Iraq Hangings 'Obscene', Says United Nations

The United Nations has condemned the "obscene" execution of 42 people in Iraq this week, saying the country's justice system is too flawed to use the death penalty.

Iraq's justice ministry claimed those hanged on Wednesday and Thursday had been convicted of terrorism charges.

But Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesman, said the country was not in a position to carry out executions.

"The justice system in Iraq is too seriously flawed to warrant even a limited application of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time," said Mr Colville.

"Large-scale executions of the sort that have been carried out on a number of occasions over the past two years in Iraq are not only obscene and inhuman, they are most probably in contravention of international law."

Iraq also executed 23 people during two days in September, 20 of them convicted on "terrorism" charges, with Justice Minister Hassan al Shammari claiming their actions had led to civilian deaths.

The UN spokesman did not go into specific cases but said concerns remained over the use of torture to extract confessions, as well as flawed court hearings.

It now wants Iraq to stop the executions and commute the sentences of the hundreds of other people believed to be on death row.

The number of people being executed in Iraq has risen from 18 in 2010 to 67 in 2011, 123 in 2012 and 140 so far this year, Mr Colville said.

At least 5,740 civilians have been killed in violence in Iraq from January to September this year, according to UN figures.

It represents the worst violence in the country since 2008, when the country was emerging from civil war.

Sectarian attacks and suicide bombings by al Qaeda Sunni Islamists have become a regular occurrence.

In one attack last week, bombers drove a truck packed with explosive into a school playground, killing 12 students and their headmaster.

The UN human rights spokesman added: "In our view, the claim that using the death penalty can help deter terrorism is clearly exposed as a fallacy, given the soaring casualty rate in Iraq, which has occurred over roughly the same period as the dramatic and shocking increase in the use of the death penalty."

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Lampedusa: 27 Migrants Dead In Latest Sinking

At least 27 people are said to have died and 221 people saved after a migrant boat capsized in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat revealed the number of casualties, three of them children, while the Italian navy said it had rescued 221 from the water during a joint Italian-Maltese operation.

Coastguard spokesman Marco Di Milla said they received a satellite phone call from the boat that was in distress and were able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates.

The Italian navy and Maltese armed forces rescued survivors

A Maltese aircraft was sent up and reported that the boat had capsized and that "numerous" people were in the water.

The aircraft dropped a life raft, and a patrol boat soon arrived at the scene, according to a statement from the Maltese armed forces.

Helicopters airlifted the injured to Lampedusa Hospital where a large medical team treated them as soon as they arrived.

Hospital director Pietro Bertolo told journalists: "They are wet and very scared, but they are doing well."

Around 221 people were pulled from the water

He said that among the migrants was a "little boy, around two years, who is very beautiful" with his "young" mother.

"They are soaking wet, we are changing them ... the father is still at the scene of the accident and is on a rescue boat," he added.

The incident comes just over a week after a boat carrying African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Lampedusa, killing up to 350 people.

It is the second migrant vessel to sink off Lampedusa in just over a week

The deaths have prompted renewed calls for the European Union to do more to better patrol the southern Mediterranean and prevent such tragedies - and for countries like Libya to crack down on smuggling operations.

"We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery," Mr Muscat told a news conference in Valletta, the Maltese capital.

Residents of the remote southern Italian island have long complained that they have been left alone to deal with the thousands of migrants who come ashore each year from Africa and the Middle East.

Up to 350 people died after another boat caught fire and sank last week

Some 30,000 migrants have flocked to Italy so far this year. An estimated 17,000 to 20,000 have died while crossing the Mediterranean during the past 20 years on overcrowded fishing boats or rubber dinghies, seeking a better life in Europe.

Eritrea, Somalia and Syria are the main countries of origin and the majority of arrivals are on Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost point which is closer to north Africa than to the Italian mainland.

During a visit to Lampedusa this week, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso promised Italy some 30 million euros (£25.5m) in EU funds to better care for newly arrived migrants.

Italian officials pledged to put the issue on the agenda of an upcoming EU summit and on the EU agenda next year, when Italy and Greece hold the EU presidencies.

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Cyclone Phailin: Thousands Flee In East India

More than 250,000 villagers have fled their homes as a huge cyclone gathers strength and heads towards India's east coast.

Cyclone Phailin - which is already so large it has nearly filled the Bay of Bengal - is expected to be the fiercest storm to hit India since a devastating cyclone killed 10,000 people 14 years ago.

Large waves have already been pounding beaches in the state of Andhra Pradesh before the storm is due to hit.

Villagers along the coast were evacuated to schools in the north of the state and in neighbouring Odisha, while panic buying drove up food prices.

Authorities have been evacuating villagers along the coast to government-run shelters and schools in three districts of Andhra Pradesh state and five districts of Orissa state.

People in the coastal village of Podampata watch as waves gather force

But many villagers said they had not been told to evacuate, and others were refusing to leave their homes.

"Of course I'm scared, but where will I move with my family?" said Kuramayya, 38, a fisherman from the village of Bandharuvanipeta, while 12ft waves crashed behind him. "We can't leave our boats behind."

Satellite images showed Phailin some 310 miles (500km) off the coast and likely to make landfall tonight (3pm-6pm UK time), with widespread flooding expected.

Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005.

The Indian Meteorological Department said Phailin would hit between Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and the port of Paradip in Odisha state and predicted storm surges 10ft above normal tides.

The storm is due to hit Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Pic: Tropical Storm Risk

It described it as a "very severe cyclonic storm" with winds of 130-135 mph but resisted upgrading it to a stronger "super cyclone".

However, London-based storm tracking experts Tropical Storm Risk said Phailin was a super cyclone and placed it in the most powerful Category 5 of storms.

That was the same strength of storm that battered Odisha in 1999, killing thousands.

"Phailin will be no less than the 1999 super cyclone," said Odisha state's Special Relief Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Mohapatra.

He said half a million people were expected to move to shelters in the state.

Indian authorities warned of extensive damage to crops and buildings, and disruption to power, water and rail services.

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Foxconn Admits Student Intern Labour Breach

An Asian company that assembles products for Apple and Sony has admitted breaching labour laws with its interns.

Taiwan's Foxconn revealed that students worked night shifts and overtime in violation of company policy in its Chinese facility.

"In the case of recent allegations regarding the internship programme at our Yantai campus, we have conducted an internal investigation," the company said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

"And have determined that there have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced."

The statement came after Chinese media reported that an information engineering university in the city of Xian allegedly forced students to join the Foxconn internship programme in Shandong province in order to graduate.

The Oriental Morning Post quoted some students as saying they were assigned to assembly lines to make Sony's PlayStation games consoles instead of doing any work relating to their course and were sometimes forced to work 11 hours a day.

When some students wanted to drop out, they were told they would lose their internship credits and would be unable to get their diplomas, the report said.

Foxconn said it had taken immediate action "to bring that campus into full compliance with our code and policies".

The company said it would reinforce its policy of no overtime and no night shifts for student interns, and would remind interns of their right to end their participation in the programme at any time.

Foxconn, the trade name for Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, is the world's largest contract electronics maker.

It assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia, among others, in huge plants in China where it employs more than one million workers.

The company has come under the spotlight in recent years after suicides and unrest among workers at its Chinese plants.

In 2010, at least 13 Foxconn employees in China died in apparent suicides, which activists blamed on tough working conditions, prompting calls for better treatment of staff.

Although Foxconn denied the accusations, it raised wages by nearly 70% at its China plants in 2010.

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'White Widow' Lewthwaite 'Key' In Al Shabaab

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, In Kenya

Sky News has obtained a Kenyan intelligence report which for the first time shows the reach of the al Shabaab terror network - which carried out the Nairobi shopping mall attack - and the extent of British involvement within the group.

It suggests that Samantha Lewthwaite - the British woman known as the 'White Widow' because she was married to one of the 7/7 London bombers - is an important figure in the terror outfit, plotting multiple bomb attacks across Kenya.

Sky has also been given access to a personal diary of hers which gives a fascinating insight into her mind, where she talks about her ambitions for her children and her love for her husband.

The intelligence report, which is 35 pages long, gives a detailed breakdown of how the network is operating throughout Africa with recruits and cells working in a huge range of countries including Somalia, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia, Tanzania, Mali and South Africa as well as further afield in Yemen and Pakistan.

The report says Lewthwaite is a 'logistician' in a six-person terror cell

But what seems clear is that the group's stronghold and focus is in Kenya with major operational bases in the capital Nairobi and Mombasa.

The report is highly damaging for the Kenyan authorities as it also shows there were clear warnings up to eight months ago that a "Mumbai-style attack" was being planned in Nairobi on the Westgate shopping mall.

It goes on to identify 29-year-old Lewthwaite as a "logistician" within a six-person terror cell which the Kenyans believe was co-ordinated by Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir, whose alias is Ikrima.

Ikrima is a Kenyan who the authorities believe has been elevated to al Shabaab management.

He was the target of the US Navy Seals' mission last weekend which set out to "capture or kill" him from the Somalian port town of Barawe.

She is implicated in the Nairobi shopping centre attack in September

The mission was aborted when the Seals encountered tougher resistance than expected when they landed.

The other members of the terror cell Ikrima was co-ordinating include Fahmi Jamal Salim, who is apparently the cell leader and who the intelligence agencies believe is now married to Lewthwaite.

Other members are said to be Jermaine Grant, who is currently on trial in Mombasa on terror charges which he denies.

The report details how the group was plotting multiple attacks targeting the Kenyan parliament buildings, UN offices in Nairobi, restaurants and a string of assassinations focusing on senior politicians within Kenya.

Londoner Jermaine Grant is also believed to be part of the same group

Kenyan intelligence believes Lewthwaite was living in an exclusive villa in the Shanzu area of Mombasa when the attacks were being planned.

A police raid on a nearby apartment rented by Grant - which led to his arrest - then prompted a subsequent raid on the upmarket villa where Lewthwaite was living with her children.

But the mother-of-four was not there. The police say they found a stash of ammunition there as well as a laptop and excerpts of a diary or journal which Lewthwaite had begun writing.

Lewthwaite's husband Jermaine Lindsay (L) on a dry run for the 7/7 attacks

The journal appears to be the start of a book which Lewthwaite was working on entitled I Want To Be A Mujahid (Islamic military fighter).

It outlines questions she was going to pose to interviewees as well as gives an insight into her love for her husband and reveals a little about how she is bringing up her children.

She writes with pride about how two of her children want to emulate their father - Jermaine Lindsay, who was one of the London 7/7 bombers in the Tube and bus attacks in 2005 which killed more than 50 people.

She recounts how her husband had asked her children what they wanted to be when they got older.

Lewthwaite writes: "Both had many answers but both agreed to one of wanting to be a mujahid."

Extracts from Lewthwaite's diary recovered by police

She goes on to express her commitment and desire to be a good Muslim and how blessed she believes she is to have been married to a shaheed (martyr) in reference to her suicide-bomber partner.

We managed to persuade one of Kenya's most controversial religious scholars to sit down with us and talk about his views - which have led to him being accused by the UN of recruiting al Shabaab fighters and raising funds for the outfit.

Sheikh Abubakar Shariff, who is also known as Makaburi, told us the accusations against him were all "b*******".

Interpol recently issued a 'Red Notice' for Lewthwaite's arrest

He accused the Kenyan government of waging a religious war and allowing the persecution of Muslims who he believes are all being targeted and labelled as terrorists in the wake of the Westgate mall attack.

"Because of the failings of our Government and our military and police in stopping the attack, we, as Muslims, are all being targeted now," he told me.

Makaburi who is also accused by the Kenyan authorities of inciting violence and of encouraging young men to take up jihad (or Holy war) in Somalia, denied he was a member of al Shabaab but said: "I am a Muslim. I speak truthfully. I might have association with al Shabaab without me knowing they are from al Shabaab.

"I cannot say no, I don't know al Shabaab. Maybe one of my friends is a member of al Shabaab without me knowing. But do I have, what you call it, ties with al Shabaab? No, I don't."

He went on to say under his interpretation of the Koran, the Westgate attack was justified because of all the wrongs being meted out to Muslims by the West, the Kenyan Defence Force (who are fighting al Shabaab in Somalia), Ethiopians and other military in "Somalia, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and all over the world every day".

There is little chance the woman being hunted by Interpol is still in Mombasa, but what the intelligence report indicates is it is now a major hub as well as gateway to terrorism for those bent on violence.

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Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Weapons Watchdog

A global chemical weapons watchdog based in the Hague has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has handed the award to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons."

The OPCW was founded in 1997 to implement the Chemical Weapons Convention signed on January 13, 1993.

Its work is currently in the spotlight, as it is supervising the dismantling of Syria's chemical arsenal and facilities under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.

A team of around 30 OPCW arms experts and UN logistics and security personnel are on the ground in Syria and have started to destroy weapons production facilities.

Footage of their work has been shown on Syrian television.

Inspectors at a chemical weapons facility in Syria

The OPCW said on Tuesday it was sending a second wave of inspectors to bolster the disarmament mission in the war-ravaged nation.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban, was among those tipped to lift the peace prize.

Had the 16-year-old won, she would have become the youngest-ever Nobel laureate.

On Thursday she was named as the winner of the EU's Sakharov prize, which is considered Europe's top human rights accolade.

Previous Nobel peace prize laureates include Nelson Mandela, US President Barack Obama, the Dalai Lama and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In 2012 the prize was awarded to the European Union in recognition of its contribution to peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

More follows...

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US Suspends Millions In Aid To Egypt Military

The United States is suspending the handover of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of aid and support to Egypt's military.

The US government said it was "recalibrating" its $1.3bn (£0.8bn) annual aid to Egypt, putting on hold the delivery of large military systems and withholding some of its cash assistance.

"Large-scale military systems and cash assistance to the government," would be frozen, a spokesman said, "pending credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government through free and fair elections."

In recent weeks the country has been hit by intensifying violence, which follows the toppling of elected president Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds have been killed during demonstrations, the vast majority of whom were supporters of Morsi.

The move by the US raises expectations that the Obama administration will describe Morsi's ousting as a coup. 

Under US law it is illegal to fund a regime that has taken power as a result of a military coup.

Many have claimed the overthrow of Morsi was a coup because it appeared to have taken place with the support of Egypt's powerful military.

It also involved the removal of a democratically elected leader, and his replacement with a non-elected ruler whose appointment was announced by the military.

Egypt's military has been funded with aid since the Camp David Accord in 1978, which was seen as a crucial move in the promotion of peace in the Middle East.

The amount it receives is second only to the amount received by Israel, which was also a signatory to the accord.

Egypt uses much of its aid to order US-made defence equipment such as Apache helicopters and F-16 warplanes.

The spokesman did not say exactly how much of the aid would be suspended, but among the shipments delayed would be one for a number of MA-1 Abrams tanks and Apache attack helicopters placed on order four years ago.

Egypt will still receive crucial spare parts for certain military equipment and training for the country's armed forces will continue, officials said.

The US will also continue to provide aid that helps "secure Egypt's borders" and bolsters "counterterrorism" and "security in the Sinai."

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Lynne Spalding Found Dead In Hospital Stairwell

A British patient who disappeared from her room at San Francisco's main public hospital more than two weeks ago has been found dead in a stairwell at the building.

Lynne Spalding, 57, was admitted to San Francisco General Hospital for a urinary tract infection on September 19.

The mother-of-two was reported missing from her room there two days later.

A flyer used in the search for Ms Spalding. Pic: Find Lynne

Ms Spalding's relatives and friends spent days scouring the streets of San Francisco with flyers and set up a Facebook page to help find her.

But a member of the hospital's engineering staff found Ms Spalding's body on Tuesday - 17 days after she vanished - while conducting a routine check.

Authorities are continuing to investigate how the marketing and tourism executive, who was originally from Peterlee, County Durham, got there and what caused her death.

The hospital's chief medical officer Todd May said: "What happened at our hospital is horrible.

"We are here to take care of patients, to heal them, to keep them safe. This has shaken us to our core. Our staff is devastated."

Nurses were checking on her every 15 minutes, and she disappeared in the brief time between those visits, Mr May said.

The last time she was seen - about 10.15am on September 21 - she was in a "fair condition", the hospital said.

But friends said Ms Spalding was very thin, frail and on medication that could have made her confused when she disappeared.

Police inspect an outside stairwell at the hospital

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department provides security at the hospital.

Assistant Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said it was not yet known how long Ms Spalding had been in the exterior stairwell.

The rarely used stairwell is a fire exit that has an alarm on it, is locked from the outside and exits onto hospital grounds.

"All of us are committed to learning what happened and ensuring it never happens again," Mr Miyamoto said.

David Perry, who is acting as a spokesman for Ms Spalding's family, has told Sky News that relatives and friends are "horrified, dismayed and frustrated".

"For 17 days Lynne's body was there unfound in the very hospital where she'd gone for treatment," he said.

Mr Perry said officials have a lot of explaining to do as to why Ms Spalding "died alone, in the stairwell, at one of the finest medical institutions" in the US.

"There are a number of questions for San Francisco General Hospital and the San Francisco Sheriff's Department," he told Sky News.

About 100,000 patients pass through the hospital every year

"The San Francisco Sheriff's Department oversees searches and security at the hospital, and we were assured that a search had been done.

"If they searched for her 17 days ago, it wasn't a very good search because her dead body was discovered there."

But Mr Perry praised the work carried out by the San Francisco Police Department, which was responsible for searching outside the hospital.

Ms Spalding had lived in the city for more than two decades and had two grown-up children, a 19-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter, who both live in the US.

Mr Perry said Ms Spalding's children are "stunned".

He added: "She had dozens of friends. She was well known and well liked. She was a consummate professional."

The Sheriff's Department is conducting an internal investigation of its security measures at the hospital.

The Foreign Office said it was providing consular assistance to Ms Spalding's family.

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Libya PM Ali Zeidan Kidnapped At Gunpoint

Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan is reportedly in "good health and being treated well" after he was kidnapped by gunmen at a luxury Tripoli hotel where he lives.

Mr Zeidan is being held at the interior ministry's anti-crime department, said an official there, after being seized by up to 150 armed men who arrived at the Corinthia Hotel in pick-up trucks.

Witnesses said a large group of them entered the building, some stayed in reception while others headed to the 21st floor where Mr Zeidan was staying.

The gunmen scuffled with the prime minister's guards before they seized him and led him out at around 5.15am (local time), said the witnesses, adding he offered no resistance while he was being led away.

Two of his guards were also taken. The security pair were beaten up but later released, another official said.

The government had said the PM was taken to an unknown location after being kidnapped by former rebels.

Mr Zeidan's abduction reflected the weakness of the government, which is virtually held hostage by powerful militias, many of which are made up of Islamic militants.

A group of ex-rebels said it had 'arrested' Mr Zeidan after US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed Libya's role in the US capture of alleged al Qaeda leader Abu Anas al Libi.

Mr Zeidan pictured with Prime Minister David Cameron

A spokesman for the group, known as the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, said: "His arrest comes after ... (Kerry) said the Libyan government was aware of the operation."

The militia group, which had been hired by the government to provide security in the city, said it had seized Mr Zeidan "on the prosecutor's orders".

The premier "was arrested under the Libyan penal code... on the instructions of the public prosecutor", it said, adding he was detained for "crimes and offences prejudicial to the state" and its security.

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall said: "If this claim is true, it would appear that the prime minister of Libya has been detained by a faction that answers nominally to part of his own government."

Foreign Secretary William Hague said he condemned the abduction of the PM and called for his immediate release.

The former rebel group appeared to post a warning of its intentions on Facebook on Monday.

It said it "holds everyone who is involved in co-operating with foreign intelligence" responsible for the "kidnap" of al Libi and "will pursue them and bring them to justice".

Two years after a revolution toppled Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the fragile central government has been struggling to contain tribal militias and groups of former rebels who spearheaded the uprising.

Al Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al Libi was seized by the US last Saturday

Marshall said: "The prime minister of Libya's jurisdiction runs about to the end of his hotel corridor and then stops because there is no real government, certainly in the sense that we understand it.

"It is a lawless place that is falling apart into different factions, tribes, regions, areas and groups. The fact this man has been detained does not alter the trajectory of Libya's spiral into chaos.

"What is very important about the fact that the PM can be taken from his hotel by armed men is symbolic of how bad things have got."

There has been anger among militant groups over the US special forces operation on Saturday that seized al Libi, whose family met Mr Zeidan hours before the PM's abduction.

Several groups accused the government of colluding in or allowing the weekend raid, though the government denied having any prior knowledge of the operation.

Al Libi is suspected of being involved in the twin bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998.

At the weekend, he was taken off the street in Tripoli and whisked away to a US warship in the Mediterranean.

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Fed Reserve: Yellen Secures Obama Nomination

The male domination of central banking is set to be blown away as a woman is nominated for the most powerful monetary policy position in the world.

President Barack Obama will formally nominate Federal Reserve vice chair Janet Yellen to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman of the US central bank on Wednesday.

It would make Ms Yellen not only the first woman to head the Fed, but a central bank anywhere in the world.

Mr Bernanke will serve until his term ends on January 31, completing a remarkable eight-year tenure in which he helped pull the US economy out of the worst financial crisis and recession since the 1930s.

Under Mr Bernanke's leadership, the Fed created extraordinary programmes after the financial crisis of 2008 that are credited with helping save the US banking system.

Larry Summers quit the Fed Chair race

The Fed lent money to banks after credit markets froze, cut its key short-term interest rate to near zero and bought trillions in bonds to reduce long-term borrowing rates.

Ms Yellen, 67, emerged as the leading candidate after Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary who Mr Obama was thought to favour, withdrew from consideration last month in the face of rising opposition.

A close ally of the current chairman, Ms Yellen is seen as a so-called dove as she has been a key architect of the Fed's efforts to keep interest rates near record lows.

The White House announcement comes amid a confrontation between Mr Obama and congressional Republicans, particularly those in the House, over the partial government shutdown and the looming breach of the nation's $16.7trn borrowing limit.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said that the administration probably decided to go ahead with the announcement to send a signal of policy stability to financial markets, where investors are growing increasingly nervous over the partial shutdown and what they perceive as the much bigger threat of a default on Treasury debt.

He said: "Markets are very unsettled and they are likely to become even more unsettled in coming days.

Ben Bernanke's term ends in January 2014

"Providing some clarity around who will be the next Fed chairman should help at least at the margin."

As vice chair since 2010, Ms Yellen has helped manage both the Fed's traditional tool of short-term rates and the unconventional programmes it launched to help sustain the economy after the financial crisis.

These include the Fed's monthly bond purchases and its guidance to investors about the likely direction of rates.

Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat who heads the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which must approve Ms Yellen's nomination, said he would work with the panel's members to advance her confirmation quickly.

"She has a depth of experience that is second to none, and I have no doubt she will be an excellent Federal Reserve chairman," Mr Johnson said.

Sen Chuck Schumer, a Democratic committee member, called her "an excellent choice" and predicted she would be confirmed by a wide margin.

Mr Obama's choice of Ms Yellen coincides with a key turning point for the Fed. Within the next several months, it is expected to start slowing the pace of its Treasury and mortgage bond purchases if the economy strengthens.

While economists saw Mr Obama's choice of Ms Yellen as a strong signal of continuity at the Fed, analysts said the difficult job of unwinding all of the Fed's support without causing major financial market upheavals would fall to her.

Ms Yellen has long been considered a logical candidate for the chairmanship in part because of her expertise as an economist, her years as a top bank regulator and her experience in helping manage the Fed's polices.

Her understanding of the financial system is widely respected: Before the crisis struck, she was among a minority of top economists who had warned correctly that subprime mortgages posed a severe threat.

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