Sudan court convicts UK teacher of insulting Islam News
Sudan court convicts UK teacher of insulting Islam

[JURIST] A Sudanese court Thursday convicted [AFP report] British school teacher Gillian Gibbons of insulting Islam and sentenced her to 15 days in prison for allowing her students to name the class teddy bear Muhammad. Gibbons will serve 10 more days in prison, after having already served five, and will then be deported. Gibbons had originally been charged with inciting religious hatred [Guardian report] and faced six months in prison, 40 lashes, and a fine. She was instead convicted of the lighter charge under Article 125 of the Sudanese criminal code. Gibbons was arrested [BBC report] early this week after several parents complained about the teddy bear.

British Foreign Minister David Miliband [BBC profile] immediately expressed disappointment [press release] with the conviction, saying the charges against Gibbons should have been dismissed because it was "an innocent misunderstanding by a dedicated teacher." Meanwhile, local protesters [Guardian report] in the Sudanese city of Khartoum demanded the execution of Gibbons. The UK Times 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.