Lebanon sentences two for attempted mass murder in German train terror plot News
Lebanon sentences two for attempted mass murder in German train terror plot

[JURIST] A Lebanese court handed down sentences Tuesday for two defendants convicted of attempted mass murder for their role in a 2006 plot to blow up trains in Germany [BBC report]. Youssef al-Haj Deeb, currently in custody in Germany, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison and Jihad Hamad was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Three other defendants out of an initial six charged [JURIST report] in September 2006 were found not guilty.

Hamad confessed to participation in the bomb plot, but said that the bombs were meant to cause fear, not kill people. He said the planned bombings were in reaction to cartoons featuring the Prophet Muhammad [JURIST news archive], first published in Denmark in 2005 and then republished in several newspapers around the world. The terrorists involved in the plot planted bombs inside suitcases which were left on trains at the Cologne station; investigations show that the detonators went off but failed to ignite the bombs. Reuters 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.