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.

AP - A powerful 7.1-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.

AP - A UPS cargo plane with two crew members on board crashed shortly after takeoff Friday outside Dubai, officials said.

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.

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.

AFP - Former ministers called Friday for new inquiries into phone-hacking by a Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper amid fresh criticism of the tabloid's ex-editor, who is now a top government advisor.

AP - Posters supporting Egypt's intelligence chief as a candidate in next year's presidential election were removed from Cairo's streets hours after they appeared, while an independent newspaper was ordered to pull reports of the campaign from its pages, officials said Friday.