France tops US for asylum applications, UN report concludes News
France tops US for asylum applications, UN report concludes

[JURIST] France has replaced the US as the industrialized nation receiving the most asylum applications from refugees, though overall numbers of refugees seeking asylum in Europe and North America have reached their lowest levels since 1988, according to report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [official website] released Tuesday. According the UNHCR report, Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2004 [PDF text; UNHCR press release], France received the most asylum seekers at 61,600, followed by the US, Britain, Germany and Canada. The number of asylum claims in industrialized countries fell by 22 percent last year, and for most individual countries the number of total claims are the lowest in many years. Raymond Hall, Director of UNHCR's Europe Bureau, said "This really should reduce the pressure by politicians, media and the public to make asylum systems more and more restrictive to the point where many genuine refugees have enormous difficulty getting access to Europe, or getting recognized once they are there. In most industrialized countries it should simply not be possible to claim there is a huge asylum crisis any more." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Indian National Congress founded

The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded on December 28, 1885 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. In subsequent decades, the so-called Congress Party would advocate for Indian independence from the UK, which was eventually achieved in 1947. The first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was elected as a member of the INC. Learn more about the history and founding of the Indian National Congress.

Congress recognized Pledge of Allegiance

On December 28, 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance and encouraged its recitation in schools. The Pledge was supposedly written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day. The words “under God” were added by Congress in 1954. The revised version of the Pledge was the subject of litigation before the United States Supreme Court originally brought by Michael Newdow, a parent who unsuccessfully objected to his daughter's school district policy requiring daily recitation of the Pledge. The court ruled that Newdow had no standing.

Nepal ends monarchy, establishes republic

On December 28, 2007, the Kingdom of Nepal's interim parliament ended the country's monarchy and established the Republic of Nepal. Free elections were held on April 10 of the following year to elect a Constituent Assembly.

Learn more about the rise of democracy in Nepal.