Mukasey likely to be confirmed as AG: Leahy News
Mukasey likely to be confirmed as AG: Leahy

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official website] said Tuesday after a meeting with Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey [WH fact sheet; PBWT profile] that the Senate will likely approve Mukasey without undue delay. Mukasey's confirmation hearings before the Judiciary Committee are scheduled to begin Wednesday [JURIST report; hearing notice]. Mukasey is expected to face questions on controversial issues including the US Attorney firings scandal [JURIST news archive], the investigation of alleged election crimes, the executive use of secrecy and expansion of power, and his willingness to share materials related to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text; JURIST news archive] investigations.

President George W. Bush formally nominated [JURIST report] Mukasey on September 17 to replace former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [JURIST news archive], who submitted his resignation [JURIST report] in August. AP has more.

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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).

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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.

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