Loughner denies Arizona charges

Jared Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 new charges, including killing a federal judge and wounding a US congresswoman, in an attack in Arizona.

Mr Loughner, 22, is charged in federal court with the murder of John Roll, the attempted killing of Democrat Gabrielle Giffords and dozens of other counts.

Six were killed in the attack; Ms Giffords was shot in the head and is undergoing intensive physical therapy.

Mr Loughner is expected to face additional state charges in the attack.

If convicted on the charges against him, he could face the death penalty.

Mr Loughner, who had been rejected by the US military and suspended from college over concerns for his mental health, has been in jail since the 8 January attack on Ms Giffords’ constituency event at a store in Tucson, Arizona.

A federal grand jury returned its new 49-count indictment last week, superseding one returned in January.

Most of the charges Mr Loughner faces relate to the killing of a federal employee; use of a firearm to commit a violent crime, cause injury or death; and injuring or causing death to participants at a federally protected activity.

Ms Giffords has made what doctors call remarkable progress, and is undergoing a course of intensive rehabilitation at Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston, the Texas city where her husband Mark Kelly works as a Nasa astronaut.