Market bombing kills at least 7 in Pakistan

A bomb left in a fruit cart struck a crowded market Friday in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens, police said.

The explosion occurred in a downtown district of Peshawar about 10 minutes before iftar, the time for breaking the daily fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, a police officer said.

Nobody claimed responsibility. Peshawar is a conservative city close to the Pakistan-Afghan border, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants are believed to be at large.

Paris

Security badges seized at airport

Authorities at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped dozens of employees — almost all of them Muslims — of security badges in a terrorism crackdown, a government official said Friday.

Four baggage handlers who lost their clearance filed a joint discrimination complaint this week, alleging they had been unfairly associated with terrorism because they are Muslims, their lawyers said. Some had been in their jobs for up to five years.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Royalty revamps power structure

Saudi Arabia's king gave new powers to his brothers and nephews in an overhaul of the way the kingdom chooses future monarchs, the state-run news agency reported Friday. It appeared to be a bid to defuse internal power struggles in the world's largest oil-producing nation.

By royal decree, a new group called the "Allegiance Association" — composed of King Abdullah's brothers and some of his nephews — will vote by secret ballot to choose future kings and crown princes, the agency said.

Crown Prince Sultan, the king's 77-year-old brother, already is slated to take over upon the 81-year-old monarch's death.

Tokyo

Slain woman's kin sue U.S. soldier

The family of a Japanese woman robbed and beaten to death by an American sailor filed a lawsuit Friday against the attacker and the Japanese government, a court official said.

The family of Yoshie Sato is demanding that William Reese, as well as the Japanese government, pay more than $1.69 million in damages, Yokohama District Court spokesman Kazutaka Kutsumizu said.

Reese, from Pittsgrove, N.J., was convicted in June of robbing and fatally beating the 56-year-old woman near the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, in January. He is serving a life sentence.

Also

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake rattled Peru's southern coast Friday, but no damage or injuries were reported. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 shook northwestern Turkey, prompting some Istanbul residents to flee their homes, officials and news reports said.

Compiled from The Associated Press