Indian named head of Amnesty International

Forty-eight-year-old Indian anti-poverty campaigner Salil Shetty has been appointed the next Secretary General of Amnesty International, the human rights organisation announced in London.

Forty-eight-year-old Indian anti-poverty campaigner Salil Shetty has been appointed the next Secretary General of Amnesty International, the human rights organisation announced in London on Monday.

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Shetty, 48, from Bangalore, is a former director of the UN's Millennium Campaign and chief executive of ActionAid, an international anti-poverty organisation.

He is the first Indian national to head Amnesty in its 50-year-history and will take up his post in June, 2010 to succeed Irene Khan, who steps down after eights years.

Amnesty described Shetty as "absolutely the right person" to take the organization "into the next stage of our work".

Shetty holds a Masters degree of Science in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.