Clashes mark youth's funeral in Tehran

TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Supporters and opponents of Iran's government clashed at a student's funeral in Tehran Wednesday, both sides reported.

Services were held at Tehran University for Saane Zhaleh, one of two students killed at demonstrations Monday, The New York Times said.

The Web site of the state broadcaster IRIB said Zhaleh was a pro-government Basij militant shot by protesters, but the opposition says he was beaten to death by plainclothes officers.

Also Wednesday, opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi said he is willing to "pay any price" after lawmakers called for his execution. He posted the message posted on his Web site, sahamnews.org.

On Tuesday, parliament members chanted for the hanging of Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi for their roles in the protests.

Both opposition leaders already were under house arrest.

In an interview on state television Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared the demonstrations against his regime are "going nowhere." "It is clear the Iranian nation has enemies because it is a nation that wants to shine, conquer peaks and change relations," he declared.

Fars news agency said Mohammad Mokhtaru was the second protester who died of his wounds.

The semi-official news agency said "according to police officials, seditionists had hatched a plot to get the police and security forces involved in armed clashes to allege that they had been treated violently."

A senior Iranian lawmaker accused Mousavi of contacting the CIA before Monday's demonstrations and accused him of being a spy.

In Libya, protesters took to the streets in the country's second largest city in what appears to be the first attempt by anti-government protesters to challenge Moammar Gadhafi's four decade rule.