INTERNATIONAL NEWS in brief

Charges filed in Benghazi attack

WASHINGTON (AP):

The Justice Department has filed the first criminal charges in the deadly attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, two US officials said Tuesday.

The officials confirmed that a sealed complaint was filed in US District Court in Washington against an unspecified number of individuals in the September 2012 attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. One official said those charged included Ahmed Abu Khattala, the head of a Libyan militia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss a sealed filing.

Historical write-in mayoral candidate

DETROIT (AP):

Mike Duggan accomplished something in Detroit's mayoral primary that may never have been done before: He won as a write-in.

The last time a candidate ran for the mayor's job as a write-in was in the 1920s, and Charles Bowles lost that race, according to Elections Director Daniel Baxter.

By early Wednesday morning, with most of the city's 614 precincts reporting, Duggan and popular Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon had clear leads over the rest of the field. The top-two vote-getters will face only each other in the November 5 general election for a job that in the short-term wields no real power over any city business that deals with money.

 Manning's max possible sentence cut to 90 years

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP):

Army private First Class Bradley Manning's possible sentence for disclosing classified information through WikiLeaks was trimmed from 136 years to 90 years Tuesday by a military judge who said some of his offences were closely related.

The ruling was largely a victory for defence attorneys, who had argued for an 80-year maximum. Still, the 25-year-old soldier could spend most, if not all, of his remaining years inside a prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.