GENEVA – The Grand Canyon, the Matterhorn and the Great Barrier Reef are competing with 25 other spectacular natural landmarks in the final phase of the global poll to choose the "New 7 Wonders of Nature."
The Amazon rainforest, the Dead Sea, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and Ecuador's Galapagos islands are also among the finalists, according to the organization New 7 Wonders led by Swiss adventurer Bernard Weber.
People can vote by Internet or phone. The winners will be announced in 2011 and share in the glory already enjoyed by the seven man-made wonders chosen two years ago.
Over 1 billion people are expected to join in the voting, Weber said Tuesday.
"This campaign should contribute to the appreciation — to the knowledge — of our environment and not just the one in our country but worldwide," he told The Associated Press. "If we or our children want to save anything, we should first appreciate it."
The finalists also include Azerbaijan's Mud Volcanoes, Lebanon's Jeita Grotto, Ireland's Moher Cliffs and Germany's Black Forest.
A panel of experts chose the finalists among the 77 nominees that gained the most votes in an early round of polling. People had suggested 261 landmarks in countries all over the world.
The panel chaired by Federico Mayor, former chief of UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, picked the finalists depending on geographical balance, diversity and the importance to human life.
Weber said he was happy the nominees included places that lie in more than one country, such as the Dead Sea or the Amazon rainforest, which makes people work together across borders.
High voter participation has come from Asian countries, including Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam, as well as from Latin America, he said.
"U.S. voters' participation is always quite high," he added.
Africa, where most people vote by mobile phones, has had the biggest increase in votes over the last few weeks, Weber said.
Weber declined to give any specific numbers of votes so far. But the organization plans to release details about voter profiles later. Registration on the Web site aims to prevent people from voting twice.
Around 100 million people voted in the selection of the seven manmade wonders in 2007. The winners were the Colosseum, Italy; the Great Wall of China; the Taj Mahal, India; Petra, Jordan; Christ the Redeemer Statue, Brazil; Machu Picchu, Peru; and the Pyramid at Chichen Itza, Mexico.
Choosing world wonders has been a continuing fascination over the centuries. UNESCO keeps updating its list of World Heritage Sites, which now totals 890 places.
The New 7 Wonders campaign aims to promote cultural diversity by supporting, preserving and restoring monuments and natural sites. It relies on private donations and revenue from broadcasting rights.
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On the Net:

Full list of the finalists on: http://www.new7wonders.com/

WELLINGTON (AFP) –
A massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake last week has moved the south of New Zealand closer to Australia, scientists said Wednesday.

With the countries separated by the 2,250-kilometre-wide (1,400-mile-wide) Tasman Sea, the 30 centimetre (12 inch) closing of the gap in New Zealand's southwest won't make much difference.

But earthquake scientist Ken Gledhill of GNS Science said the shift illustrated the huge force of the tremor, the biggest in the world so far this year.

"Basically, New Zealand just got a little bit bigger is another way to think about it," he told AFP.

While the southwest of the South Island moved about 30 centimetres closer to Australia, the east coast of the island moved only one centimetre westwards, he said.

The biggest quake in New Zealand in 78 years caused only slight damage to buildings and property when it struck the remote southwest Fiordland region of the South Island last Thursday.

A small tsunami was generated by the earthquake, with a tide gauge on the West Coast of New Zealand recording a wave of one metre.

"For a very large earthquake, although it was very widely felt, there were very few areas that were severely shaken," Gledhill said.

Aerial inspection of the forested fiords near the quake's epicentre showed few land slips or other signs of damage.

This was partly because the type of rupture at the boundaries of the Australian and Pacific plates meant the energy from the quake was largely directed westwards towards the sea rather than inland towards the nearest towns.

The type of quake, known as a subduction thrust rupture, also meant the quake produced lower frequency shaking, felt as a rolling motion, rather than sharp jolts which would have caused more damage.

New Zealand frequently suffers earthquakes because it marks the meeting point of the Australian and Pacific continental plates.

Gledhill said the latest quake may have brought forward a major quake on the offshore section of the Alpine fault, off the coast of Fiordland in the Tasman Sea.

"There could easily be another large earthquake in another part of that region. We can't predict that obviously."

The latest quake was the biggest since February 2, 1931 when a 7.8 quake killed at least 256 people in the North Island city of Napier.

The biggest quake recorded here measured 8.2 and caused major damage in 1855 in the fledgling European settlement that later became the capital Wellington.

The latest quake was unusual in striking right on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific plates and will be important in researching earthquake hazards, Gledhill said.

KIEV, Ukraine – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden rejected the Russian push for a sphere of influence over former Soviet nations, saying as he headed to Georgia Wednesday that no nation could veto another country's choices.
It has been almost a year since a war with Russia turned Georgia, a small nation on the far frontier of Europe, into the epicenter of the simmering conflict between Moscow and the West.
President Barack Obama's attempt to rebuild relations with Russia has raised concerns among some of Russia's East European neighbors that the U.S. might abandon their interests.
Biden has been attempting to assuage those concerns on a four-day trip to Ukraine and Georgia.
"As we reset the relationship with Russia, we reaffirm our commitment to an independent Ukraine and we recognize no sphere of influence or no ability of any other nation to veto the choices an independent nation makes," he said in a speech in Kiev.
He reiterated Washington's support for Ukraine's NATO membership, if Ukrainians decide to pursue that goal. Currently, more than half of the country is against it.
He also called on the feuding Ukrainian leaders to seek compromise and concentrate on reforming a devastated economy.
Biden met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Biden now will hold two days of talks with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and opposition leaders to demonstrate support for the loyal U.S. ally. The Russia-Georgia war capped years of increasing tensions between the West and Russia, a country key to U.S. and European efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, battle terrorism and secure Europe's energy supplies.
Saakashvili's government was shaken this spring by mass street demonstrations demanding his resignation. The vice president will also meet with leading members of the opposition.
Political foes blame Saakashvili for the August war's disastrous results and accuse him of riding roughshod over democratic rights.
Saakashvili has said he tried to defend Georgia from Russian aggression, and he announced a series of political reforms Monday meant to address his critics' complaints that his administration was restricting rights.
After Georgia used military force to try to seize a breakaway region from Moscow-backed separatists in August, Russia sent tanks and warplanes deep into Georgian territory, crushing the country's army.
The conflict ended hopes in the West that Russia, after recovering from the economic and social turmoil of the post-Soviet era, would become a docile, democratic member of the club of European nations.
Instead, Russia has tried to reclaim its historic role as an assertive regional power with global ambitions.
Shortly after the Georgian war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that Moscow has a "zone of privileged interests" among former Soviet and Eastern European satellites.
The U.S. and Europe have rejected sphere-of-influence geopolitics, which give great powers sway over their smaller neighbors. And they show no signs of backing down.
Neither do they seem willing to risk a confrontation with Russia on the issue.

The U.S. has pledged to support NATO membership for Georgia as well as Ukraine. But Germany and other European member states are skeptical.

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Associated Press Writer Maria Danilova contributed to this report from Kiev, Ukraine.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
Johnny Depp is coming off an acclaimed role in "Public Enemies" and stars in one of the most anticipated movies of this weekend's Comic-Con, "Alice in Wonderland."

But the Mad Hatter is facing an unusual situation: Like the character he plays in "Alice," he soon could be killing time.

Depp is attached to a number of high-profile development properties but is facing a landscape devoid of "go" pictures -- those ready for production. Instead, there are a dizzying number of possibilities and schedule permutations, none of which seems likely to result in a produced movie for him anytime soon.

Producers have been interested in Depp for the title role in Warner Bros.' "The Incredible Mr. Limpet." Kevin Lima's remake of the 1964 fantasy comedy that would continue a whimsical, if slightly less drama-intensive, streak for the actor. He has not signed on, however, and in any event the pic would not go into production until next year.

Meanwhile, the fourth installment of "Pirates of the Caribbean" remains a priority for Disney and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. At an earlier point, it was going to be the next picture for Depp, who toplines as Jack Sparrow. But with Gore Verbinski no longer directing the franchise, the ship has slowed.

Disney is seeking a new director, a process that could take time. Although the studio is believed to want an established helmer of franchise and action fare, it has put the word out to agents that it would be open to younger directors and new ideas, potentially prolonging the process. That could mean as much as a four- or five-year hiatus since the 2007 release of the previous picture, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

(Disney also would like to scale back the size and budget of the next movie compared with previous installments; for that reason, it likely won't bring back relatively pricey Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley.)

'RANGER' NOT YET RIDING

Because of the "Pirates" lag, a Depp project that was supposed to go into production after the Sparrow-fest, "The Lone Ranger," could end up getting pushed back further, though there's also a possibility it could shoot ahead of the nautical tale.

For the moment, though, "Ranger" also remains locked in the stable. "Pirates" writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have written a script for the Disney/Bruckheimer update, but the studio could wind up commissioning a polish or another draft. There's also no director, and Depp is attached to play Tonto, with the title role still to be cast.

Finally, Warners' feature update of the ghoulish TV series "Dark Shadows" -- a Depp/Tim Burton collaboration that might have shot later this year or early next year -- also might be back-burnered. Burton still has work to do on "Alice," which opens in March, and tends to spend a lot of time on prep work.

What the possibilities boil down to, besides head spinning, is that there are projects with momentum that Depp has not signed for, and projects he has signed for that don't have a lot of momentum.

In other words, it's a very 2009 phenomenon brought on by a star's choosiness on the one hand and studios' increasing caution on the other. (In what might be an emerging mini-trend, Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio happen to find themselves in similar situations.)

The result is that Depp could face a year or longer without appearing on the big screen.

That might not sound like a major departure, but for moviegoers, it will seem like a shift. Depp has been in one of the most fertile periods of his career: The actor also stars in the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation "The Rum Diary" and had a supporting role in Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which hasn't yet been released in the U.S. In the past nine years, Depp has not had more than two movies come out in any 18-month period; if "Imaginarium" gets a release by the end of 2010, he'll have had four.

Then again, the absence of a new role might mean a respite from his breakneck schedule. Even a pirate needs some time off.

(Editing by Sheri Linden at Reuters)