Tight Iranian presidential vote marred by abuses News
Tight Iranian presidential vote marred by abuses

[JURIST] Iranian Interior Ministry officials said Friday that intimidation and other abuses were impairing the presidential run-off election between relative moderate and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [BBC profile] and hard-liner and mayor of Tehran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile]. The Interior Ministry, dominated by Rafsanjani supporters, has requested that some polling locations be closed because of irregularities, such as the presence of Basij religious militiamen. A Rafsanjani aide said police harassed and arrested Rafsanjani representatives and in some locations women voters were turned away for inappropriate Islamic dress. Reuters has more. BBC News compares where the candidates stand on important issues.

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.