A judge in the American state of Utah has sanctioned the execution of a convicted murderer by firing squad. Ronnie Lee Gardner will be the first person in the US to face a firing squad in 14 years. Gardner was convicted in 1985 of killing an attorney in a botched escape attempt. Here is Madeleine Morris.

In signing the warrant for Ronnie Lee Gardner's execution, a judge in Salt Lake City gave the convicted murderer the choice of death by lethal injection or facing a firing squad. Gardner chose the latter. The case has already re-ignited the debate in Utah about the use of firing squads. Oklahoma is the only other state to sanction them since capital punishment was reinstated in the US in 1976. But it has never killed anyone this way.

A pilot wrongly accused of involvement in the 9/11 attacks has won his legal battle for compensation. Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian-born British resident, was arrested in Britain shortly after the attacks. This report from our home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.

Lotfi Raissi was held in a maximum security prison for nearly five months before a judge ordered his release, saying there was no evidence to link him to terrorism. Two years ago, the Court of Appeal said Mr Raissi had been the victim of the heightened emotional atmosphere at the end of 2001 and ordered ministers to consider paying damages. The Justice Secretary Jack Straw has now declared that Mr Raissi is eligible for compensation. The amount will be independently assessed but it's thought it could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.