4 hurt in market blast

KANDAHAR: A bomb exploded at a market in Kandahar on Friday, wounding at least four people — including a child, police said. The blast occurred in the early afternoon at Rangrazal market, which was closed for the Muslim day of prayer, said Kandahar province’s police chief, Abdul Malik Wahidi. — AP

Diseases take 76 lives

MUMBAI: Doctors battled on Friday to treat sick patients in crowded hospitals in India’s financial hub of Mumbai and surrounding areas as the death toll climbed to 76 from water-borne illnesses caused by heavy rains, municipal commissioner Johny Joseph said. — AFP

Appeal on Taj case

NEW DELHI: India’s archaeological agency appealed to the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn a lower court decision that could give control of the Taj Mahal to the Sunni Waqf Board, a semiofficial Islamic organisation, the PTI said. — AP

Assam blast kills one

GUWAHATI: At least one person was killed and six seriously wounded in a powerful grenade blast in Assam, officials said on Friday. A police official said tribal rebels lobbed a grenade on Thursday evening at a crowded market in village Dokmoka, 150 km east of Guwahati. — HNS

2 cops killed in blast

PATNA: Suspected Maoists blasted a police station in Bihar’s Nalanda district, killing two police men. Nalanda district police officials said a group of Maoists of the Communist Party of India-Maoist attacked the Chhabilapur police station early on Friday and blew up both the old and new building of that post by dynamite. — HNS

Tamil Tigers’ warning

COLOMBO: Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday warned that the Sri Lankan government risks a return

to war because of its backing of factional paramilitaries in rebel-controlled areas, a pro-rebel website said, even as Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday gunned down a couple believed to be supporters of a rival Tamil group. — AFP