Osama Bin Laden death

US President Barack Obama has hailed the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden as a "good day for America," saying the world is now a safer and a better place.

Bin Laden was killed in a raid by US special forces on a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.

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 topped the US "most wanted" list.

But his details on the list have now been updated with a simple banner indicating his current status: "Deceased".

DNA tests carried out after the operation indicated with "99.9%" certainty that the man shot dead was Osama Bin Laden, US officials said.

He was buried at sea after a Muslim funeral on board an aircraft carrier in the north Arabian Sea, Pentagon officials said.

President Obama has praised the "heroes" who carried out the operations and in a speech to congressional leaders, called for them to show "the same sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11".

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.

CIA director Leon Panetta said al-Qaeda would "almost certainly" try to avenge the death of Bin Laden.

The US president's chief counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan, said that though weakened, al-Qaeda, remained a danger.

"It may be a mortally wounded tiger but it still has some life in it," he said.

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Pakistan defends Bin Laden role

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has denied that the killing of Osama Bin Laden in his country is a sign of its failure to tackle terrorism.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Mr Zardari said his country was "perhaps the world's greatest victim of terrorism".

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 more than a decade.

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.
'Enormous price'

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.

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