Shiite lawmakers present draft plan for dividing Iraq News
Shiite lawmakers present draft plan for dividing Iraq

[JURIST] The Shiite United Iraqi Alliance [BBC profile] presented a draft plan for dictating the division of Iraq into autonomous regions to the Iraq National Assembly [official website] on Wednesday. The draft law reportedly provides for autonomy for the Shiite-majority south and recognizes the existing autonomy of the three northern Kurdish provinces. This arrangement possibly leaves the Sunni Arabs, who comprise most of the population of the oil- and resource-scarce center of the country, without access to Iraq's oil-generated wealth. The draft law is subject to parliamentary review, but Shiite and Kurdish members dominate the Assembly.

The Assembly voted Tuesday to renew the country's state of emergency [JURIST report], in place since November 2004 [JURIST report] and calling for a civilian curfew and a total ban on the carrying of arms, for an additional 30 days. AFP has more.

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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.