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...
Original article

Cambridge eyes anti-war poet Sassoon`s archives

LONDON (Reuters) - Cambridge University launched a campaign on Thursday to buy an important collection of personal papers belonging to Siegfried Sassoon, the British anti-war poet noted for his bravery in battle.
The archive of manuscripts includes a draft copy of the 1917 "A Soldier`s Declaration," in which Sassoon argued that World War One was being "deliberately prolonged" by those in power.
The declaration, which he sent to his commanding officer, was read out in parliament and caused a storm of controversy.
Sassoon was subsequently taken to Craiglockhart hospital in Scotland where he was treated for shell-shock and met fellow war poet Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action just before the conflict ended.
Sassoon was credited with helping to change people`s perception of the Great War, doing away with patriotic propaganda and conveying the horror and agony of life and death in the trenches for thousands of young men.
His realist verse also made him a pioneer of modernist poetry.
Max Egremont, Sassoon`s official biographer who is leading the campaign to purchase the archives, has said that the poet`s war journals and autobiographical writings convey:
"... a vision so haunting that 20th century British warfare still seems to be defined by futile offensives, exhausted men impaled upon wire or trapped in mud before an immovable enemy a mere few yards away."
Sotheby`s, which is handling the private sale of the archives, called them "unquestionably the most valuable collection of Sassoon`s papers ever to be offered for sale."
Cambridge has valued the archive, comprising seven boxes of material, at 1.25 million pounds ($2.0 million).
It includes Sassoon`s journals, pocket notebooks compiled on the Western Front, poetry books, photographs and love letters to his wife Hester.
"These journals make up one of the most important literary and documentary records of trench warfare in existence," Sotheby`s said.
The papers also include 34 volumes of journals dated 1920-1959, many unpublished, documenting Sassoon`s post-war life including his affair with aristocrat Stephen Tennant.
Cambridge University already holds several sets of letters and manuscripts by Sassoon, and if successful in acquiring the archive, says it would own the "most significant collection of Sassoon manuscripts anywhere in the world.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Steve Addison)
Original article