The finalist global voting of New7Wonders

Amazon

BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, FRENCH GUIANA, GUYANA, PERU, SURINAME, VENEZUELA

The Amazon Rainforest, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometers (1.7 billion acres), though the forest itself occupies some 5.5 mil

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Angel Falls

VENEZUELA

Angel Falls is the highest waterfall in the world, at 1,002 m, and is located in the Canaima National Park in Bolivar State, along Venezuela’s border with Brazil.

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Bay of Fundy

CANADA

The Bay of Fundy is renown for having the highest tides on the planet (16.2 metres or 53 feet).

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Black Forest

GERMANY

Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is a wooded mountain range in southwestern It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south.

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Bu Tinah Island

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Off the western shores of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, lies a unique natural treasure, wild and undisturbed by human activity: Bu Tinah Island.

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Cliffs of Moher

IRELAND

Located in county Clare, the Cliffs of Moher are amongst the most impressive places to see in Ireland.

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Dead Sea

ISRAEL, JORDAN, PALESTINE

The Dead Sea is a salt lake between Palestine and Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. At 420 metres below sea level, its shores are the lowest point on Earth that are on dry land.

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El Yunque

PUERTO RICO

El Yunque National Forest, formerly known as the Caribbean National Forest, is located on the island of Puerto Rico. It is also the name of the second highest mountain peak in the Forest.

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Galapagos

ECUADOR

The Galapagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator, 965 kilometres west of continental Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean.

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Grand Canyon

UNITED STATES

The Grand Canyon, created by the Colorado River over a period of 6 million years, is 446 km long, ranges in width from 6 to 29 km and attains a depth of more than 1.6 km.

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Great Barrier Reef

AUSTRALIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The Great Barrier Reef is the planet’s largest coral reef system, with some 3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 km over an area of approximately 344,400 square km.

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Halong Bay

VIET NAM

Halong Bay is located in Quáng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

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Iguazu Falls

ARGENTINA, BRAZIL

Iguazu Falls, in Iguazu River, are one of the world's largest waterfalls.

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Jeita Grotto

LEBANON

Jeita Grotto is a compound of crystallized caves in Lebanon located 20 km north of Beirut in the Valley of Nahr al-Kalb (Dog River).

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Jeju Island

KOREA (SOUTH)

Jejudo is a volcanic island, 130 km from the southern coast of Korea. The largest island and smallest province in Korea, the island has a surface area of 1,846 sqkm.

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Kilimanjaro

TANZANIA

With its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawensi, and Shira, Mount Kilimanjaro is an inactive strato-volcano in north-eastern Tanzania.

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Komodo

INDONESIA

Indonesia’s Komodo National Park includes the three larger islands Komodo, Rinca and Padar, as well as numerous smaller ones, for a total area of 1,817 square kilometers (603 square kilometers of i

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Maldives

MALDIVES

The Maldive Islands make up an island nation consisting of 26 atolls in the Indian Ocean. They are located south of India’s Lakshadweep islands, about 700 kilometers south-west of Sri Lanka.

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Masurian Lake District

POLAND

The Masurian Lake District or Masurian Lakeland is a lake district in northeastern Poland containing more than 2,000 lakes.

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Matterhorn/Cervino

ITALY, SWITZERLAND

The Matterhorn/Cervino is perhaps the most familiar mountain in the European Alps.

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Milford Sound

NEW ZEALAND

Milford Sound, located in the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island, is located within the Fiordland National Park.

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Mud Volcanoes

AZERBAIJAN

The term mud volcano or mud dome is used to refer to formations created by geo-excreted liquids and gases, although there are several different processes which may cause such activity.

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Puerto Princesa Underground River

PHILIPPINES

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is located about 50 km north of the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.

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Sundarbans

BANGLADESH, INDIA

The Sundarbans delta, at the mouth of the Ganges river, is the largest mangrove forest in the world, spreading across parts of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.

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Table Mountain

SOUTH AFRICA

Table Mountain is a South African icon and the only natural site on the planet to have a constellation of stars named after it - Mensa, meaning “the table.” The flat-topped mountain has withstood s

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Uluru

AUSTRALIA

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is one of Australia's most recognisable natural icons.

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Vesuvius

ITALY

Mount Vesuvius is a volcano east of Naples, Italy. It is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years, although it is not currently erupting.

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Yushan

CHINESE TAIPEI

Yushan, part of Yushan National Park, is a central mountain range in Chinese Taipei and it also the name of the highest point of the range.

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Why is a U.S.-Russia nuclear deal important?

One Russian blogger has paid a visit to the modern Russian nuclear plant. Normally it is forbidden to take photos there, but they have made an exception for him. So now we have a rare chance to see what’s inside of the Russian most modern power plant.

This power plant is situated near Smolensk city. Its power generation potential is 3 Megawatt and it was build for 8 years, from 1982 to 1990. There were planned to be four nuclear reactors, but because of the panic after the Chernobyl accident the forth block has not been completed, so there are three of them for now.

(Reuters) - The presidents of Russia and the United States will meet in Prague to sign a new nuclear arms reduction treaty on April 8, the White House and Kremlin said Friday.

The two largest nuclear powers have been formally negotiating on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) since April 2009.

* WHAT IS THE NEW TREATY?

- Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev said last April that they wanted to agree a new deal by the December 5 expiry date of START I but talks snagged and the two sides agreed to act in the spirit of START until a replacement was ready.

The two leaders agreed in July that a new treaty would limit operationally deployed nuclear warheads to 1,500-1,675, and both sides said Friday that the specific limit would be 1,550 -- down from current levels of 2,200-2,700.

In the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT), also known as the Moscow Treaty, each side agreed to cut strategic nuclear warheads to 1,700-2,200 by 2012.

Obama and Medvedev said the limit for delivery vehicles -- the missiles, bombers and systems that deliver a warhead to a target -- should be in the 500-1,100 range. Negotiators agreed on a specific limit of 800, half the 1,600 set in START I.

* WHY IS THE AGREEMENT IMPORTANT?

-- The quest for a START successor pact is a key part of efforts to "reset" relations after increasing tension that peaked with Russia's 2008 war against U.S.-supported Georgia.

Obama has said improving ties with Russia, a key player in Iran and an important source of support on Afghanistan, is a priority.

-- Both the United States and Russia, which hold 95 percent of the world's nuclear arms, say further reductions in their arsenals will improve mutual trust and send a strong signal to other nations at a time when global powers are trying to rein in the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

-- The agreement could help create the momentum for a nuclear security summit Obama is hosting in mid-April and a May conference to review the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

-- For Russia, its vast store of Soviet-era nuclear weapons is one of the factors keeping Moscow at the top table of world politics.

After Russia's conventional forces were starved of cash in the chaos that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse, its still mighty nuclear deterrent is the centrepiece of the Kremlin's military doctrine.

-- Both sides said the new deal will include detailed verification procedures that were absent from the 2002 Moscow Treaty -- an omission cited by arms experts as a major flaw However, the verification procedures will not be as onerous as in START I.

Verification procedures such as inspections and access to data about missile tests is important because it helps the former Cold War foes accurately to predict how many weapons each side has and thus reduces the chance of a new arms race.

-- A replacement for START I is seen as the first step towards much deeper cuts. Both sides hope an agreement on START could lay the ground for more ambitious talks about reducing the silos of thousands of non-deployed nuclear warheads and shorter-range tactical nuclear warheads.

Those talks could also impose must bigger cuts to deployed strategic warheads and delivery systems.

* WHY DID THE TALKS TAKE LONGER THAN HOPED?

-- The two sides agreed on a news blackout from negotiations in Geneva, so there were few details about what caused the delay in achieving a deal.

-- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in December that U.S. plans for a missile defence system were the main obstacle to reaching a new deal, suggesting Moscow wanted it to limit missile defences.

Obama and Medvedev agreed in July that the treaty will contain a provision describing the relationship between offensive and defensive weapons, but the United States says the pact is not the place for details on missile defence.

-- Remarks about the treaty from both sides Friday suggested that it will not place specific limits on missile defence. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said either side has the right to stop reducing strategic offensive weapons if the other side increases its capacity for defence against those missiles.

-- Negotiations over verification measures were said to have been intense. Russia has called for more relaxed procedures than in START I.

That is in part because while Russia has been developing new nuclear missiles to take the place of ageing models, the United States is relying mostly on models that will be in service for years to come, prompting Russia to contend that it is getting little new information from verification measures.

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Steve Gutterman in Moscow)

Global warming is a fantasy in the environment

Some say global warming is a fantasy in the environment. Some say it was destiny. Scientists are still pros and cons about it. To be sure, that natural phenomena can be felt in the following 10 events. And that certainly is not a mere imagination, because we've been there.

* Forest fires massive
Not only in Indonesia, a number of forests in the United States also burned ludes. In recent decades, forest fires over many areas meluluhlantakan within a longer, too. Scientists attribute this rampant fires with increasingly hot temperatures and snow melting faster. Spring came early so that the snow melts early, too. Forest areas drier than usual and more easily burned.

* Easily damaged archaeological sites
As a result of a hostile nature, a number of temples, historic sites, temples and other artifacts more easily damaged than some time ago. floods, extreme temperatures and causing tidal it all. Historic Sites 600 years old in Thailand, Sukhotai, already damaged by floods recently.

* The height of the mountain reduced
Without realizing it many people, the Alps have high shrinkage. This caused the melting of ice on top. For hundreds of years, the weight of the ice has pushed the earth's surface due to the pressure. As the ice melts, the weight is lifted and slowly lifted back to surface.

* The satellite moves faster
Carbon dioxide emissions more quickly make the planet warm, even into space impact. Terluat the air in the atmosphere is very thin, but with the increased carbon dioxide Jumah, the molecules in the upper atmosphere together more slowly and tend to radiate energy, and cools the surrounding air. The more carbon dioxide up there, then the atmosphere creates more encouragement, and the satellites move faster.

* Only the Strongest of Abiding
As a result of the growing season uncertain, the only living beings is the strong can survive. For example, early flowering plants this year, the migration of animals occur more quickly. They are moving slowly will lose food, they sementar more agile, able to survive. The same is true for all living things including humans.

* Massive Melting
Not only the temperature that triggers melting planet gununges, but also all the layers of soil that had been frozen. This melting ground trigger wrinkle causing irregular holes and damage to structures such as railways, highways, and houses. The impact of this instability on the high plains like the mountains could even cause the collapse of rock.

* Peculiarity in the Polar Region
The loss of 125 lakes in the Arctic a few decades ago led to the idea that global warming is happening more "excited" at the poles. Research around airyang source shows the possibility of missing the melting of the frozen world basis.

* Flowering plants in the Arctic
When melting Arctic trigger problems at the plant in danhewan lower plateau, also created the same situation with saatmatahari buried in the Arctic biota. Plants there is always trapped in the ice is no longer and began to grow. Scientists found an increase in photosynthetic formation of soil compared to soil surrounding the ancient era.

* Habitat Living Move to a Higher Plain
Since the early decades of the 1900s, humans had to climb in order to find lebihtinggi squirrel, beaver or forest rats. Scientists found that these animals have moved to higher ground due to global warming. The displacement of these habitats threatens the habitat of polar bears as well, because the ice where they live are also melting.

* Increased Allergy Cases
Often experience sneezing attacks and itchy in the spring matasaat, then Blame global warming. Several decades of allergy and asthma cases among the American people experienced an increase. Hidupdan pattern of pollution is considered the trigger. Scientists study showed that high levels of carbon dioxide and temperature trigger latter. These conditions also make the plants bloom earlier and produce more pollen.

(see More from www.livescience.com)

Islamic fundamentalism with leadership election

David Charter in Brussels

The UK Independence Party is set to head in a fresh direction, fighting radical Islam, with the election today of a replacement for Nigel Farage as its national leader.

The two favourites to take over from Mr Farage are committed to adding the battle against Islamic fundamentalism to the party’s main goal of withdrawing Britain from the European Union.

Mr Farage resisted strong grassroots pressure during his three-year leadership to broaden UKIP’s focus to include actively campaigning against Islamism and immigration. But both Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the London MEP Gerard Batten - the two front-runners in a field of five candidates - say that they are determined to target Islamic fundamentalism.

The other three candidates are Mike Nattrass and Nikki Sinclaire, both MEPs, and Alan Wood, a councillor from Wiltshire and a senior party insider.

The result of the ballot of UKIP’s 16,500 members will to be announced today. Lord Pearson, 67, an Eton-educated self-made millionaire, was endorsed by Mr Farage as his only “serious” successor this month. Mr Batten called the endorsement an “insult” to the other challengers.

Lord Pearson invited the anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders to the House of Lords in February only for Jacqui Smith, then the Home Secretary, to issue a banning order so that Mr Wilders was turned away at Heathrow. The Dutchman travelled to Britain in October after overturning the ban.

Lord Pearson’s own outspoken views about Islam were recorded in Washington DC last month. Asked how much time Britain had before losing control of its cultural identity he said: “What is going to decide the answer to that is the birthrate. The fact that Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us. I do not know at what point they reach such a number that we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands . . . but if we do not do something now within the next year or two we have in effect lost.”

He later insisted that his remark was directed at Islamists. “One is talking about the violent end of the spectrum,” he said.

Mr Batten, 55, has also invited Mr Wilders to speaking engagements and has called the Dutch politician “a brave man trying to defend western civilisation”. This year, writing in the magazine Freedom Today, Mr Batten addressed the notion of the confrontation of Islamism and the West. “It is a clash between civilisation and barbarism. It is a clash between everything that has made the modern world what it is and an ideology that wants to enslave us to a belief system that belongs in seventh-century Arabia and which was primitive and backward even then.”

Ms Sinclaire, 41, a newly elected MEP, has campaigned strongly and is regarded as having an outside chance of taking the leadership. Her main aim is to professionalise UKIP and organise a Shadow Cabinet to extend its appeal.

Mr Nattrass, 63, an MEP for the West Midlands since 2004, believes that UKIP’s main focus should be on winning votes in the next general election but has largely been absent during the campaign due to an illness in the family. Mr Wood is well known within UKIP as its nominating officer.

A UKIP source said that if Lord Pearson or Mr Batten were elected “You are going to see quite a lot stronger position from us. Nigel has always been afraid of the Islam thing backfiring. But the BNP are taking ownership of issues that have not been addressed by Labour, the Conservatives or the Lib Dems and they need addressing.”