Tunisian voters on Saturday weighed their choices on the eve of the Arab Spring's historic first elections nine months after the surprise toppling of strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali that started it all.

Campaigning ended at midnight for the vote the previously banned Islamist al-Nahda party is tipped to win, with the ISIE independent polling commission reminding candidates and journalists that Saturday would be an "election silence day".

Faced with suspicions of an execution by a lynch mob, the order that "nobody here killed Gadhafi" has gone around to the fighters who captured alive the ex-strongman of Libya.

The fighters at a farm on the outskirts of the city of Misrata that serves as their al-Ghiran brigade base proudly exhibit the ousted leader's black boots, gold-plated gun and beige scarf.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the "killings and massacre" in key ally Syria, which has carried out a bloody crackdown on seven months of protests, in an interview with CNN.

"We condemn killings and massacre in Syria, whether it is security forces being killed or people and the opposition," Ahmadinejad said, according to excerpts of the interview reported in Farsi by the website of Iran's state broadcaster on Saturday.

Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, whose death was announced on Saturday, was the oil kingpin's defense chief for nearly half a century but was also renowned for his extravagant living and largesse.

A half-brother of King Abdullah, he served as deputy prime minister, and defense and aviation minister from 1962, and was famed among Saudis for his regular, well-publicized acts of largesse, but also for reports that he had benefited massively from government arms purchases.

Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz has died, a palace announcement on state television said on Saturday, throwing his brother Prince Nayef into line to succeed King Abdullah as leader of the key oil producer.

The crown prince, aged around 86, who had served as the kingdom's defense chief for nearly five decades, had been in the United States since mid-June for medical treatment. He was operated on in July but no information had been released on his health since then.

NATO plans to end its seven-month air and sea mission in Libya on October 31, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Friday.

"Our operations are close to completion," Rasmussen said after lengthy talks with ambassadors from the 28-member alliance. There is "a preliminary agreement on the 31st of October."

The U.N. Security Council on Friday passed a resolution calling on Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh to immediately sign a deal under which he would quit.

The resolution, unanimously agreed by the 15 members, "strongly condemns" deadly government attacks on demonstrators and backs a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) peace plan under which Saleh would end his 33 years in power.

The United States on Friday urged Libyan's interim leaders to provide "a transparent account" of the death of strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

The National Transitional Council "has already been working to determine the precise cause and circumstances of Gadhafi’s death and we obviously urge them to do so in an open and transparent manner as we move forward," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Amnesty International on Friday urged the new Libyan authorities to carry out a "full, independent and impartial investigation" into how Moammar Gadhafi died.

The group said that if he was deliberately killed in captivity it would constitute a war crime.

Russia on Friday said a convoy carrying Moammar Gadhafi posed no danger to civilians when attacked by NATO jets and questioned other circumstances of the Libyan strongman's violent death.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov added sternly that Western leaders were premature in celebrating the veteran dictator's death because its circumstances breached basic international law.