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Basij militia disperse Tehran protesters

TEHRAN, July 9 (UPI) -- The Iranian Basij militia confronted hundreds of protesters Thursday in Tehran, using nightsticks and tear gas to disperse the crowd, witnesses said.

The crowd of about 2,000 to 3,000 people was trying to get to Tehran University for a demonstration to mark the 10th anniversary of a student protest against the closing of a liberal newspaper. The unrest also continued protests related to last month's disputed presidential election.

Some people called "God is great," which has become a trademark of opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since his re-election, and "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein," referring to Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leading opposition candidate, CNN reported.

Most roads around the university were closed, funneling everyone into a single street where the Basij, a semi-official group that supports the government, was waiting.

The head of Iranian security forces warned earlier there was no permit for a demonstration Thursday and attempts to hold one would meet strong resistance, CNN said.

The government also tried to encourage people to leave the capital by warning of weather conditions causing severe air pollution and closing government offices.

Iranian officials said they had released 2,000 people who were arrested for participating in the post-election protests, but still held 1,500 prisoners who were to be put on trial, the state-run Press TV reported. At least 20 people are believed to have been killed.

G8 seeks to reduce carbon footprint

L'AQUILA, Italy, July 9 (UPI) -- World leaders have agreed to work together to greatly reduce carbon emissions by 2050, U.S. President Barack Obama said at the Group of Eight summit Thursday.

Speaking after the Major Economies Forum meeting at the summit in L'Aquila, Italy, Obama called climate change "one of the defining challenges of our time."

The G8 members -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia -- and other countries agreed to a target of reducing their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050 to try to keep the Earth's atmosphere from warming by more than 2 degrees Celsius, Obama said.

Participants in the forum also agreed to work toward an accord on greenhouse gas emissions, Obama said.

No nation was singularly responsible for causing global warming, just as no one nation could fight it, Obama said.

"Active participation (by all countries) is a prerequisite for a solution," he said.

Still to be developed are measurable, recordable and verifiable standards by which countries' efforts to reduce their carbon imprint could be reported, he said.

Leaders also agreed to provide financial support for developing countries to help them meet their emission-reduction goals.

And forum participants founded a global partnership to drive new clean-energy technologies, such as solar, smart grids and advanced vehicles.

"We've made a good start," Obama said, "but progress will not be easy," particularly because of the global recession.

"We can either shape our future or we can let events shape it for us," Obama said.

Pelosi says she wasn't briefed by Panetta

WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she was not briefed by CIA Director Leon Panetta about the agency misleading U.S. lawmakers routinely.

"I have not had that briefing from Director Panetta," the California Democrat said during her weekly news conference.

Her comments came as seven House Democrats wrote a letter to Panetta saying he had testified the spy agency routinely provided misinformation to Congress since 2001, CNN reported.

In addition, the chairman of the House intelligence committee accused the CIA of lying to the panel in a classified matter, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, in a letter to House leadership, said CIA officials "affirmatively lied" to the committee when notifying it about a classified matter in June. In his letter Tuesday, Reyes wrote it was one of several recent instances in which the CIA did not fully inform the committee.

The letter to Panetta, dated June 26, was published on the Web site of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.

In May, Pelosi accused the CIA of misleading Congress in a classified briefing she received in 2002. The CIA said Pelosi was told about the harsh techniques, including waterboarding, at the briefing.

CIA spokesman George Little said Panetta "stands by his May 15 statement" when he said the CIA did not mislead Congress during the briefing cited by Pelosi.

Pelosi told reporters Thursday she has seen the letters and "obviously they have concern" but didn't have any more information.

No appeal of sentence for Madoff

NEW YORK, July 9 (UPI) -- The attorney for Bernard Madoff said Thursday the disgraced U.S. financier will not appeal his 150-year prison sentence on fraud charges.

Attorney Ira Lee Sorkin told CNN his client, who pleaded guilty in New York to charges stemming from a Ponzi scheme, has no plans to seek an appeal of his prison sentence since any likely sentence would result in Madoff spending his remaining years in prison.

"We are not going to appeal," Sorkin said.

"Even if the court of appeals sends it back, certainly a guidelines sentence under the circumstances would give him a life sentence," the attorney added.

Following his guilty plea, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison on charges ranging from money laundering to securities fraud.

CNN said investors' losses as a result of the former NASDAQ stock exchange non-executive chairman's scheme are currently estimated to surpass $13 billion.

Police: Cemetery workers emptied graves

CHICAGO, July 9 (UPI) -- The manager of a historic black cemetery in Chicago and three gravediggers were charged Thursday with dismembering human bodies.

The four were arrested Wednesday after police raided Burr Oak Cemetery, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Investigators said the four were involved in a scheme to dig up bodies so they could resell the plots in the Alsip cemetery and pocket the profits.

Several hundred bodies may have been violated, police said, dumped into a mass grave.

"All of us who were working on this for the last week were pretty distraught," Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said. "You start with the premise of your own loved ones and how they are cared for after they are buried, but there is also a true significance to this particular cemetery."

Relatives of those buried in Burr Oak came to the cemetery Thursday morning to find out if their family graves were still intact.

"I couldn't believe it,'' Florence Duerson said. "They said they found bones. Please Lord don't let it be my mom or my dad.''

Bail was set at $250,000 for Carolyn Towns of Chicago, the former manager of the cemetery, the Southtown Star reported. It was set at $200,000 for Keith and Terrence Nicks and Maurice Daily, all of Chicago.

The cemetery is owned by Perpetua Inc., based in Tucson, Ariz. The company notified local authorities it had gotten a tip from an employee not in on the scam of possible fraud.

Luminaries buried in Burr Oak include jazz legend Dinah Washington, bluesmen Willie Dixon and Otis Spann and Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager lynched in 1955 in Mississippi.