Australia asks US to speed up case against Guantanamo detainee News
Australia asks US to speed up case against Guantanamo detainee

[JURIST] Australian attorney general Philip Ruddock has asked the US to expedite proceedings against Australian detainee David Hicks [AFP report], the only Australian still held at Guantanamo Bay. Hicks [Fair Go for David advocacy website] was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and suspected of working with Al-Qaeda. Ruddock and Australia's ambassador to the US say they want to avoid another case like that of Mamdouh Habib, who was held for three years then released without charges in January. Habib recently appeared at an anti-war rally [Sydney Morning Herald report] to call for Hicks' release. Hicks' father has come out in support [Melbourne Age report] of changes to detainees' legal rights [New York Times report] at Guantanamo reportedly under consideration by high-level Bush administration and military officials.

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.