Kenya releases final draft of new constitution News
Kenya releases final draft of new constitution

[JURIST] The Kenyan government released the final draft of the country's new constitution Tuesday, amidst protests from those upset with President Mwai Kibaki [official profile] for his failure to limit any of his over-reaching presidential powers [JURIST report] in the new constitution. The Kenyan Electoral Commission [official website] will set a national referendum for November in which the 197 page draft will be up for a citizen's vote. The opposition party Kenya African National Union (KANU) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will continue to campaign against the new constitution and recently took Kibaki to court [JURIST report] for attempting to extend his powers in the final draft. Reuters has more. Kenya's Daily Nation has local coverage [registration required].

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.