From time to time, I'm having lots of trouble with eclipse xml editors.. layout, manifest etc. I get some insane error messages like the one on the print screen I attached to this post. My Eclipse version IS recommended, and I did try cleaning the project, but with no help.

Note: My NoteListActivity.java has an error because it can not reference R because it won't get generated because of this "error" in the manifest.

Any idea on what to do in this kind of situation?

It seems that putting a value instead of reference ("net.n5r11.android.notes" in place of "@string/authority") solves this problem?!?

did you try +@ instead of @

No.. this is the proper use.. but the editor is sometimes messed up.