U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, accused of spilling U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks, was back in court Saturday after a failed defense bid to get the presiding officer dismissed from the case.

Manning, who turned 24 on Saturday, is facing charges which could potentially send him to prison for the rest of his life and the hearing on this sprawling U.S. military base outside Washington is being held to decide whether he should face a court-martial.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday he had told his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama that Moscow attached "no importance" to Washington's criticism of this month's elections in Russia.

"Of course, I had to say one thing to him: 'You can think of our elections what you want, it is our affair. To speak frankly, we attach no importance to it'," Medvedev said of a telephone call with Obama on Friday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Tripoli Saturday on the first visit to Libya by a Pentagon chief to study up close the security needs of the new government.

During the visit, which will last only a few hours, Panetta will meet with Defense Minister Osama Jouili and Prime Minister Abdul Rahim al-Kib, said an AFP correspondent traveling with him.

The United States on Friday handed its last prisoner in Iraq, a Hizbullah operative accused of plotting the killing of five U.S. soldiers, to Iraqi authorities, sparking a political furor in Washington.

A complicated legal drama surrounded the fate of Ali Mousa Daqdouq, who confessed to training Iraqi extremists in Iran, as U.S. troops end their mission and prepare to finally leave Iraq by the end of the month.

The United States said Friday it was lifting 'most' U.S. sanctions against Libya and unfreezing $30 billion in assets, but kept holdings of former strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s family blocked.

The move followed similar action by the United Nations Security Council as the world seeks to help the fledgling new government in Libya develop in what Washington has called a "responsible" manner.

About 100 royalists gathered in front of the U.S. embassy in Bangkok on Friday in support of the kingdom's tough laws against insulting the monarchy, following criticism from Washington.

"We call on the U.S. embassy and Ambassador Kristie Kenney to apologize to all Thai people for their improper action towards our beloved king," said protest leader Chaiwat Surawichai.

Washington said Thursday it was "ludicrous" to accuse it of a role in the killing of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said U.S. Special Forces were involved.

"The assertion that U.S. special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gadhafi is ludicrous," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's spokesman, Captain John Kirby, told Agence France Presse.

U.S. forces held a formal ceremony to lower the flag in Iraq on Thursday, ahead of their withdrawal from the country nearly nine years after the controversial invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

The ceremony marking the closure of the U.S. military's headquarters near Baghdad comes after U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the "extraordinary achievement" of the war in a speech to welcome home some of the troops.

U.S. lawmakers rebuked Moscow's leadership Wednesday for "manipulating" recent elections, and urged legislation to blacklist any Russian believed responsible for rights violations from traveling to the United States.

At a U.S. Senate hearing focused on corruption and rule of law in Russia, days after tens of thousands of demonstrators marched charging electoral fraud, State Department officials said they recognized a "national awakening" among Russian citizens calling for accountability of their government.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed legislation to freeze some Pakistan aid, slap harsh new sanctions on Iran, and endorse indefinite imprisonment of suspected terrorists.

Acting shortly after the White House dropped a threat to veto the bill, the Republican-led chamber voted 283-136 to approve the $662 billion Defense Authorization bill, which also sets high hurdles for closing Guantanamo Bay.