Schwarzenegger signs bill banning violent video game sales to minors News
Schwarzenegger signs bill banning violent video game sales to minors

[JURIST] California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official profile; JURIST news archive] has signed a bill [text] that bans the sale or rental of violent video games to minors under the age of 17, and requires retailers to label violent games as such. The bill cites several factors to be used to determine whether a video game is violent, including "infliction of gratuitous violence upon the victim beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation of the victim’s body, and the helplessness of the victim." Similar legislation was passed earlier in the year by Michigan [bill text] and Illinois [bill text; JURIST report]. The video game lobby is expected to challenge the California law in court. Last year, a federal district court ruled that a Washington law that restricted violent video game sales to minors violated free speech rights [JURIST report]. Knight-Ridder 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.