Manning sends presidential pardon request

Hagerstown, MD.

Manning sends presidential pardon request

Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning is seeking a presidential pardon for sending reams of classified information to WikiLeaks, a leak she says was done "out of a love for my country and sense of duty to others," according to documents released Wednesday. Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, sent the Petition for Pardon/Commutation of Sentence on Tuesday to President Barack Obama through the U.S. Justice Department, and to Army Secretary John M. McHugh. Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, is serving a 35-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., for her conviction on 20 counts for disclosing the information while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.

Lake Mary

Zimmerman gets speeding ticket

George Zimmerman, the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer acquitted of murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was pulled over for speeding in Lake Mary on Tuesday, police said. Zimmerman was stopped and ticketed for driving 60 mph in a 45 mph zone about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, the Lake Mary Police Department confirmed on Wednesday. He faces a fine of $256.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Woman sought in $1.1M bank theft

Shokofa Salehi, 22, worked in the money transfer division at the headquarters of Azizi Bank, a major Afghan lender in Kabul, officials said. She disappeared around two months ago, according to Azizi chief executive Inayatullah Fazli. Investigators say she is suspected of transferring some $1.1 million out of the bank's coffers to accounts of relatives. Besides Salehi, at least nine people are believed involved in the case. An Interpol red notice — the equivalent of an international arrest warrant — describes authorities as seeking Salehi on charges of fraud and misusing her authority.

New Orleans

Plantiffs ask court to uphold BP deal

Plaintiffs' attorneys who brokered a multibillion-dollar settlement with BP after the company's 2010 gulf oil spill have asked a federal appeals court to uphold a judge's approval of the deal. Only a "paltry few objectors" have raised the "narrowest of concerns" about the settlement that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier approved in December 2012, private lawyers said in a filing Tuesday with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. BP argues that Barbier misinterpreted the settlement and has allowed businesses to receive hundreds of millions of dollars for fictitious claims.

Elsewhere

VENEZUELA: Venezuelans were skeptical Wednesday of President Nicolas Maduro's claims that saboteurs were responsible for a blackout that left about 70 percent of the country without electricity and caused chaos in Caracas.

Times wires