"We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden's al Qaeda and Hamas, Haniyeh said: "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."

Bin Laden was shot dead by US forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad - Pakistan was not involved in the raid. US officials said Bin Laden must have had a support system in Pakistan. Bin Laden, 54, was the founder and leader of al-Qaeda. He is believed to have ordered the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, as well as a number of other deadly bombings. He was America's most wanted man but had eluded them for decades.

But US officials say they are "99.9%" sure that the man they shot and killed in a raid on a secure compound in Abbottabad and later buried at sea was Bin Laden. They said a video had been made of Bin Laden's burial but have not said yet whether it, or any photographs of Bin Laden's body, will be released. The compound in Abbottabad is just a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy - the country's equivalent of West Point or Sandhurst

White House counter-terrorism chief John Brennan said it was "inconceivable that Bin Laden did not have a support system" in Pakistan. But in his opinion piece, Mr Zardari said Pakistan had "never been and never will be the hotbed of fanaticism that is often described by the media. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn't reflect fact," he said.

After Mr Obama announced the news on Sunday night, there were jubilant scenes in Washington, New York and around the US. But the US said the threat of terror attacks was not over, warning Americans of the possibility of al-Qaeda reprisal attacks. Security has been increased at embassies and airports, while the US embassy in the Pakistani city of Karachi and consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi have been closed for routine business until further notice.

Across Alabama, the storm destroyed 200 chicken houses and significantly damaged as many as 450 others. Alabama's poultry industry is the third-largest in the US, producing about one billion meat chickens (called broilers) every year, and officials estimate it could be six months to a year before the industry resumes full production.

In general, the farmers do not own the chickens but raise them under contract with national sellers. Although most Alabama farmers will not suffer financially from the loss of the livestock, they will have to rebuild the chicken houses and feed pens and replace destroyed heavy kit.

Insurance companies are expected to cover much of the losses. Meanwhile, a damaged hatchery will need to be repaired and a processing plant and feed mill will have to be brought back online. It takes 20-25 weeks for new breeder hens to mature, and three weeks for eggs to hatch.

The tornadoes and the storm system that spawned them killed at least 350 people in Alabama and six other states. It was the deadliest outbreak since 1936. The review by US meteorologists came as the southern US states of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky continued the huge task of digging out from the destruction.

In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a university town that was the worst-hit single location, officials estimated debris removal alone would cost $70 million (42 million pounds) to $100 million (60 million pounds). The storm tore down century-old trees, flattened farm buildings and downed power lines, leaving as many as one million people without electricity in Alabama alone. On Monday, more than 400,000 people still had no power in that state, emergency officials said.

The most destructive tornado struck Tuscaloosa, killing at least 65 people between there and the city of Birmingham, the National Weather Service said in a statement. That was the deadliest single tornado since 1955, when a twister in Kansas killed 80. Storm scientists say that tornado had a maximum width of 1.5 miles (2.4km) and a track 80 miles long.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Guantanamo Bay interrogators the terror group would detonate the nuclear device if the al-Qaeda chief was captured or killed, according to the classified files released by the WikiLeaks website. Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been held at Guantanamo since 2006 and is to be tried in a military court at the US naval base on Cuba over the attacks.

His nuclear threat was revealed in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, one of several media outlets which have published the classified assessments of detainees at Guantanamo. The German weekly Der Spiegel, also citing WikiLeaks, said that Sheikh Mohammed had told his interrogators he had set up two cells for the purpose of attacking Heathrow in 2002. The aim was to seize control of an airliner shortly after take-off from Heathrow, one of the world's busiest airports, turn it around and crash it into one of the four terminals.

Sheikh Mohammed said one cell had been formed with the aim of taking flying lessons in Kenya, while the other had been tasked with recruiting participants. He said the plot had been discussed several times at the highest level of al-Qaeda. One component had involved the infiltration of ground staff at the airport, according to Der Spiegel. Another attack given the green light in late 2001 would have targeted "the tallest buildings in California" with hijacked airliners, Der Spiegel reported.

The figures, released over the weekend by the Commodity Futures Trading Company (CFTC), indicate that hedge funds have made hundreds of millions of dollars from the recent collapse in the value of the greenback. The dollar hit a three-year low against a basket of currencies on Friday, and has fallen for the last five months straight. It fell 3.8 per cent against the basket in April, and is down 7.5 per cent down so far this year.

The data shows that investors are pulling out of the dollar in favour of almost every other currency except the Japanese yen. Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital, said: "It's an ongoing build of short-dollar positions overall. Generally, sentiment remains very negative against the dollar."

Angry mobs trashed the embassies of Britain and Italy, a US consular department and a United Nations office, Libyan deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim acknowledged. He said that the damage would be looked into by the Libyan government and repaired. Mr Hague said that the Libyan government had "breached its international responsibilities and obligations" by failing to protect the missions.

"I take the failure to protect such premises very seriously indeed," he said. "As a result, I have taken the decision to expel the Libyan ambassador." Britain has had no diplomatic presence in Tripoli since closing its embassy earlier this year. The UN reacted to the attacks by pulling its international staff out of Tripoli.

"Instead of trying and failing to open an unworkable front against Iran, these dictators should relinquish power, end their savage crimes and let the people determine their own future," Firouzabadi said. He also denounced "plots" by the Gulf Arab petro-monarchies to "carve out an identity for themselves by rejecting the identity of others," referring to Iran. "The Persian Gulf has always, is and shall always belong to Iran," the general said.

Firouzabadi, speaking on the annual "National Day of the Persian Gulf", also condemned the regional Arab monarchies for refusing to call the waterway between Iran and its Arab neighbours by its "historical name. With the arrival of the British and later the Americans in the region, plots were hatched to try and change the name with fake identities... to distort the history and identity of the Persian Gulf," Firouzabadi said.

Relations between Iran and its Gulf Arab neighbours have deteriorated sharply, with the latter accusing Tehran of seeking to destabilise Arab regimes in favour of popular unrest that has erupted in many Arab countries. Shiite-dominant Iran has strongly criticised Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Sunni-ruled Bahrain aimed to help crack down on a Shiite-led uprising there.

Bin Laden was accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001. He was top of the US "most wanted" list. Mr Obama said it was "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda". The US has put its embassies around the world on alert, warning Americans of the possibility of al-Qaeda reprisal attacks for Bin Laden's killing.

Crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC, chanting "USA, USA" after the news emerged.

Bin Laden approved the 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, saying later that the results had exceeded his expectations. He evaded the forces of the US and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $25 million bounty on his head. Mr Obama said he had been briefed last August on a possible lead to Bin Laden's whereabouts.

On Sunday a team of US forces undertook the operation in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad. After a "firefight" Bin Laden was killed and his body taken by US forces, the president said. Mr Obama said "no Americans were harmed". Giving more details of the operation, a senior US official said a small US team had conducted the operation in about 40 minutes.

Asked how bin Laden's body will be treated, a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call that "we are ensuring that is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition." The official, who refused to be identified, said the matter is "something that we take very seriously, and so, therefore, this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

Peter Bergen, a national security analyst, predicted on CNN that bin Laden's face will be shown because of visual evidence that must be displayed. He also noted that Islamic law calls for bodies to be buried within 24 hours of death. "In Islam, the body has to be buried in 24 hours," Bergen said. "That will happen."

Announcing the killing of bin Laden, Obama said in a TV statement that American forces fired at him after he authorized the attack. "After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body," Obama said. "No Americans were harmed in the attack," Obama said, also noting that "they took care to avoid civilian casualties."

He also took time in his statement to state that "our war is not against Islam."

Bin Laden's body is being handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition, one senior administration official said. In his address, the president invoked the memory and imagery of the 9/11 attacks, and the "gaping hole in our hearts" that led to the international manhunt for bin Laden nearly a decade ago.

The president said the killing of bin Laden would resonate around the world with people who oppose terrorism, and he stressed that the US did not target bin Laden because of his faith. "The US is not at war with Islam," Obama said, echoing a phrase also used by his predecessor President George W Bush. "Bin laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims."

The president said that the development demonstrates America's resolve to uphold justice and would be particularly meaningful for families of the victims. "We will be relentless in our defense of our citizens and our friends and allies," Obama said. "And on nights like this one, we can say to families who lost loved ones to al Qaeda's terror: justice has been done."

"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, US citizens in areas where events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," the State Department said in a statement.

The vandalized embassies were empty and nobody was reported injured, but the attacks heightened tensions between the Libyan regime and Western powers, prompting the United Nations to pull its international staff out of the capital. The bombing did not slow the attacks by Gaddafi's forces on rebel strongholds in the western part of Libya that has remained largely under the control of the regime. The rebel port of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gaddafi's troops for two months, came under heavy shelling Sunday and at least 12 people were killed, a medic said.

Gaddafi has repeatedly called for a cease-fire, most recently on Saturday, but has not halted his assault on Misrata, a city of 300,000 where hundreds have been killed since the rebellion against Libya's ruler erupted in mid-February. The rebels, who control most of eastern Libya, have been unable to gain an advantage on the battlefield despite weeks of NATO airstrikes. Alliance officials and allied leaders emphatically denied they were hunting Gaddafi to break the stalemate between the better trained government forces and the lightly armed rebels.

That is the highest monthly toll since November 2009, when 11 soldiers also died, starkly highlighting the risks American soldiers still face even after combat operations were officially declared over last summer. Of the 11 to have died in April, six died in what were described as "non-hostile" incidents. Two were killed as a result of a roadside bomb in Numaniyah, Wasit province, while two others died in separate mortar attacks in Baghdad and Babil provinces.

Around 45,000 US soldiers still remain stationed in Iraq, and while they are primarily charged with training and equipping their local counterparts, they can return fire in self-defence and still take part in joint counter-terror operations with Iraqi forces. Friday's death also brings to 4,452 the number of American troops to have died in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, according to the AFP tally.

Bernanke also pledged to do whatever is required to keep America's economic recovery on track - confirming that the second programme of "quantitative easing", or QE2, would be completed. These two related announcements - the "reprieve" and the "sugar rush" - sent Wall Street into renewed spasms of synthetic joy. So the Fed will keep on "printing" virtual money - at least for now. By the end of June, it will have purchased $600 billion (363 billion pounds) of longer-term Treasuries, with the US government effectively buying its own debt from funds created ex nihilo. That's on top of the original $1,750 billion (1,048 billion pounds) QE scheme, launched in late 2008.

America's base money supply - the bedrock of the world's reserve currency - has doubled in little more than two years. Despite consternation among many US voters, and dismay - rapidly turning to anger - across the world, most of America's political elite refuse even to debate QE. Such is the state of democracy in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". And America is not alone.

Bernanke's utterances caused gold to jump another 2 per cent. Silver - known as "poor man's gold", another "inflation hedge" - spiked 6.5 per cent. But the real story was the plunging dollar. Against a basket of five major global currencies, the US currency fell sharply and is now at its weakest since July 2008. The Fed's "real broad dollar index", a 26-currency composite and adjusted for inflation, is testing levels not seen since 1979.

Reading between the lines of Bernanke's statement, I don't think that last week's Fed missive, as most concluded, confirmed the end of QE2. In my view - and I write this with a sense of trepidation - the Fed's inaugural "meet the press" moment was in fact preparing the ground for the start of QE3.