BATTIR, West Bank, Jul 13 2014 (IPS) - The Palestinian village of Battir, just six kilometres southwest of Jerusalem and a similar distance from Bethlehem, is the latest to be trapped in the gap between international recognition and Israel's policies in the West Bank.

The village's agricultural terraces covering the surrounding hill slopes, and the spring water-fed open irrigation channels that run through them, have been in use for centuries.

Last month, this unique landscape was designated a World Heritage site by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), making it only the second such Palestinian site after the Old City of Jerusalem site.

Already in autumn last year, the World Monuments Fund, an international organisation working to preserve important cultural heritage sites, had added Battir's ancient terraces to its 2014 World Monuments Watch.

The decision to inscribe Battir in the World Heritage list comes amid Israeli plans to establish a new section of its Separation Barrier at the foot of the terraced hill slopes, cutting through the Palestinian village's lands.

The Church of England has voted to allow women priests to be ordained as bishops, overturning centuries of tradition in a church that has been deeply divided over the issue.

After almost five hours of debate, the General Synod, the governing body of the Church of England, approved on Monday the proposal to allow women to take up senior roles in the Church.

Ahead of the vote, Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans, said the general public would find it "almost incomprehensible" should the General Synod fail to support the move.

Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward, reporting from York, described the scene outside the meeting, as "jubilant" following the vote.

Researchers from Umea University have explored two different ways that allow unprecedented experimental insights into the reaction sequence leading to the formation of oxygen molecules in photosynthesis. The two studies have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

"The new knowledge will help improving present day synthetic catalysts for water oxidation, which are key components for building artificial leaf devices for the direct storage of solar energy in fuels like hydrogen, ethanol or methanol," says Johannes Messinger, Professor in Biological Chemistry and leader of the Artificial photosynthesis research group at Umea University.

Every child learns at school that the oxygen we breathe is produced by photosynthesis in plants and by cyanobacteria that live in lakes and the oceans. However, exactly how that happens is still under intense research.