems Coptic Christians face.
"I really want the whole world to know what is going on."
But when a preacher in Florida burns a Quran, seven United Nations workers in Afghanistan are killed. And after a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, is bombed, threats are made against a Coptic church in Natick.
So, even though she is an American, and "thank God, I am in a free country," she worries speaking up may put her family in more danger if her real name is used.
"I didn't hurt anyone with my religion. I don't want anyone to hurt (my family) because of my religion," she says.
"Lila" grew up in Assiut, an area with Egypt's highest concentration of Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the country's population. Her husband, who is also from Egypt, received his green card through the United States' immigration lottery. Both are now American citizens who live in MetroWest.
"I'm happy I'm here in the freedom country," she says, but "I really need help.
"I saw my mom and my dad sacrifice to give us a better life. My family is my life. I cannot lose any of them."
Lila was in Egypt earlier this year to attend her sister's wedding. She was in Assiut when the revolution played out in Cairo and when the church in Alexandria was bombed.
And while the world saw glimpses of brotherhood between Muslims and Christians in Tahrir Square, and heard reports of the Muslim Brotherhood asking Coptic Christian leaders to put the past aside, Lila says that's not what she saw when she was staying about 200 miles from Cairo.
When the revolution came, "people were getting out of jail. They were going into the houses and killing people and all kinds of bad things. That's what happened in my town. ... We were waiting to be killed at any time."nike mens acg sandals 2011
Since then, for the Coptic Christians, "it's getting worse. We have no freedom at all. They are putting all people under sharia," Islamic law. "If any woman goes out without covering her face, they take her away," she says.
A brother-in-law lost his job and was beaten up when he was accused of taking too long to attend to a Muslim patient at a hospital, says Lila. Homes of Christians are being taken as well, she says.
"We need someone to stand for us."
Coptic Christians have faced prejudice and persecution to differing degrees for centuries. Last names reveal their religion as either Muslim or Christian, she says. "When we grow up, even when we go to school, they know."
Mubarak suppressed most extremist factions, but now that the dictator is out of power, an Associated Press report from Cairo last week gives credence to some of Lila's fears.
"Islamic hard-liners, some of them heavily suppressed under three decades of Hosni Mubarak's regime, are enthusiastically diving into Egypt's new freedoms, forming political parties to enter upcoming elections and raising alarm that they will try to lead the country into fundamentalist rule," the AP reported on Wednesday.
"Some militants, taking advantage of a security vacuum, aren't waiting for the political process. They have attacked Christians and liquor stores, trying to impose their austere version of Islamic law in provincial towns.
"A recent rumor that Salafis planned to attack female Muslim students at Assiut University who don't wear the headscarf prompted some women to stay away from the 75,000-student campus for a day.
"Salafis are ultraconservatives, close to Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi interpretation of Islam and more radical than the Brotherhood. They seek to emulate the austerity of Islam's early days and oppose a wide range of practices they view as 'un-Islamic' - rejecting the treatment of non-Muslims as citizens with equal rights as well as all forms of Western cultural influence," said the AP report.
"The Islamists' newfound energy prompted the ruling military to warn on Monday that Egypt 'will not be turned into Gaza or Iran.' "
"It's so scary," Lila says.
She has been unable to get her family an appointment with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, she says, and is trying to talk to local and national legislators here.
But what anyone on this side of the world can do for Lila's family, or any of the 8 million Coptic Christians in Egypt, remains to be seen.
A lot of people around the globe are in need of support.
"The global political climate and world events are significant factors in the volume and nature of the requests we receive" from constituents asking for help for relatives in foreign countries, said Whitney Smith, press secretary for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "For example, we have received a number of requests related to the recent tragedy in Japan, Reebok ZigTech online and received similar requests following last year's events in Haiti."
When Kerry's office receives a written request from a Massachusetts resident to help family in other countries, "many factors come into play, which vary depending on whether we are handling an immigrant or non-immigrant case," said Smith. "Immigrant cases are when the family member intends to permanently immigrate to the U.S. Non-immigrant cases are when the family member intends to come to the U.S. for a short time, (such as) trips related to medical care, tourism or business.
"Upon receipt of written consent (from the citizen making the request), we contact the nearest U.S. Embassy, Consulate or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in an effort to best address the issue at hand," said Smith.
But Kerry, like all senators and congressmen, "is unable to dictate actions to any federal, state or local government agencies. ... While our office is eager to provide assistance, we must act within existing immigration law and procedures."
"My family is my life," says Lila, who works in Ashland and talks to her family in Egypt as often as she can.
"Today, they are safe. Tomorrow, I don't know."