Politics bars Dead Sea from World Wonders contest

By Douglas Hamilton and Ali Sawafta
JERICHO, West Bank (Reuters) - The Dead Sea will be eliminated next week from a contest to choose the seven natural wonders of the world, because of a Palestinian boycott over the participation of an Israeli settler council.
Its almost certain exclusion from a competition which it had good chances of winning underline how the bitter politics of the Middle East conflict permeates every aspect of Palestinian life, no matter how harmless or even beneficial it may seem.
The New 7 Wonders of Nature is a global Internet contest under the slogan: "If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it." In 2007 it chose the new seven man-made wonders of the world.
Its rules state that if a nominee site is located in more than one country, all countries in which it is located must form an Official Supporting Committee (OSC) by July 7.
Israel and Jordan have both done so for the Dead Sea, which they share, but the Palestinian Authority has decided against.
For the Dead Sea, a win would highlight the environmental threat to a unique lake which has shrunk dramatically in the past 30 years due to human exploitation of the Jordan River feed waters and Dead Sea mineral extraction.
"We will not be forming a committee," Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Douaibes told Reuters, because the Israeli committee "has been consulting with settler councilmen on occupied land and this contravenes international law."
"Therefore, we are not interested in the issue," she said reflecting a view that renders the contest and its potential benefits insignificant next to the Palestinians` long struggle against Jewish settlers in their midst.
LAST-MINUTE REVERSAL?
Jordanian officials declined comment. But sources in Amman said the contest had become politicized, in that it could be exploited by Israel to gloss over the settlement issue, on which Jordan sympathizes with the Palestinians.
Unless there is a last-minute rethink by the Palestinians, the decision means the famously buoyant lake at the lowest point on Earth cannot advance to the next stage of the contest.
That is when Internet voters worldwide narrow down the field of 261 to 77, from which the final shortlist of 21 will be chosen ahead of the final vote in 2011, in which N7W predicts one billion electronic votes will be cast.
Jordan benefited handsomely after the ancient ruins at Petra were voted a man-made Wonder of the World in 2007. Visits to Petra have more than doubled since it won the contest.
Live rankings on the contest website www.new7wonders.com list 7 "nature" categories, including islands, mountains, forests and seascapes. The Kalahari Desert, the Galapagos Islands and Lake Titicaca are among current favorites.
"New7Wonders completely understands that political sensitivities about involved settler communities around the Dead Sea may be causing concerns among the Palestinian authorities here, although they have not directly communicated this to us," spokeswoman Tia Viering told Reuters on Sunday.  Continued...
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"One, two, three...": Queen orders count of swans

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Quiet please -- Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a census of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the queen`s official Swan Marker from July 20-24.
"With the assistance of the Queen`s Swan Warden, Professor Christopher Perrins of the University of Oxford, the swans and young cygnets are also assessed for any signs of injury or disease," Buckingham Palace said in announcing the count.
The process involves the Swan Marker, David Barber, rowing up the Thames for five days with the Swan Warden in traditional skiffs while wearing special scarlet uniforms and counting, weighing and measuring swans and cygnets.
It may seem eccentric, but it is very important to the queen.
According to custom, Britain`s sovereign owns all unmarked, mute swans in open water, but the queen now exercises the right only on stretches of the Thames and its nearby tributaries.
In medieval times, the Swan Marker would not only travel up the river counting the swans, but would catch as many as possible as they were sought-after for banquets and feasts.
This year, the Swan Marker and the Swan Warden are particularly keen to discover how much damage is being caused to swans and cygnets by attacks from dogs and from discarded fishing tackle.
It is also an important year because the Queen has decided to join her team of Swan Uppers for part of the census.
She will follow them up the river and visit a local school project on the whole subject of swans, cygnets and the Thames.
"Education and conservation are essential to the role of Swan Upping and the involvement of school children is always a rewarding experience," Buckingham Palace said.
(Reporting by Luke Baker)
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Moon-lovers remember Apollo with radio chit-chat

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Radio hams and amateur astronomers around the world spent the weekend bouncing radio conversations off the Moon to one another in commemoration of the Apollo 11 landings 40 years ago, organizers in Australia said Sunday.
Although they had some clear and extensive conversations, they had to be patient. It takes around 2.5 seconds for a radio signal to reach the Moon and bounce back to another part of the Earth, so it took around five seconds to get a reply.
Initiated a few months ago by science buffs in Australia and the United States, `Moonbounce` was just winding up on Sunday Australian time after a 24-hour special event that organizers hope will become annual.
It brought together hundreds of amateur radio hams around the world, event co-founder Robert Brand told Reuters, some armed with their own radio dishes.
It was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 landings on July 20, 1969. But as the Moon does not orbit directly around the Earth`s equator, this was the nearest weekend organizers could arrange for practical reasons.
Among those taking part was Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, one of the first men to orbit around the Moon, who took a famous photograph of Earth from space now known as "Earthrise."
While most were amateurs, institutions lent equipment to the event, including a 26-meter dish at Mount Pleasant in Tasmania and a 45-meter dish at Stanford University in the United States.
"The signals go up from these dishes in a tight beam to the Moon. They actually hit the ground and at an atomic level `shake` all the atoms on the surface of the Moon," said Brand.
"It is still taking place as we speak."
Around 1,000 people around the world are thought to have the kind of equipment to do this kind of messaging and Brand, who as a 17-year-old played a minor role in the Apollo missions by helping install telecommunications installations used by NASA in Australia, said the results were remarkably clear.
There was "very little difference quality-wise" to some common radios, he said.
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