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President Obama is in the West Bank for brief meetings with Palestinian leaders on the prospects for restarting Mideast peace talks with Israel. Mr. Obama and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas were to hold a working lunch, followed by a news conference. Mr. Obama and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will then visit a youth center in Ramallah. Expectations are low for any type of breakthrough on the peace process. Mr. Obama says he is focused on hearing from both parties on what it will take to restart negotiations. The U.S. president is on the second day of his visit...

Any peace agreement which requires the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or an exchange of land is out of the question, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday. In a Ramallah meeting with Hadash party Knesset members, Abbas said that it was now up to Israel to recognize a Palestinian state with 1967 borders, and that the PA had already recognised Israel back in 1993, thus negating the need for any further acknowledgment.

One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple. Psalm 27:4 Have you ever just dropped everything to do what the Psalmist did? Just to sit in the Lord’s presence. No agendas. No checklists. No prayer requests. Nothing to lose; everything to gain. Open and vulnerable. Just to sit. Just to ponder His greatness and the magnitude of His love. To fathom the unfathomable. To bask...

Women pay more attention to others' gaze 17:00 29 November 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Women follow the gaze of a familiar face more readily than men do, researchers suggest, after carrying out a curious, small study. Michael Platt at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, US, and colleagues asked 32 volunteers to watch a screen that showed the face of either a stranger or a colleague looking to the right or left for 200 milliseconds (one-fifth of a second). The participants then waited to see whether a dot appeared on the right or left of a...

$100,000 advertising campaign to promote support for gay rights By LOU CHIBBARO Friday, December 12, 2003 A newly formed coalition of African-American gay leaders announced plans this week for a $100,000 media campaign to promote support in the black community for same-sex marriage and to fight a constitutional amendment banning such marriages. At a Dec. 8 news conference in Washington, D.C., members of the National Black Justice Coalition said their goal, among other things, is to refute claims by anti-gay groups that the majority of African Americans oppose same-sex marriage. “Do not be fooled by a few recent poll numbers...

The Washington Post said it didn’t want to generate "a truckload of indignant letters," but it nevertheless tried to compare opposition to homosexual marriage to old laws against blacks getting married to whites. For the Post, opposing the gay agenda is tantamount to racism. The New York Times endorsed homosexual marriage as well, saying any attempt to amend the constitution to prohibit the practice would be an effort to deny "minority rights."

<p>Gays are making huge strides everywhere, but in the executive suite.</p> <p>One chilly fall day last year, Gary Osifchin trooped into a mandatory training session at S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. The privately held company, located in Racine, Wis., which was voted 2003's "all-American city" by the National Civic League, manufactures Raid insecticide and Glade air fresheners. It's the kind of place where factory workers ride to the assembly line on Harley-Davidsons, dine on local bratwurst, and chase it down with Milwaukee beer.</p>

Bush Blames Palestinian AuthoritiesTERENCE HUNTAssociated Press ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - President Bush blamed Palestinian authorities Wednesday for the deaths of Americans in an attack in Gaza, saying their failure to create terrorist-fighting security forces "continues to cost lives.""Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms," the president said in a written statement as he flew to California for an overnight visit en route to Asia.Bush said he condemned the attack in the strongest terms and that the United States was working with authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.Putting the blame squarely on...

20:50 During road map debate, Knesset plenum votes by 26 to 8 that `West Bank and Gaza are not occupied territories`