BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

Israel has authorized the construction of 3,000 new homes on occupied Palestinian land a day after the United Nations General Assembly voted to revise the status of the Palestinians to that of non-member observer state. US officials have condemned the Israeli move as counterproductive. Kevin Connolly reports.

Israel has been struggling to calibrate its reactions to the Palestinian campaign for upgraded status of the United Nations. But it clearly felt that allowing the development to pass without some form of political response would be seen as a sign of weakness. So it has announced its granting permission for 3,000 new homes in the west bank in eastern Jerusalem and speeding up the processing of a further 1,000 existing planning applications. The Palestinians and the overwhelming majority of the international community see the area in question as land occupied by Israel.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians have been protesting in Cairo against the country's President Mohamed Mursi and a new draft constitution. The demonstrators already critical of sweeping powers assumed by Mr. Mursi are angry the draft was rushed through in just 16 hours. Bethany Bell spent the day in Tahrir Square.

President Morsi has said the reason he took the step to given himself powers, because he was worried the court, the judges will trying to preparing legal challenge to the body that was writing the constitution and they will going to hold everything up. So a real tussle going on here, and it's really a question of: who you believe more, whether you believe the suspicions of the opposition, or whether you do believe President Morsi is going to give up those powers. So a real chanting march over the Egypt future taking place on the streets of Cairo and other cities across the country.