World Briefs

Quiet, please. Britain's 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 to 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.

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 by discarded fishing tackle.

Woman gondolier

Nine centuries of male monopoly on the canals of Venice came to an end over the weekend when the first woman passed the gruelling test to become a trainee gondolier.

Giorgia Boscolo, the 23-year-old daughter of a gondolier, got the lowest points for one of the 22 places available, while two other women candidates failed to gain admission at all. She is now authorised to take passengers on her gondola while completing her training.

"I have always been in love with gondolas, unlike my three sisters, and I used to prefer going rowing with my father to going out with my friends," Ms Boscolo told Ansa news agency.

Her father, Dante, said being a gondolier was "a job that requires a lot of physical strength, but with experience you need less effort and my daughter has lots of experience".

The flat-bottomed boats are propelled by a standing oarsman and are nowadays used for giving tourists romantic trips through the city. To gain entry to the guild of gondoliers, candidates also have to demonstrate knowledge of Venetian history.

Warren Buffett lunch sells for €1.2m

A bidder agreed to pay $1.68 million (€1.2 million) for a steak lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a charity auction completed on Friday night, according to eBay's website. The winning bid fell short of last year's record $2.11 million, paid by Hong Kong-based investor Zhao Danyang. The starting price was $25,000.

As in recent years, the winner and up to seven friends may dine with the world's second-richest person at the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse in New York.

The auction benefits the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco non-profit that offers housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor.

Moon-lovers remember Apollo

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, organisers in Australia have said.

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 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 event.

It brought together hundreds of amateur radio hams around the world, some armed with their own radio dishes, event co-founder Robert Brand told Reuters.

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 Earth's equator, this was the nearest weekend organisers could arrange.

Jackson's death sparks bus brawl

A fight broke out on a Florida bus when news of Michael Jackson's death sparked a debate. Passenger James Kiernan received a text message about Michael Jackson's death on his cell phone, and he read it aloud on the bus, the Broward County Sheriff's Department said.

The unidentified bus driver opined that "Michael Jackson should have been in jail long ago", prompting Mr Kiernan, 60, to retort that "the world just lost a great musical talent", the police report said.

The remark enraged another passenger, Henry Wideman, who started a swearing match with Mr Kiernan, then pulled out a knife. He was arrested.