Zimbabwe president challenges UN report on demolitions of illegal structures News
Zimbabwe president challenges UN report on demolitions of illegal structures

[JURIST] A pro-government Harare paper said Wednesday that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe told reporters that special UN envoy Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka confessed to him that she was under pressure to produce an unfavorable report on the 6-week government ordered demolition of illegal homes and businesses in the nation, also known as "Operation Murambatsvina" or (in English) "Operation Restore Order" [JURIST report]. Tibaijuka's report [PDF], released Friday, indicates that thousands of structures were destroyed and nearly 700,000 people were left homeless. During a UN Security Council briefing [UN News report; press briefing] on the report Wednesday, Tibaijuka defended the integrity of her report and insisted it was "objective" and that the "methodology used is all spelled out". Access video of today's briefing here. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.