Arab League backs new UN terrorism pact News
Arab League backs new UN terrorism pact

[JURIST] The head of the Arab League [official website] on Monday endorsed a definition of terrorism slated for inclusion in a long-stalled UN treaty [JURIST report] that many Arab states oppose. The proposal would define terrorism as "the targeting and deliberate killing of civilians and noncombatants" [JURIST report] though this definition has caused some controversy over how to classify Palestinian suicide bombings and Israeli military actions in the West Bank and Gaza. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said this definition "could serve as the basis for consensus" and was one "we can agree on." 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.