BBC News with Kathy Clugston

A hearing at a United States military base has recommended that Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking a huge number of classified government documents, should be sent for

court-martial.

If convicted, he could face life in prison. Jonathan Blake reports from Washington.

Private Bradley Manning was arrested in May 2010. The 24-year-old from Oklahoma is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the Wikileaks website while working as a US army analyst in Iraq. There are 22 separate charges against him for distributing state secrets and aiding the enemy. At a pre-trial hearing, defence lawyers said the soldier was emotionally troubled and that the government had failed him, but prosecutors described the evidence against Manning as

irrefutable

.

The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is holding talks with trade union leaders as a nationwide strike threatens to shut down the country's oil industry. It's the first time the president has become directly involved since the industrial action began four days ago. Mark Lobel reports from Lagos.

The threat by the main oil and gas union to disrupt oil production could be a

tipping

point in the dispute over a recent doubling of petrol prices. The union workers announced the action after the government removed a subsidy on fuel, which has badly affected transportation costs and Nigeria's informal economy. Any oil shutdown would seriously damage the Nigerian economy as it accounts for 80% of state revenues.