Fort Hood shooter paralysed

Belton: Major Nidal Malek Hassan, the army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, is paralysed from the chest down and doctors believe his paralysis will be permanent, Hassan's lawyer said on Sunday.

"He has no sensation from the nipple area down," Hassan's civilian attorney, John Galligan, said.

During a closed-door hearing in Hassan's hospital room on Saturday, a magistrate ruled that Hassan be confined until his military trial, Galligan said.

"In the middle of this hearing, he started to nod off and go to sleep," Galligan said. "When I've spoken with him, he's coherent, but your ability to have any meaningful exchange with him is limited in time and subject."

Hassan has been recovering from gunshot wounds at Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio, where he is in intensive care. He has been receiving letters and cards, which the government has been copying before delivering, Galligan said. Now under pre-trial confinement, Hassan faces greater restrictions on visitors, and the military can transfer him to another hospital or jail, he said.

Hassan will remain in confinement until his court-martial, a date for which has not been set. He has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder in the November 5 massacre, but Galligan said he "fully anticipates" that military prosecutors might file additional charges.