White House spokesman Scott Stanzel hailed the court decision, declaring it to be “an important milestone” in efforts “to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law”. In fact, the Bush administration has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for basic legal norms, riding roughshod over international and US law. It has pressed for the execution of Hussein as a means of demonstrating to the world that it is capable of killing its opponents with impunity.

The Appeal Court decision comes as no surprise. From start to finish, the trial of Hussein and senior figures in his Baathist regime has been a piece of political theatre with a preordained outcome. The Bush administration refused to place the former Iraqi strongman before an international tribunal, drew up the flawed rules for the Iraqi High Court and has overseen every aspect of the case via a large team of American lawyers based in the US embassy in Baghdad.

Washington’s Shiite-dominated puppet government in Baghdad has brazenly interferred in the trial, exploiting it to bolster support among its social base. Shortly after the verdict was handed down last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki preempted the outcome of the appeals process, telling the BBC that he expected Hussein to be hanged by the end of the year. Significantly, yesterday’s decision was first announced, not by the Appeal Court, but by a government minister—National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie.

International legal experts and human rights bodies have repeatedly criticised the legal process. In a statement issued yesterday, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the trial as “deeply flawed” and called on the Iraqi government not to carry out the execution. A detailed 97-page HRW report on the Dujail case issued last month highlighted numerous breaches of elementary legal process, pointing to government interference in the trial. The report concluded that the court’s conduct reflected “a basic lack of understanding of fundamental fair trial principles”.

The sentence “must be implemented within 30 days,” chief judge Aref Shahin. “From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation.”

A spokesperson for the court said Tuesday that the decision still had to be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Vice Presidents Adil Abdul-Mahdi and Tariq Al-Hashimi before an execution could be carried out, but noted that if the leaders do not ratify the decision "we'll implement the verdict by the power of the law."

The decision of the appeals court must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice-presidents. Mr. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has, in the past, deputized a vice-president to sign an execution order on his behalf, a substitute that has been legally accepted.

Hussein was sentenced to death by the trial court on November 5. He and six co-defendants are currently standing trial on additional genocide charges in connection with attacks against Kurds during the so-called "Anfal" campaigns. Last week, two of Saddam's co-defendants denied using chemical weapons against Kurds, insisting that any action taken was by order of their superiors.

The UN Security Council voted 15-0 Saturday to impose its first sanctions on Iran for continuing to enrich uranium past an August 31 deadline imposed by Security Council Resolution 1696. In unanimously adopting Resolution 1737 the Council cited reports submitted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the August 31 deadline as well as a November 14 update  which showed that Iran had not "established full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities as set out in resolution 1696" or otherwise complied with IAEA instructions.

The resolution calls for the end of all uranium enrichment and heavy-water research, imposes a ban on the import or export of related dangerous materials, and moves to freeze the international assets of individuals and organizations connected to the nuclear programs. The sanctions fall under Chapter VII Article 41 of the UN Charter, making enforcement mandatory but restricted to non-military measures. The IAEA will submit a report on Iran's compliance with the resolution in 60 days, at which point further sanctions will be considered.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Wednesday convicted a Roman Catholic priest for committing genocide and extermination during the mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus that swept the central African nation in 1994. Father Athanase Seromba was acquitted of less charges of complicity and incitement, but was nonetheless sentenced to 15 years in prison. Seromba, a Hutu, was in charge of a parish church where some 2000 Tutsis sought refuge from rampaging Hutus; the prosecution claimed that he ordered the bulldozing of the church and the shooting of all those who tried to escape. His lawyers argued in his defense that he was powerless to stop the carnage, in which all the sanctuary-seekers died.

Seromba is the first priest convicted by the ICTR, which sits in Arusha in neighboring Tanzania. Last month, a Rwandan military court convicted another Catholic priest, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, to life in prison. Munyeshyaka has lived in exile in France since 1995. Before the genocide some 60% of Rwandans were Catholic, but many have since converted to Islam.

A Milan court will hear arguments on January 9 on whether to try CIA and Italian agents on charges of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured, a court source said on Monday.

Prosecutors want to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, and six Italians, including the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency.

Prosecutors believe the CIA agents, with help from SISMI, grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and flew him out of Italy from a U.S. airbase.

Nasr, an Egyptian also known as Abu Omar, says he was tortured by Egyptian agents under questioning there with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

Italian Judge Caterina Interlandi must decide if there is enough evidence for a trial.

If so, it would be the first criminal trial in the world over so-called "renditions", one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terror.

Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do.

Italy's prime minister at the time, Silvio Berlusconi, has publicly denied knowledge of any kidnapping plot.

A high-ranking SISMI suspect says the CIA wanted the agency to help it abduct the imam but that he declined.

One suspect, an Italian police officer, has admitted he stopped Nasr and helped CIA agents grab him.

But he says the CIA told him the goal was to recruit -- not abduct -- the Muslim cleric. He also says he was told the U.S. and Italian governments sanctioned the operation.

Beyond the 32 suspects accused of kidnapping the imam, another three suspects, all Italians, also face lesser charges of aiding and abetting.

South Korean authorities expressed support Monday, for the scheduled resumption of talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

South Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman Choo Kyu-ho said Seoul welcomes the news that the six-party talks will resume next Monday, December 18, in Beijing.

China, Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea have tried for three years to convince the North through diplomacy to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for political and financial benefits.

Soon after it signed a pledge in September last year, agreeing in principle to give up its nuclear weapons, North Korea boycotted further talks in protest at U.S. financial measures targeting North Korean business interests.

The United States says those measures, which had the effect of restricting North Korea's access to the international banking system, were law enforcement measures needed to protect U.S. interests from North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting.

North Korea has said resolving the financial issue must be one of the goals of the six-party talks.

Ryoo Kihl-Jae, dean of Kyungnam University's School of North Korean Studies in South Korea, says the North's test of a nuclear device in October may have given China and the United States fresh impetus to cooperate on convincing the North to negotiate.

He says China is likely to pressure the North not to miss this opportunity to get what it wants from the United States.

On Monday, North Korea repeated a demand it has made before, that Japan be left out of the six-party talks. An editorial in Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper labelled Japan as "a state of the United States" which would only distract the talks with side issues.

Japan, which maintains a hard line on the North Korean nuclear issue, demands that Pyongyang do more to address its abductions of Japanese nationals in the late 1970's and early 1980's.