The windows on the first floor of the Taj Mahal hotel shatter after the use of a grenade launcher in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center left people dead and the city in panic.

Army personnel lie down near a tourism poster and aim a grenade launcher at a part of the facade of the Taj Mahal hotel, unseen, in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon,two days after a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center left people dead and the city in panic.

Members of anti-terrorist squad take position during an engagement with suspected militants outside the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Commandos rappelling from helicopters stormed a besieged Jewish center Friday and scoured two landmark luxury hotels to rush survivors to safety and flush out gunmen, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center left people dead and the city in panic.

National Security Guard commandos come down a rope to reach the top of Nariman House, a location under siege by suspected militants in Mumbai, India, Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Explosions and gunfire continued intermittently at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday afternoon, two days after a chain of militant attacks across India’s financial center left people dead and the city in panic.

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) — Bangkok’s two main airports remained occupied by anti-government protesters Friday but Thai authorities appeared to have backed down from earlier threats to end the siege by force.
The airports have been closed since Tuesday, stranding thousands of passengers and dealing a severe blow to the crisis-stricken southeast Asian nation’s economy at the height of the tourist season.
Thai prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, whose resignation protesters are demanding, declared a state of emergency Thursday following a cabinet meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second city.

(CNN) — Indian officials said they believe “elements in Pakistan” are somehow involved in the attacks on Mumbai — a claim Islamabad disputes — but one official said it will be difficult to ascertain details before the situation is over.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that some elements in Pakistan are involved,” said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign affairs minister.
“I can’t tell you the details since the investigation is going on,” he said. “Until the investigation is complete, it will be difficult to say where they came from and how they came.”

The only Briton confirmed to have died in the terror attacks in Bombay gave a harrowing account of the unfolding drama just moments before he was shot dead.
Andreas Liveras, 73, a British yachting tycoon who emigrated from Cyprus to London in 1963, telephoned the BBC from a locked room in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel as terrorists fired AK47 automatic rifles and set off grenades outside.

Indian commandos rooted through two smoldering luxury hotels in Mumbai this morning, searching for survivors, the dead and the last of the gunmen whose choreographed rampage of terror through this cosmopolitan city spawned a mystery about their identities and motive.
The brazen attacks that also targeted transportation centers, a hospital and a Jewish community center killed at least 125 people and wounded 325 others. Sporadic gunfire and occasional explosions continued to be heard in parts of Mumbai early today, and an unknown number of people remained missing.

Indian special forces fired grenades through the windows of a luxury Bombay hotel tonight against one or more Islamist gunmen determined to fight to the death.
Some 48 hours after launching co-ordinated attacks on the country’s commercial capital rumours persisted that at least one of the terrorists involved in Wednesday’s attacks was a Briton of Pakistani origin.
The Foreign Office said that Indian authorities had confirmed that was “no evidence that anyone, either of those shot or those in custody, was British”.

Even as the civilian death toll of the Mumbai attacks climbs, fallout from these terrorist actions threatens thawing relations between India and Pakistan.
The danger signals are already evident, as first reactions from the Indian government tended to blame “foreign” intervention, a code word for Pakistan. However, the prompt response from the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi indicates a willingness to stem the ratcheting of tensions between the two rival states.