Kerik withdraws as Homeland Security nominee News
Kerik withdraws as Homeland Security nominee

[JURIST] The White House said late Friday evening that former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has withdrawn his nomination as homeland security secretary. Kerik said in a statement that "In the course of completing documents required for Senate confirmation, I uncovered information that now leads me to question the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a housekeeper and nanny". The full text of Kerik's statement is here. President Bush had announced Kerik's nomination only last week. Kerik had also been criticized in the press for profiting from his work with companies he would have contracted with as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Current Secretary Tom Ridge has said he will remain in the position until a successor is appointed. Bloomberg has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.