Australia ends ban on ‘abortion drug’ RU-486 News
Australia ends ban on ‘abortion drug’ RU-486

[JURIST] The Australian Parliament ended a de facto ban on the so-called "abortion drug" RU-486 (also known as Mifepristone) [Wikipedia backgrounder] on Thursday by removing the need for approval by the Health Minister to use the drug. Tony Abbott [official website], a strong anti-abortionist, had refused all applications for its use.

Last week, the Australian Senate voted 45-28 to end the approval requirement [JURIST report], and the measure [bill text, PDF] cleared the House without a formal count. The Therapeutic Goods Association [official website] will now handle requests from doctors to prescribe the drug. BBC News has more. The Sydney Morning Herald has local coverage.

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.