Civil servant wins Hong Kong leadership race

Veteran civil servant Donald Tsang effectively won Hong Kong's leadership race yesterday, filing papers that showed he had the solid backing of an election committee that picks the Chinese territory's leaders.

Tsang trounced his two rivals by collecting 710 of the nominations from the election panel of about 800 people.

The other candidates - both lawmakers - conceded weeks ago that they were unable to win the minimum 100 nominations they needed to be placed on the July 10 ballot.