Afghan president wants custody of prisoners after US abuse report News
Afghan president wants custody of prisoners after US abuse report

[JURIST] Afghan president Hamid Karzai [Wikipedia profile] said Saturday that he wants custody of all Afghan prisoners after being "shocked" by US newspaper reports of prisoner abuse [JURIST report] released Friday. The US has over 500 Taliban and other prisoners in Guantanamo Bay [official website] and several hundred Afghans are currently believed to be held by the US in Afghanistan. Karzai has also stated that he wants control over US military operations inside Afghanistan, such as searches within homes for militants, which should not be taking place "without the consultation of the Afghan government." Karzai will meet with President Bush next week. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.