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Refined mineral oils' blamed for bird contamination
Some of the birds have died while others have been taken to rescue centres
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The substance found on hundreds of seabirds washed up on the south coast is a "mixture of refined mineral oils", the Environment Agency has said.
Wildlife experts have warned many more birds could be affected by the waxy substance found on washed up guillemots.
Hundreds of birds were found on beaches from Sussex to Cornwall on Thursday, many at Portland in Dorset.
The agency said the material was not vegetable, animal or palm oil.
Earlier, Environment Minister Richard Benyon said: "Every effort is being made to identify the cause of this problem."
'Rare occurrence'
He added: "I'd like to thank everyone involved in helping the seabirds affected and it's thanks to their efforts that many have been cleaned up and now have a chance of survival."
Several birds have died, but BBC wildlife presenter Chris Packham warned that could be the "tip of the iceberg".
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Guide to UK Seabirds
Guillemots (pictured) are the most common auk found in the British Isles
During spring they gather in huge breeding colonies, known as loomeries, on coastal cliffs and rock stacks
The females lay their egg directly on a ledge - but its conical shape prevents it rolling off
By contrast, puffins raise a single puffin chick (puffling) in an underground burrow
Source: BBC Nature
Watch puffins battling the odds against predatory great black-backed gulls
"What's particularly frightening is that if you're picking up a hundred on the beach, there could be very many more which have died and been lost at sea," he said.
A coastguard plane has been dispatched to search the coast between Dover and the Isles of Scilly for any trace of the substance.
A Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman said: "This occurrence of seabirds being washed up on south coast beaches contaminated with a product is rare.
"We have received no specific reports of pollution within the English Channel area, but we have sent one of our counter pollution surveillance aircraft to investigate the sea areas between Dover and the Isles of Scilly."
Dr Simon Boxall, of the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton, said earlier he thought the substance may have been dumped into the English Channel by a ship.
He said: "It sounds like - and it's pure speculation - that there's a ship out there somewhere that's flushed its tanks out illegally because it was being either too lazy or couldn't be bothered to pay the fees of having the tanks flushed in a port in the correct way."
Most birds have been found in Dorset but others are appearing in Sussex, Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall.
Some of the dead birds at Chesil Cove
The RSPCA said it had rescued more than 100 birds, which had been taken to the West Hatch Animal Centre in Taunton.
Wildlife officers said the rescued birds did "not respond well" to the cleaning techniques normally used to remove oil.
It has now begun using other products, such as vegetable oil and margarine, to clean the birds with some success. ( courtesy of the BBC) Once proud, now BBC could also stand for Bullshit By Cunt's, has a ring to it don't you think!
David Cameron received a ticking-off from the official statistics watchdog today over his claim that the Government was "paying down Britain's debts".
The Prime Minister's assertion in last week's Conservative Party political broadcast sparked a furious complaint by Labour, which described his comments as "deliberately misleading" as the debt was actually rising.
Chair of the UK Statistics Authority Andrew Dilnot confirmed today that public sector net debt has risen from £811 billion in 2010 when the coalition took office to £1.1 trillion at the end of last year.
Responding to Labour's complaint, Mr Dilnot said it was important that politicians distinguished correctly between accumulated and annual public sector borrowing - which has come down under the coalition.
"It is clearly important for all parties to public debate in this area to understand the relevant statistical definitions and to distinguish changes in the level of debt outstanding from changes in borrowing per period, and to reflect these in their communication of the statistical trends involved," he wrote.
"Public sector net debt is a measure of how much the UK public sector owes at a given time. Public sector net borrowing is the difference between total accrued receipts and total accrued (current and capital) expenditure over a specified period; this measure is frequently used by commentators to summarise the extent of any public sector 'deficit'."
He added that he was sending a copy of the letter - with accompanying graphs setting out the relevant data - to Mr Cameron's chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn.
For Labour, shadow chief secretary Rachel Reeves said: "It is hugely embarrassing for David Cameron that he has had to have the difference between borrowing and debt explained to him by the chair of the UK Statistics Authority.
"Now that his false claims have been exposed, it's time the Prime Minister stopped deliberately misleading people about his economic record." ( Courtesy of the Huffington post )
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Project
Our projects can be for anything site members feel are important to us.
Main project: Is to oust the current Government in the UK. ( courtesy of the Telegraph) What follows is a number of scandals by our so called government, A brief history of political scandals
Here is a short selection of some of the more notable political scandals to have enveloped the British establishment in the last 40 years.
Budget 2010: what might be in store for your finances? Photo: ALAMY
By Andy Bloxham11:47AM GMT 23 Mar 2010
The Stonehouse scandal
The scandal: John Stonehouse was a Labour MP in the '70s who became a minister despite accusations that he was a spy for Czechoslovakia.
On 20 November 1974, a pile of clothes was found on a beach in Miami and he was presumed dead.
However, it later emerged that Stonehouse had faked his own death to escape business debts and begin a new life with his mistress and former secretary Sheila Buckley, whom he later married, in Australia.
He was caught and extradited to England but, surprisingly, continued to sit as an MP.
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Stonehouse was tried on 21 charges of fraud, theft, forgery, conspiracy to defraud, causing a false police investigation and wasting police time.
The outcome: Stonehouse was convicted, resigned as an MP, and served seven years in prison. He died in 1988.
The gay Liberal, aka "Rinkagate"
The scandal: The Liberal party leader Jeremy Thorpe was regularly the subject of rumours that he was homosexual during the 1970s, at a time when gay sex was still illegal in Britain.
Norman Scott, a former male model, claimed to have had a homosexual relationship with Thorpe and the comments led to a party inquiry which cleared its leader but Scott continued to make his claims.
Then, in October 1975, Scott accepted a lift from a man claiming to have been secretly assigned to protect him. As they drove across Exmoor, in Devon, the man produced a gun and tried to shoot Scott but the Great Dane he had with him, called Rinka, got in the way.
The former model claimed in court that Thorpe had threatened to kill him and the politician was later charged with conspiracy to murder.
Before he was tried at the Old Bailey he lost his parliamentary seat in the 1979 General Election.
The outcome: Thorpe found not guilty but was later diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and retired from public life.
Jeffrey Archer: trials and prostitution
The scandal: The then-Tory MP Jeffrey Archer was accused of having sex with a prostitute by a newspaper in 1987. He brought a libel action and won, getting £500,000 in damages.
Mr Justice Caulfield had given a memorable description of Archer's wife to the jury, saying: "Your vision of her probably will never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance?"
He had continued of her husband: "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"
In 1999, it was disclosed that the politician, who had by now been awarded a peerage, had fabricated his alibi for the 1987 trial and he was charged with perjury.
The outcome: Lord Archer was jailed for four years but remains a peer and continues to publish novels.
Cash for questions
The scandal: MP Neil Hamilton was accused with fellow Conservative Tim Smith of taking large sums of cash in brown envelopes from Mohamed Fayed, the Harrods owner, to ask questions in the House of Commons.
Smith admitted to the payments and resigned immediately but Hamilton protested his innocence and launched a libel suit against The Guardian, which had published the accusations.
The subsequent furore became known as the "cash for questions" affair but no police investigation was launched.
The outcome: Hamilton dropped the case but was eventually forced to resign as corporate affairs minister. Smith took no further part in politics.
Mandelson and Mr Robinson
The scandal: In 1996, Peter Mandelson bought a home in London's exclusive suburb of Notting Hill partly thanks to an interest-free loan of £373,000 from Geoffrey Robinson, a millionaire fellow Labour MP.
At the time Robinson was subject to an inquiry into his business dealings which was being conducted by Mandelson's department but in which the latter insisted he had taken no decisions.
It was disclosed that Mandelson had not declared the loan either in the Register of Members' Interests or to his building society.
The outcome: Robinson lost his job. Mandelson resigned but returned to the Cabinet, resigned again over further allegations, was re-elected in 2001, became Britain's European Trade Commissioner in 2004, was made a peer in 2008 now hold the position of "First Secretary of State".
Cash for honours
The scandal: A police investigation began after four businessmen who had secretly loaned Tony Blair's Labour Party £5 million in total had their peerage nominations blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission in 2006.
Blair became the first prime minister to be interviewed by police as part of a political corruption inquiry.
The party's fundraiser Lord Levy was arrested and later released on bail and there were allegations that Blair's aides had deleted important emails from a hidden computer system at 10 Downing St.
However, after a lengthy investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not bring any charges because of a lack of direct evidence that the peerages were given in exchange for loans.
The outcome: The Labour Party repaid the loans.
MPs' expenses
The scandal: The Daily Telegraph's investigators last year disclosed the details of hundreds of abuses of the expenses code by MPs over several years, to widespread public anger.
Abuses included "flipping" the designation of second homes to claim extra money, overclaiming for council tax and demanding repayment for items as small as plugs, KitKats and light bulbs, as well as a duck house.
Tory MP Nadine Dorries complained politicians were being "tortured" by the disclosures and likened them to the McCarthy "witch hunts" of '50s America but her views were swiftly disowned by her more senior colleagues.
All the party leaders condemned the abuses.
The outcome: Over £500,000 was repaid to the public purse. Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, as well as Tory peer Lord Hanningfield stand charged with false accounting, which they deny. Michael Martin, then the Speaker of the House of Commons, resigned, as did several more, with dozens set to stand down at the election. A new independent authority to oversee expenses was set up.
Cash for influence
The scandal: Three former Cabinet ministers were last weekend identified as having been willing to use their position to influence government policy for cash.
Stephen Byers, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt were secretly filmed by an undercover reporter for Channel 4's Dispatches discussing the possibility of working for what they thought was an American lobby company.
In the documentary Byers described himself as a "cab for hire" and was apparently seen requesting £5,000 a day. He later retracted his claims and referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for an inquiry into his conduct.
Hewitt and Hoon were filmed suggesting they would charge £3,000 a day for their services. Both have since denied any wrongdoing and insisted they had not breached parliamentary rules.
Lord Mandelson described the disclosures as "rather grubby".
The outcome: All three, as well as Margaret Moran, a Labour backbencher who also featured in the programme, have been suspended, pending the results of an inquiry.
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Cameron: North Africa terrorist threat 'could last decades'
David Cameron said the attack was a "stark reminder" of the continuing terrorist threat.Continue reading the main story
Algeria hostages
What we know
Who's affected: Country by country
Africa Islamists a threat to West
Hostages speak of ordeal
David Cameron has warned the Algerian hostage crisis could be the start of a decades-long battle against Islamist terrorism in north Africa.
Three Britons are confirmed dead and three more are believed to have died after the Algerian army stormed the site at In Amenas on Saturday. Another UK resident is also thought to be dead.
One victim has been named as 46-year-old Paul Thomas Morgan.
Five hostage-takers were reported captured at the plant on Sunday.
The UK prime minister said the incident was a "stark reminder" of the terrorist threat in that part of the world and added: "This is a global threat and it will require a global response.
"It will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months."
'Iron resolve'
"It requires a response that is patient and painstaking, that is tough but also intelligent, but above all has an absolutely iron resolve and that is what we will deliver over these coming years," added Mr Cameron.
The prime minister, who will make a statement about the events in Algeria in the Commons on Monday, said there were clear similarities with the terrorist threat from Afghanistan and Pakistan, although it was on a different scale.
Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed the attack was a response to France's intervention in neighbouring Mali
"What we face is an extremist, Islamist, al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group. Just as we had to deal with that in Pakistan and in Afghanistan so the world needs to come together to deal with this threat in north Africa," he said.
"It is linked to al-Qaeda, it wants to destroy our way of life, it believes in killing as many people as it can. We need to work with others to defeat the terrorists and to close down the ungoverned spaces where they thrive with all the means that we have."
A raid by Algerian troops on Saturday ended a four-day siege in which at least 48 hostages are thought to have died.
There are reports that 25 bodies found at the complex on Sunday are all those of captives.
This comes a day after Algerian officials reported the deaths of 23 hostages, with more said to be unaccounted for, and 32 militants.
Algerian officials said the hostage-takers - from six different nationalities - belonged to a new Islamist group formed by a veteran Algerian militant and kidnapper, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who recently broke from al-Qaeda.
Continue reading the main story
Timeline
16 January: Militants attack two buses carrying In Amenas workers, killing two
They then go on to the gas facility's living quarters and main installation, seizing hostages
Some gas workers manage to escape
17 January: Algerian forces attack after the militants try to move their hostages in five 4x4s - four of the vehicles are destroyed in an air strike and an unknown number of hostages killed
18 January: Stalemate as Algerian forces surround the gas plant where the remaining hostages are held
19 January: Algerian forces launch a final assault after reports that the hostage-takers were killing their captives
20 January: Algeria says death toll of 32 hostage-takers and at least 23 captives is likely to rise
Q&A: Hostage crisis
Mauritanian website Sahara Media says he has claimed responsibility for the hostage-taking in a video message.
He said the operation had been led by 40 migrants from "several Islamic countries, even from the Western countries".
The video is said to have showed Belmokhtar claiming he was prepared to negotiate with Western and Algerian leaders if French military offensives against Islamists in neighbouring Mali were stopped.
A BP spokesman would not comment on reports in the Algerian media that Belmokhtar had infiltrated his men as drivers, cooks and guards working on short-term contracts for BP at the complex.
The company released a statement confirming that 18 of its employees were at In Amenas at the time of the attack and 14 of them were safe, although two had sustained injuries which were not life-threatening.
"BP remains gravely concerned about four of its employees who are missing. There is no further confirmed information regarding their status at this time," the firm added.
'Free to go'
In a statement from Mr Morgan's mother, Marianne, 65, and his 36-year-old partner, Emma Steele, he was described as "a true gentleman, a family man".
The first British victim to be named was Paul Thomas Morgan, aged 46
"He very much loved his partner Emma, his mum, brothers and sister, of who he was very proud," the statement said. "He loved life and lived it to the full. He was a professional man proud to do the job he did and died doing the job he loved.
"We are so proud of him and so proud of what he achieved in his life. We are devastated by Paul's death and he will be truly missed."
Twenty-two British survivors have been flown back to the UK and reunited with their families.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said eight Scottish survivors were now back in the UK, but added: "We know that two Scots, or people with immediate Scottish family connections, are believed to have been killed."
One hostage - Alan Wright, 37, from Aberdeenshire - described hiding in an office when the Islamists attacked, before cutting through a fence and escaping.
The crisis began on Wednesday when militants attacked two buses carrying foreign workers and Algerians to the remote site in south-eastern Algeria. A Briton and an Algerian reportedly died at the scene.
The militants then took Algerians and foreign workers hostage at the complex, which was quickly surrounded by the Algerian army.
The Algerian armed forces staged an initial attack on Thursday as militants tried to move some of their captives from the facility.
Mr Cameron paid his condolences to the bereaved families, who had undergone "an absolutely dreadful ordeal".
He said questions would be asked about the Algerian response to the crisis, but added: "The responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched these vicious and cowardly attacks."
Allen McCloud, from Plymouth, was one of 22 Britons who survived the crisis
State news agency APS said 685 Algerian workers and 107 out of 132 foreigners working at the plant had been freed.
The nationalities of some of the hostages killed are still not known, but as well as the Britons, US, Norwegian, and Japanese nationals are also missing.
A Colombian citizen resident in the UK is believed to be among the dead.
'Stressful'
Two of the survivors have been named as Lou Fear, 56, from Louth in Lincolnshire and Allen McCloud, 53, from Plymouth in Devon.
Other freed hostages have been named as Iain Strachan, 38, from Howwood in Renfrewshire; Darren Matthews, from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Teesside; Mark Grant, 29, from Grangemouth, near Falkirk; Alan Wright, 37, from Portsoy in Aberdeenshire; Peter Hunter, 53, from County Durham; David Murray, 47, from Kirkby in Merseyside; Huw Edwards, 55, from Macclesfield in Cheshire; and Stephen McFaul, 36, from Belfast.
The In Amenas gas field is situated at Tigantourine, about 40km (25 miles) south-west of the town of In Amenas and 1,300km (800 miles) south-east of Algiers.
The plant is jointly run by BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's state-owned oil company.
Algeria's oil minister Youcef Youcefi said the plant would return to production within the next two days. (Courtesy of BBC) The famous BBC scandal free, haha only kidding folks.
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