Wind 'could kill many more birds'

3 February 2013 Last updated at 10:34 GMT Dr Simon Cripps from Dorset Wildlife Trust explains how the rescue continues

Changes in wind direction could kill many more seabirds off the south coast of England which have come into contact with an oily substance, experts fear.

Since Thursday, hundreds of seabirds have died and thousands have been washed up covered in the substance.

Marine conservation officer Emma Rance said a north-westerly wind was blowing many birds out to sea which would limit the ability of rescuers to reach them.

"This will also increase the overall number of fatalities," she said.

And it is feared that winds from the south and west later could bring even more dead birds ashore between Cornwall and West Sussex.

'Refined mineral oil'

More than 250 birds, mostly guillemots but also some razorbills, are being treated at the RSPCA West Hatch centre near Taunton, Somerset.

Peter Venn, manager of the centre, said: "It is still early days and hard to say how the birds will survive in the long term.

Continue reading the main story Guillemots (pictured) are the most common seabird found around the British IslesDuring spring they gather in huge breeding colonies, known as loomeries, on coastal cliffs and rock stacksThe females lay their eggs directly on a ledge - but the eggs' conical shape prevent them rolling offBy contrast, puffins raise a single puffin chick (puffling) in an underground burrow

Source: BBC Nature

"We don't know what this substance is or what it might be doing to the birds.

"But we can say the margarine does seem to remove it and we are doing all we possibly can to give them the best chance of survival."

The society said the vast majority of the seabirds were rescued from Chesil Beach in Dorset but others have come from the Isle of Wight and Cornwall.

Scientists from the Environment Agency identified the substance as a refined mineral oil, but said it was not from an animal or vegetable-based oil.

Tony Whitehead, from the RSPB, said investigations were continuing to establish what it was and where it came from.

"It's a refined mineral oil, which is a colourless and odourless substance, and it's related to petroleum jelly," he said.

"We don't know where it came from and we need to do a lot more testing on this substance to try and track it back to its source."

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Insight: Women voters helped make Obama; could they break him?

1 of 3. Women point their cameras at the stage as U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio October 25, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Sat Nov 3, 2012 6:18pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women helped propel Barack Obama to the White House in 2008, but their flagging enthusiasm for him reflected in recent polls has created uncertainty about who will capture the female vote in Tuesday's election.

Four years ago, women voters supported Obama over Republican John McCain by 56 percent to 43 percent. Among men, the Democrat led McCain by just 49 percent to 48 percent.

But women's enthusiasm for Obama as president has slipped this year, making his road to re-election more difficult.

He is narrowly favored to win the female vote, but in many national polls, the incumbent's lead over Republican Mitt Romney among likely women voters has dipped to single digits. Reuters/Ipsos polling data last week had it at nearly 5 percentage points. He trailed among likely male voters by about 6 points.

Republicans point to Romney's gains with women since his strong performance in the first presidential debate on October 3.

Marguerite Hunsinger, 59, of Flagler Beach, Florida, who had been undecided, said the debate shifted her to Romney's camp.

"I'd been very, very skeptical about Romney," said Hunsinger, a self-described homemaker. "And I just thought he acted very presidential and capable, and he had answers that I agreed with more."

In contrast, she said Obama "was like asleep. ... It felt like he was just wasn't there."

Romney's camp accuses Democrats of condescending to women by overemphasizing issues like contraception when polls show men and women both care more about jobs and the economy.

Democrats note that Obama continues to hold significant leads among women in the decisive swing states and say the women's vote will help propel him to victory.

Women comprise more than half of the U.S. electorate, and in presidential elections, about 7 percent more women vote than men.

'WOMEN'S ISSUES' BOOST OBAMA

Democrats insist that Obama outshines Romney on many issues important to female voters, from healthcare to education, equal pay and fair taxes.

Evelyn Miranda, 47, of Hialeah, Florida, said she had been undecided, but recently embraced Obama because of his positions on social issues and insistence that the wealthy pay higher taxes.

"He wants to tax people more who make more money. I am really for that a lot," she said.

Miranda, an artist and teacher, also said she worried that Republicans might ban abortion, a position with which she disagrees after experiences with student sexual abuse survivors.

Obama's current support margin among women is not only below his own 2008 performance but that of Al Gore in the 2000 election. Gore, then the Democratic vice president, narrowly won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush.

"Certainly, team Obama would like to see their national margin among women higher," said Tufts University political scientist Richard Eichenberg, who is tracking this year's gender gap and estimates Obama's lead among women nationally at 8 percentage points.

"In 2008, he had an extra cushion when he won big (+13 among women), and Gore won narrowly with +11. So I think that they would like that 8-point number a little higher," Eichenberg said.

But Obama's standing among women remains strong in the battleground states he will need to clinch all-important electoral votes. "He leads among women by large margins in virtually all the swing states," Eichenberg said.

For example, in Ohio, Eichenberg noted polls during October showed Obama with a 12-point lead among likely women voters.

Romney's solid showing - and Obama's poor one - in the first debate in Denver upended the presidential race. Obama had been building a lead before he and Romney first went head-to-head. Romney has since gained steadily in the polls.

For the week ended September 30, just before the debate, Reuters/Ipsos poll data showed Obama leading Romney by 52 percent to 41 percent among a sample of 1,022 likely women voters. He also led among likely men voters, by 47 percent to 44 percent.

Last week, Obama led Romney among likely female voters by 48 percent to 44 percent, and trailed among likely male voters by 50 percent to 44 percent, the Reuters/Ipsos data showed.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS?

Obama's team has courted women with ads stressing his support for equal-pay legislation, abortion rights and contraceptive insurance coverage. The Democratic National Convention featured high-profile women emphasizing those issues.

They slammed Romney for shifting positions on abortion and contraceptive rights since his 2002 election as governor of Democratic-leaning Massachusetts and for failing to support Obama-backed legislation easing the way for women to sue over workplace pay discrimination.

But some analysts said that approach might help explain Obama's flagging support, in a year when economic problems and a high jobless rate worry voters.

"The Democrats have been very focused on what we call the particularistic concerns of women, such as abortion, equal pay and contraception," said Lara Brown, a political scientist at Villanova University.

"I'm wondering if the women who are migrating toward Romney, they're just saying to themselves, 'Abortion and birth control and equal pay are not my issues, what I'm more concerned about is the overall state and health of the economy.'"

Marion Kirschner, 33, of Delaware, Ohio, placed herself among those voters.

The Romney supporter called herself "kind of liberal" on social issues like abortion and gay marriage rights - which Romney opposes - but said government should focus elsewhere.

"I think the government should worry about the economy, domestic issues and foreign policy. That is more important to me than social issues," said the married mother of 17-month-old twins, who works at an aviation company.

Vicki May, 43, of Colonial Heights, Virginia, said she hoped Romney would improve the economy, while expressing anger with Obama.

"I've been out of work for three years and I haven't been able to find anything," she said. "They keep saying there are jobs out there, but I haven't noticed."

(Editing by Alistair Bell, Marilyn W. Thompson and Peter Cooney)

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Could blueberry state Maine be a slice of Romney's presidential pie?

By Andy Sullivan

Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:34am EDT

n">(Reuters) - Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are scouting an unlikely path to the White House through the vast forests and blueberry barrens of northern Maine.

President Barack Obama is expected to win the Pine Tree State easily in the November 6 election.

Regardless, Romney allies are buying TV time with the hope of carrying the state's thinly populated interior and scraping out one electoral college vote in Maine that could edge their man closer to the 270 needed to win the White House.

With polls showing a dead heat nationally, Republicans in the state are focusing their phone calls and door-knocking efforts on the rural north of Maine -- one of two states that play by a different set of rules in presidential elections.

Most states give all of their electoral votes to the winner, but Maine and Nebraska award one electoral vote to the winners of each of their congressional districts, two in Maine and three in Nebraska.

The candidate who takes the statewide vote -- very likely to be Obama in Maine -- receives an additional two electoral votes, meaning there are a total of four up for grabs in Maine.

Although winning just one electoral vote in northern Maine is still a longshot, Maine Republicans are optimistic about Romney's chances. They point to a private poll that found Romney leading Obama by 5 percentage points in the northern part of the state earlier this month, even though he trailed Obama in the state as a whole.

Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, said it was possible, if not likely, that Romney could win half the state.

"There's not a lot going on on the ground that would lead you to believe he could do this," Brewer said. "But who knows? Polling is pretty sparse up here."

Republicans certainly think it's possible. "I think it's very likely that he'll win," said David Sorensen, a spokesman for the state Republican party.

The odds seem stacked against Romney, though. Maine has never split its electoral votes and it hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. A series of polls in September showed Obama leading Romney by double-digit margins statewide.

A bruising, months-long battle within the state party between Romney supporters and backers of libertarian-leaning candidate Ron Paul has also prompted many Republican activists to stay on the sidelines this fall.

"I think Romney will do well, but if they had welcomed the Ron Paul people instead of alienating them like they did it would probably be a sure thing," said Republican activist Chris Dixon, a Paul supporter.

TWO MAINES

While aides highlight efforts to expand the race into states once thought safe for Obama, like Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Maine hasn't really been on the Romney campaign's radar so far.

Romney himself owns a home in neighboring New Hampshire, and his campaign is based in Boston, an hour's drive from the Maine border. But he hasn't visited the state since last winter.

The election highlights the gulf between what residents call the "Two Maines" -- the relatively affluent southern coast and the rest of the state, where opportunities have dwindled amid cutbacks in logging, potato farming and fish canning.

Regional disparities like this normally do not matter in the context of presidential politics because most states award their electoral votes on an all-or-nothing basis.

Obama picked up an additional electoral vote this way in 2008 when he won one congressional district in Nebraska.

Nebraska is not expected to split its votes this year, but Romney's allies seem to like the odds in Maine.

Restore Our Future, an outside group supporting the former Massachusetts governor, spent $300,000 on television advertising in the northern half of the state last week, and plans to spend $490,000 across the state in the final week before the election.

The ads running in the Portland television market reach voters in New Hampshire, but those running in Bangor and Presque Isle are aimed squarely at voters in Maine's second congressional district, which encompasses the state's less affluent half.

Maine Republicans say they are focusing their get-out-the-vote efforts on the second district, and they hope the burst of energy can help them unseat Michael Michaud, the Democrat who represents the region in Congress.

Democrats scoff at this, pointing to their own private polling that shows Obama and Michaud leading handily. The Romney campaign would have a more visible presence in the state if they thought they had a chance, they say.

"We don't see any evidence that this Romney 'head fake' has any basis in reality," said Ben Grant, the state Democratic Party chairman.

(Additional reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)

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