TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Pro-government crowds swarmed outside the battered home of a key Iranian opposition leader Friday after militiamen attacked with firebombs and beat a bodyguard unconscious in a brazen message of intimidation and pinpoint pressure on dissent....

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- A UPS cargo plane with two crew members on board crashed shortly after takeoff Friday outside Dubai, officials said....

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea is preparing its largest political meeting in 30 years, and leader Kim Jong Il is expected to appoint a son to a key Workers Party position in what would be the strongest sign yet of a succession movement in the secretive communist country....

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) -- Mozambique's economy has lost more than $3 million because of deadly riots over the rising prices of food and other goods, the government said Friday, as state media reported new protests in two other towns....

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 43 Shiite Muslims at a procession in southwest Pakistan on Friday. The assault sharply drove up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country battered by massive flooding....

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday and caused widespread damage, but there were just two reports of serious injuries. Looters broke into some damaged shops in Christchurch, police said....

LISBON, Portugal (AP) -- Seven people were convicted of child sex abuse in Portugal on Friday in a major trial that lasted nearly six years and shocked the country....

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) -- Mexican soldiers killed at least 30 suspected cartel members in two shootouts near the U.S. border in a region that has become one of biggest battlegrounds in the country's drug war, authorities said Friday....

HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro dusted off his full military uniform for the first time since stepping down as president four years ago, a symbolic act in a communist country where little signals often carry enormous significance....