Many see the selection of Hong Kong's leader as a farce - the incumbent will almost certainly be picked again Sunday by a committee that usually goes with the choice of China's rulers.

But for the first time since the former British colony returned to Beijing's rule, the election has had a challenger and American-style debates. It also saw the incumbent - veteran civil servant Donald Tsang - promise a specific plan to bring full democracy to China's wealthiest city.

Tsang is expected to coast to re-election by an 800-seat election committee loaded with tycoons, leaders of special interest groups and other elites.

His rival is Alan Leong, a lawmaker and lawyer who believes stable, well-educated Hong Kong is ready for full democracy.

He says Tsang is among those dragging their feet on political reform. Leong insists that when the next leadership vote is held in 2012, Hong Kong should get rid of what's commonly known as the "small-circle election" system and let the public directly elect the winner.

The race also featured the first public debates between leadership candidates. The two men met twice in televised events that yielded spirited argument about a range of issues.

When this former British colony returned to Chinese rule 10 years ago, the Communist leadership in Beijing said Hong Kong could keep its capitalist ways, maintain its civil liberties and be semiautonomous under a "one country, two systems" formula. The city's mini-constitution, or Basic Law, says Hong Kong will eventually gain full democracy, referred to as universal suffrage, but no timeline has been given.

On Sunday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said President Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair may one day face war crimes charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. Moreno-Ocampo said that the ICC could investigate allegations of war crimes stemming from the conduct of coalition forces in Iraq, so long as Iraq agrees to ratify the Rome Statute and accede to ICC jurisdiction.

In an opinion piece in the newspaper El Pais, published on the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said the war was "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history".

"We should look more deeply into the possible criminal responsibility of the people who are, or were, responsible for this war and see whether there is sufficient evidence to make them answer for it," Garzon wrote.

"There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation and inquiry to start without more delay," he said.

Garzon, who became famous in 1999 when he tried to extradite Pinochet from Britain and try him for crimes against humanity, was particularly critical of the former Spanish government, a major backer of the Iraq invasion.

In February, Spain's former leader Jose Maria Aznar said he now knew Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction but "the problem was not having been clever enough to know earlier."

Garzon wrote: "If he didn't know enough, he should be asked why he didn't act prudently, giving United Nations inspectors more leeway instead of doing the opposite in total submission and fidelity to President Bush."

Gaspar Llamazares, head of the left-wing party Izquierda Unida, said he would present a motion to the Spanish parliament that leaders behind the war should face international tribunals.

"People cannot be allowed to make decisions that cause hundreds of thousands of victims, fail to recognise their errors and not have to answer to a court," said Llamazares, whose party is allied to the ruling Socialist party.

Garzon, who took a sabbatical last year to study international terrorism, said the Iraq war had helped incite hatred and garner more support for terrorist training camps.

"In some way, with a terrible lack of awareness, we have been and are helping this monster grow more and more and strengthen by the minute so it is probably invincible," he said.

Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan will be hanged Tuesday, according to Iraqi legal sources quoted by wire services Monday afternoon. The Iraqi government has scheduled the execution despite defense lawyers' contention that the government must wait at least 30 days after sentencing to execute a defendant. Ramadan, found guilty with Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) in November for his role in the reprisal killings of 148 Shiites at Dujail, lost an appeal of his sentence last week. He was originally given a life sentence, but after intervention by the appeals panel the trial court in February ordered the death penalty.

Following the failed appeal Ramadan's Rome-based lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano sent a letter to Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Force Iraq, urging him to intervene and prevent Ramadan's transfer from US to Iraqi custody. Di Stefano has also petitioned Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who has expressed opposition to the death penalty, to intervene and commute Ramadan's sentence. In an e-mail to JURIST late Monday, Di Stefano, formerly one of lawyers representing Saddam Hussein, said he had already moved to prosecute Saddam trial chief judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman in the UK after he was alleged to have sought asylum there, and would "prosecute any and all that have been involved in the execution of my clients."

Last week, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Leandro Despouy urged the Iraqi government not to execute Ramadan because of "grave shortcomings" in his legal process. In February, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Phillip Alston also called on the government to suspend the execution because of judicial misconduct.

"I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan," Mohammed told a military panel, according to a Pentagon transcript released Thursday. "For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head."

In 2002, an anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-born militant, to death and gave three other men life in prison for involvement in Pearl's killing.

Rai Bashir a lawyer for Sheikh and the other three men said on Sunday that he will study the Pentagon documents on Mohammed's claim and file his confession as evidence to prove Sheikh's innocence.

The Israeli cabinet voted Sunday to limit talks even with moderate Palestinian officials to shared security and humanitarian concerns, ruling out a formal peace process until the new Palestinian government recognizes Israel and renounces violence.
 
In officially rejecting the Palestinian unity government that was sworn in over the weekend, the cabinet also stated that "Israel expects the international community to maintain the policy it has taken over the past year of isolating the Palestinian government."

The vote was unanimous, with two cabinet members from the Labor Party, including the only Arab minister, abstaining.

"This is a government that does not accept the conditions of the international community," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said.

The new Palestinian cabinet includes rival political parties and has pledged to respect previous agreements that recognize Israel, unlike the previous cabinet in office since the radical Islamic movement Hamas took control of the government nearly a year ago.

But it continues to be led by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and its political program falls short of renouncing violence and explicitly recognizing Israel, the conditions for resumption of foreign aid.

Most international donors cut off economic aid after Palestinian voters chose Hamas to run the Palestinian Authority in January 2006.

Unemployment and poverty have increased in the territories since then, and about 130 Palestinians have been killed over the past year in a violent power struggle between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement.