Israel plans to build 3,500 new homes in the West Bank to cement its hold on Jerusalem, government sources said on Monday

Haaretz reports.

The blueprint for two new neighborhoods linking the settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim to East Jerusalem appeared to flout the U.S.-backed peace road map whose final vision is disputed by Israel and the Palestinians.

The road map requires a halt to settlement-building on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

But U.S. President George W. Bush said in 2004 that Israel, which intends to quit the occupied Gaza Strip this year, could expect to keep some West Bank settlement blocs under an accord.

Strange religious news. In Greece the religion (the church?) is being exposed:

The revelations are mind-boggling. Almost daily, men once revered as paragons of virtue have been exposed as lascivious money-grabbers. Recorded conversations of eminent clerics engaging in 'love talk' have been broadcast on television, secret bank accounts revealed, and malfeasance unearthed, with priests emerging as central players in activities as disparate as trial-fixing, antiquities smuggling and election rigging. Highlighting a raft of lurid sexual claims, one newspaper splashed what was purported to be a 91-year-old priest in bed with a woman across its front page.

'In many ways, the Greek Orthodox Church has been revealed for what it is: a completely amoral and unethical multinational company'

Meanwhile in Jesusland (USA USA USA) we have slightly different developments:

In several US states, Imax cinemas - including some at science museums - are refusing to show movies that mention the subject or suggest that Earth's origins do not conform with biblical descriptions.

John Bolton named as US ambassador to the UN! From the BBC:

He has in past been quoted as saying there is no such thing as the United Nations.

He also reportedly said in 1994 that it would not make any difference if the UN headquarters in New York lost 10 of its storeys.

Here is a description by Pilger:

The "crazies" include John Bolton, Under Secretary of State, who has made a personal mission of tearing up missile treaties with the Russians and threatening North Korea, and Douglas Feith, an Under Secretary of Defence, who ran a secret propaganda unit "reworking" intelligence about Iraq's weapons. I interviewed them both in Washington.

BOLTON boasted to me that the killing of as many as 10,000 Iraqi civilians in the invasion was "quite low if you look at the size of the military operation."

For raising the question of civilian casualties and asking which country America might attack next, I was told: "You must be a member of the Communist Party."

Good article on fighting homophobia in "Kansas" and on the relations with the fight for civil rights. Gary Younge in the Guardian:

There are two main reasons why this comparison jars with many. The first is blatant homophobia. It is far easier to marginalise the lesbian and gay agenda if you can sever any association between it and other struggles for equality. The second is latent homophobia, which argues that such comparisons trivialise racism, as though the right to love who you want and still keep your job, your home and sometimes your life is a trifling matter.

Those who insist that one is worse than the other should remember that this is not a competition. Sadly, there is enough misery to go around. People like the Phelpses will make sure it stays that way. They don't need our help.

The subtle way in which Palestinians are vilified when compared to Israelis is demonstrated in this paragraph from the New York Times:

In February, 13 Palestinians were killed, according to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group. Most were militants, though teenage civilians were among the dead, Palestinians said. All five Israeli deaths came in the Tel Aviv bombing.

We are informed that "most" of the Palestinians are militants. We are told nothing of the fact that most of the Israeli dead were soldiers. Not that it particularly matters, but neither does it matter what portion of the Palestinian dead are militants, whatever that means. In fact, outside Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post I have seen no mention that the Israeli dead were anything other than civilians.

Sometimes I wonder whether journalists have the same understanding of language as other people. From The Guardian

The family had not suffered any particular grievance at the hands of the Israelis, Ibrahim said, although he was detained in 1989 and held for 18 months without trial.

The town has lost a large part of its livelihood because the separation barrier has cut it off from its 825 acres (334 hectares) of farmland.

In theory they can reach it through a gate, but it is rarely open, and the Israelis have begun chopping down some of the trees.

I wonder what would constitute a particular grievance?