US Army base gunman 'conscious'

**A US Army major who killed 13 people when he opened fire at a military base has regained consciousness and is able to talk, officials have told the BBC.**Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old army psychiatrist, injured another 29 people at the Fort Hood base in Texas.

He was shot by police and had been in a coma in hospital since the attack.

Maj Hasan’s motives for the shooting are unknown, but some reports said the US-born Muslim had been unhappy about being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Maria Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the Brooke Army Medical Center, said Maj Hasan was in a critical but stable condition.

However, she would not say what Maj Hasan had been talking to medical staff about, or what treatment he was receiving.