US calls for opposition to G-4 Security Council expansion plan News
US calls for opposition to G-4 Security Council expansion plan

[JURIST] The US Tuesday urged the UN General Assembly [official website] to vote against a draft resolution by the so-called G-4 to expand the UN Security Council [official website] by adding six additional permanent seats and four non-permanent seats to the current 15 members. The debate over the resolution [JURIST report] submitted by Germany, Japan, India, and Brazil has split the General Assembly and it is unlikely it will gain the two-thirds majority vote needed to pass. US diplomat Shirin Tahir-Kheli [White House biography] said that the G-4 are "friends of Washington" and expressed a desire to discuss the expansion plan, but also noted that the competing African proposal [text, PDF] and the Uniting for Consensus proposal [text, PDF] have "valuable assets" as well. Tahir-Kheli said an amendment to the UN charter would be necessary for any expansion and also any US endorsement was subject to approval by two-thirds of the US Senate. AFP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

No lynchings reported in US for first time

On December 30, 1952, the Tuskegee Institute reported that 1952 was the first year of no lynchings of African Americans in the United States in the 71 years it had kept records. Learn more about lynching and listen to Billie Holiday's jazz recording of the 1938 protest song Strange Fruit.

USSR established

On December 30, 1922, representatives of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the Transcaucus approved the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, creating the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). During World War II, the USSR would also annex Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Moldova. Learn more about the history of the USSR from the BBC.