Giffords breathing on her own: doctor

U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was able to breathe on her own Tuesday after the weekend shooting that left six people dead and Giffords and 13 others wounded.

Dr. Michael LeMole, Giffords's primary physician,stressed that the survival rate for the type of head injury Giffords suffered during Saturday's shooting was "abysmal."

"She has no right to look this good, and she does," said LeMole Tuesday."I want to underscore the seriousness of this injury, and we all have to be extremely patient."

Giffords was shot in the headat a public meeting being held bythe Democratic representative outside a Tucson grocery store. She remains in criticalcondition at the University of Arizona Medical Center.

Doctors have said a single bullet appears to have entered Giffords's head from the back, passed through the left side of her brain and exited, fracturing bone near her left eye socket.

LeMolesaida breathing tube remains in place to protect Giffords's airway.Giffords is "holding her own," he said, adding that doctors were able toreduce the level of sedation she has been under.

On Tuesday afternoon, Arizona state legislators in Tucson voted in favour of legislation prohibiting protests at or near funeral sites.

The hasty vote came in reaction to news thata controversial church planned to picketnear funerals for the shooting victims.

Memorials planned

Doctors said that other than Giffords,five otherpeople wounded in the shooting remain in hospital as of Tuesday.

Among the injured is Susan Heilman,who took family friend Christina Green, 9,to the event because the Grade 3 student had just been elected to her student council and was interested in government.

They were standing in line holding hands waiting to meet Giffords when the attack took place, Heilman's husband, Bill, told reporters. Susan Heilman was shot three times and suffered a fractured hip; Green was killed.

Bill Heilman said he has told his wife that Green died.

"I was initially very happy she was full of morphine," he said. "I think it may have helped just soften the burden somewhat. She's only kind of coming out of all this very slowly."

The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., has said its congregation will picket at Green's funeral on Thursday.

The church has picketed at many military funerals. They claim the soldiers' deaths are God's punishment for tolerance of homosexuality.

Residents of Tucson will get a chance to grieve publicly on Tuesday at a planned public memorial for victims ofthe shooting.

A mass is planned for all the victims at St. Odelia's Parish at 7 p.m. MT.

U.S. President Barack Obama is slated to attend a service Wednesday evening with community and state leaders.

Bail denied

The man charged in the shooting, Jared Loughner, remains behind bars. At a court appearance on Monday, a judge denied him bail pending a trial on federal charges.

Loughner was impassive as he walked in, looked straight at the crowd at the back of the room packed with reporters andthen turned around to speak to his lawyer, Judy Clarke. He responded "Yes" when asked if he understood his rights.

Loughner is charged with one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two counts of killing an employee of the federal government and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee. State charges have not been filed yet.

"There are no words that can possibly express how we feel," the parents of Loughner said in a statement on Tuesday, their first public words on the incident. "We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened."

A neighbour saidtheyare devastated by the shooting.

"And they feel guilty for what happened,"Wayne Smith, 70, told KPHO-TV on Monday

"They want to know, where did they fail? I told them they didn't fail. They taught him everything about right and wrong. We all know you can teach someone everything and have no control how it works out."

Smith said Loughner's mother, Amy Loughner, has been in bed, crying non-stop, since Saturday.