WORLD BRIEFS

IRAN/Militiamen step up attacks on opposition leader

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 to pinpoint pressure on dissent. The assault on Mahdi Karroubi's five-story residence late Thursday - hours before major state-backed rallies - displayed the growing tactics of trying to isolate and harass top opposition figures. Karroubi, 72, a cleric and former parliament speaker, has been the most public protest leader in recent months - and has paid the price with repeated damage to his car and tense confrontations with backers of the Islamic state. But the latest backlash, described by a pro-reform website, was by far the most aggressive.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES/Two reported dead in UPS cargo plane crash

A UPS cargo plane with two crew members on board crashed shortly after takeoff Friday outside Dubai, officials said. The state news agency WAM, quoting the General Civil Aviation Authority, reported that the "bodies of two pilots" had been found at the scene, but UPS did not confirm that. The plane went down inside an Emirati air base near a busy highway intersection about 10 miles southeast of Dubai's international airport. UPS spokeswoman Kristen Petrella said the Boeing 747-400 went down at about 8 p.m. local time in Dubai. Flight 6 was en route to the UPS hub in Cologne, Germany, she said. Two U.S. aviation experts said the plane had taken off and then turned around and was returning to land when the accident happened.