Russian soldiers cleared of Chechen deaths News
Russian soldiers cleared of Chechen deaths

[JURIST] A North Caucasus District military court has found a group of a special forces soldiers in the Russian military not guilty in the 2002 murder of six Chechen civilians [Amnesty International report]. The troops admitted to killing the civilians but said they were just following orders. When they fired upon a van that missed a checkpoint they only killed one passenger initially, but when they contacted headquarters they were told to execute the survivors and cover up the incident. Human rights groups, including The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) [official website], have denounced the verdict [IHF statement] as not dealing severely with abuses in the Russian military and thousands of people gathered in Chechnya [Mosnews coverage] Friday to protest the verdict. BBC News 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.