Malaysia PM says government will not require bloggers to register with state News
Malaysia PM says government will not require bloggers to register with state

[JURIST] Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi [official profile] said Tuesday that the Malaysian government would not compel bloggers to register [press release] with the state, noting that existing laws and regulations were sufficient in case action needs to be taken against those who "cross the limits" by posting false information online.

Last week, Energy, Water and Communications Deputy Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor and Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin suggested that bloggers whose websites are hosted on local servers should be required to register with the government as negative or malicious postings could harm national security. The Malaysian New Straits Times newspaper recently filed a defamation suit [blog post] against bloggers Ahirudin Attan [blog] and Jeff Ooi [blog] for posting allegedly libelous remarks about the newspaper's editors and executives. The London Times has more. The International Herald Tribune has additional 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.