Peter Madoff pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court in June to criminal charges including conspiracy to commit securities fraud and making false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

As part of Peter Madoff's June plea deal, he agreed not to seek a sentence other than 10 years, according to the filing.

Peter Madoff "committed very serious crimes that served to conceal and perpetuate a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme" and "engaged in a vast fraud scheme by which tens of millions of dollars were transferred within the Madoff family" to avoid paying taxes and enrich himself and his family, the filing said.

Peter Madoff is scheduled to be sentenced on December 20, 2012.

Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term and was ordered to forfeit $170.8 billion.

Peter Madoff served as the chief compliance officer and senior managing direct of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities. At his plea hearing, he denied knowing about Bernard Madoff's decade-long fraud until his brother confessed to him in December 2008.

In October, attorneys for Madoff asked that his sentencing, which was then scheduled for November 9, be delayed to allow him time to file accurate, amended tax returns for 1998-2008. The plea agreement required that he file the amended returns.

An attorney for Peter Madoff was not immediately available for comment.

The case is U.S. v. O'Hara et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-cr-00228.

(Editing by Matt Driskill)

The 94-year-old political leader was admitted to a hospital near South Africa's capital, Pretoria, on Dec. 8 for medical tests, the government said. Government officials later announced that Mandela was suffering from a recurrent lung infection, an affliction he had in 2011 as well.

In recent days, government officials appeared to contradict themselves over where Mandela was receiving treatment. Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told journalists Monday that she visited Mandela at 1 Military Hospital, a facility where Mandela has previously received treatment. However, as local journalists began reporting Thursday that Mandela wasn't there, a spokesman for President Jacob Zuma declined to address the claims.

With the government refusing to say where Mandela is, concern is growing and rumors continue to fly across this nation of 50 million people about Mandela's health.

On Saturday, the South African National Editors' Forum issued a statement criticizing the government for not being straightforward with journalists about Mandela's hospitalization. The forum said that journalists had been working with the government to set up guidelines on how to handle covering Mandela in his waning years, though state officials ultimately declined to sign off on the agreement.

"Senior government representatives have sought to justify misleading statements about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Mandela's whereabouts on the basis of irresponsible conduct by print and broadcast news organizations," the statement read. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

The editor's forum includes members from newspapers, television broadcasters and radio stations in South Africa, as well as the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa.

Mandela has a history of lung problems, after falling ill with tuberculosis in 1988 toward the tail-end of his 27 years in prison before his release and subsequent presidency. While doctors said at the time the disease caused no permanent damage to his lungs, medical experts say tuberculosis can cause problems years later for those infected.

The Nobel laureate had an acute respiratory infection in January 2011. Following the chaos that surrounded Mandela's stay at a public hospital then, the South African military took charge of his care and the government took over control of the information about his health.

South Africa reveres the aged leader for being the nation's first democratically elected president who sought to bring the country together after centuries of racial division.

Mandela largely retired from public life after serving one five-year term as president and has largely lived a private life since. He last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament. Mandela has also grown more frail in recent years, with his grip on politics in the nation ever slackening.

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Online:

South African National Editors' Forum: www.sanef.org.za

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Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Speaking Wednesday after an owners meeting in the Dallas area, Goodell said he respected his predecessor's decision, and believed it backed up the commissioner's conclusion that the Saints ran a bounty program for three years and covered it up.

But Goodell took issue with Tagliabue vacating the yearlong suspension of linebacker Jonathan Vilma and shorter bans for three other current and former Saints players. In an NFL appeal ruling issued Tuesday, the former commissioner placed much of the blame with the Saints' coaches and front office.

"I fundamentally disagree that this is something that lies just with coaches and management," Goodell said. "I do think their leadership position needs to be considered, but I also believe these players were in leadership positions, also."

Like Vilma, Saints coach Sean Payton received a yearlong suspension. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was suspended indefinitely, and assistant Joe Vitt, who is now the interim head coach, was banned for six games. General manager Mickey Loomis got an eight-game suspension.

"My personal view is I hold everyone responsible," Goodell said. "Player health and safety is an important issue in this league. We're all going to have to contribute to that, whether you're a commissioner, whether you're a coach, whether you're a player, and we all have to be held accountable for it."

The 22-page ruling allowed both sides to claim victory more than nine months after the league first revealed the Saints' bounty scandal to shocked fans, describing a performance pool operated by Williams that, among other things, rewarded hits that injured opponents.

"Frankly, I think everybody's a winner to get this issue behind us," Jacksonville owner Shahid Kahn said.

On Wednesday, Vilma asked a federal judge to allow him to move forward with a defamation lawsuit against Goodell in U.S. District Court in Louisiana. Vilma's lawyers filed a motion to drop his case against the NFL's disciplinary process now that his suspension has been lifted.

Tagliabue didn't find the players completely without fault, though. He said Vilma and defensive end Will Smith participated in a performance pool that rewarded key plays including hard tackles while defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, following coaches' orders, helped to cover up the program when interviewed by NFL investigators in 2010.

Vilma and Smith, suspended four games, have been playing for the Saints while the appeals were pending. Hargrove is not with a team. Tagliabue cleared linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns but on injured reserve, of conduct detrimental to the league.

"It was a very thoughtful decision, but again my one disappointment is at some point players have to be held accountable, particularly when you find that they did participate in this scheme," New York Giants co-owner John Mara said.

Tagliabue criticized Saints coaches and the organization by saying they fostered bad behavior and tried to impede the investigation into what the NFL said was a performance pool designed to knock targeted opponents out of games from 2009 to 2011, with thousands of dollars in payouts.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees blasted Goodell and the league office Wednesday.

"What I would like to see is a level of accountability on the part of the NFL and Commissioner Goodell in regards to mishandling of this entire situation," Brees said. "We as players hold ourselves and are held to a very strict code of conduct both on and off the field. We have to be accountable to that, as it should be, and I feel like they should be held to the same standards.

"If someone would just come out in the league office and admit, 'You know what? We could have handled this situation better,' it would go such a long way with both players and fans. People would really come around to realize what this thing was all about because right now the league office and Commissioner Goodell have very little to no credibility with us as players."

Goodell rejected Brees' plea to acknowledge that he mishandled the investigation.

"Commissioner Tagliabue said there's no one here that should feel good about their role in this with respect to the Saints," Goodell said. "I think to have a bounty program where you're targeting players for injury is completely unacceptable in the NFL, and it's clear that occurred for three years despite all the denials."

NFL legal counsel Jeff Pash said Tagliabue's ruling answered the criticism that he would favor the league because he used to run it.

"I think he did exactly what he was charged to do, which was to be independent and to have full authority," Pash said.

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

"Thank God it's over. I'm clean, surgery went well & I can talk. Losing my voice was my biggest fear. Thx for all your prayers & light," Burke said in a Twitter posting.

Burke, 41, a former winner of ABC-TV's popular celebrity ballroom dancing competition, announced in November that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

The surgery took place just over a week after the season finale of "Dancing with the Stars" on November 27. The mother of four has said it will leave her with a large scar across her neck.

The thyroid is a gland in the neck that produces hormones that regulate vital body functions, such as heart rate and blood pressure.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; editing by Philip Barbara)