UN calls reports of Afghan abuses ‘unacceptable’ News
UN calls reports of Afghan abuses ‘unacceptable’

[JURIST] The United Nations has repeated its statements that abuses by coalition forces in Afghanistan are "totally unacceptable" and an "affront to the work of the international community in Afghanistan" after Australian TV broadcast video last week showing US soldiers allegedly burning the bodies of two Afghan Taliban prisoners and inciting the Taliban by calling them "cowardly dogs." US forces were first accused of abusing Afghan prisoners [JURIST report] in May. The Pentagon has said it will conduct an investigation [JURIST report] into the burning reports and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered his defense ministry to commence its own investigation. AFP 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.