Apparent bomb blast in India reportedly kills 9

NEW DELHI - An apparent bomb tore through a crowded bakery popular with foreigners in western India, killing at least eight people and wounding 42 near a famed meditation center.

The blast yesterday in Pune, 125 miles southeast of Mumbai, threatened to damage efforts to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan, with Hindu nationalist leaders already blaming India's Muslim neighbor.

Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said a bomb likely caused the 7:30 p.m. explosion at the German Bakery, near the Osho Ashram, a renowned meditation center. If confirmed, it would be the country's first major terror strike since 10 Pakistan-based gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008.

Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh put the death toll at nine, according to the Press Trust of India. - AP