Chatter: What we're hearing

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Need to know: Jerusalem's mayor today unveiled a sweeping plan for an area of East Jerusalem that would see at least 22 Palestinian homes demolished to make way for a public park and tourist site. But in a sign of the criticism the plan has already brought, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the mayor to delay demolitions and hold more discussions with the Palestinian residents of the area.

Want to know: Pakistan's army has discovered a Taliban cave network dug into the rocky Pakistan mountains close to the Afghan border. The complex network of 156 caves were found during an offensive against Islamist militants in which 75 militants were killed. The caves served as a key militant headquarters until troops overran the complex in the offensive. Pillows and mattresses were found in the caves in Damadola, in the Bajaur tribal region. Telegraph

Dull but important: You have probably dreamed about it at one point or another, but in France the trend of "bossnappings" is going strong. Two managers of German electrical and engineering group Siemens AG were released on Tuesday after being held in their offices overnight by employees demanding concessions over job cuts. The incident was the latest in a long series of so-called "bossnappings" in which managers in France have been detained by staff to exert pressure in negotiations over wages or lay-offs.

Just because: Germany's highest court overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on telephone calls and emails, saying it posed a "grave intrusion" to personal privacy rights. The court ruling was the latest to sharply criticize a major initiative by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and one of the strongest steps yet defending German citizen rights from post-Sept. 11 terror-fighting measures.

Wacky: It's often said that a sense of reason is what makes humans distinct from other animals. How about cooking? A new study suggests that if we hadn't learned to cook, not only would we still look like chimps, but, like them, we'd also sit around all day chewing. Without cooking, an average person would have to eat around five kilos of raw food to survive, and the daily mountain of fruit and vegetables would mean a six-hour chewing marathon.

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