BBC News with David Auston.

The former US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has come face to face for the first time with a man who shot her through the head and killed six others in an attack last year. Mrs Giffords looked down in court to her attacker, Jared Loughner, was told he'd spent the rest of his life in prison for the 2011 shooting spree. Rajesh Mirchandani reports from Washington.

Nearly two years after the shooting attack in Tucson, Gabrielle Giffords stood in court along with her husband, the former astronaut Mark Kelly. Mr Kelly told the accused Jared Lee Loughner: You may have put a bullet through her head, but you haven't put a dent in her commitment to make the world a better place. Ms Giffords, the Democratic Congresswoman at the time, did not speak in court. Twenty-four-year-old Loughner agreed a plea deal with prosecutors that meant he did not stand trial but will now spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole.

The United States has confirmed that President Barack Obama will make a ground-breaking visit to Burma later this month. The White House said Mr Obama planned to meet Burma's President Thein Sein and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. It would be the first time an American president has visited the formerly isolated southeastern Asian country, which is now engaged in a process of political reform.

The United States says Iran attacked one of its unmanned drone aircraft in international airspace over the gulf last week. The Defence Department said Iranian jets fired multiple rounds at the drone, it was not hit and returned to base safely. The Defence Department said Iran had been warned that the US would continue to conduct surveillance operations in the region, and would protect its military assets when necessary.