Vioxx pretrial proceedings assigned to Louisiana federal court News
Vioxx pretrial proceedings assigned to Louisiana federal court

[JURIST] The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation [official website] Wednesday assigned all pending Vioxx product liability lawsuits [JPML transfer order, PDF] to Judge Eldon Fallon of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana [official website] in New Orleans. Judge Fallon will coordinate discovery and other pretrial proceedings in federal lawsuits that allege that Vioxx manufacturer Merck [corporate website] knew the painkiller increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes. In a statement announcing the suits' consolidated status [text], Merck says that it "acted responsibly every step of the way" and that it will "vigorously defend itself." AP 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.