Berlusconi demands US ‘respect’ Italian sovereignty after CIA abduction scandal News
Berlusconi demands US ‘respect’ Italian sovereignty after CIA abduction scandal

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi [official profile] took the remarkable step Friday of demanding in an official statement [in Italian] delivered to summoned US ambassador Mel Sembler that the US government exhibit "full respect" for Italian sovereignty in the wake of a controversy over the alleged 2003 CIA abduction of an Islamic cleric in Milan [Washington Post report]. Sembler provided assurances that US respect towards Italy was "full and total." Pursuant to an Italian court order arrest warrants have been issued [JURIST report] for 13 CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of Abu Omar, an imam already being watched by Italian authorities as part of a terrorism investigation. Italian prosecutors believe the operation was part of a controversial US anti-terror policy known as "extraordinary rendition," in which suspects are moved to third countries without permission. 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.